Camp Reviews/Info? Sticky?

[sdoebler]

As this is such a valuable source of officiating information I was wondering if there was any use/want in providing more in depth information about camps available. There is obviously a plethora of camps available throughout the summer catered toward different levels.

From a glance there is this resource providing a broad overview of what is available where: https://phillyref.com/basketball/bas...ereecamps.html
I don't know the complete accuracy of this information but for the few that I have attended or am going to it seemed mostly accurate.

What I am really searching for is a more in depth review of what happens at the camp, registration requirements, who is there, what level, how many games per day, and is it a tryout of any sort. Every camp has there baseline advertisement of:
1. Work High Level Games
2. Immediate feedback from the best clinicians
3. Classroom sessions
4. Video review
5. Blah Blah Blah

There have been numerous occasions in our area where newer officials were told to go to camp. These individuals received countless email promotions and picked some based on the fancy wording. They showed up and the camp was a D1 or D2 tryout camps in which they received little to no feedback to help them improve. Is there some blame on the registrant for not understanding what they were getting into? Probably, but I think the situations should be much more clear then they are in the emails/brochure.

I attend local camps yearly and try to do at least one new out of state camp per year. It is difficult to really know what you are getting into with a camp you have never been to without speaking to someone who has actually been there. In the end we are searching for the best ways to improve and want to be in the best place to excel.

I'd be more then happy to start the review process if people would find it useful, interested to hear thoughts though.

(I did search the forum and didn't find much of this that already exists.)

[Raymond]

I'm attending 3 camps this off-season. Two of them are pretty much staff camps. The other one I'm attending is a D1 mid-major try-out camp, but I'm attending b/c the supervisor just acquired a lower level conference I belong to and I want a chance to get in front of him and earn some games on my own merit.

If anyone posts anything about camps with which I am familiar, I will chime in.

[HokiePaul]

D3 Super Camp Basketball Officials Referee Referees Official

I attended this camp at University of Richmond couple summers ago. I found it to be a good skills development camp and would be a good first camp for someone who has some 3-person experience.

I thought it was well organized - a good balance of classroom discussion/feedback and games. They taught a very specific style/philosophy on positioning that they wanted used in the conferences they assign. I found the philosophy interesting personally but it may not translate to what your HS assignors want.

There was a bit too much of a good ol' boy club feel for me personally -- a lot of the officials there were repeat campers hoping to get noticed by the camp directors. I got the impression that attending multiple years was pretty much expected if you wanted to be part of the club.

[sdoebler]

I am attending 3 camps this summer.

1. ECOA in portland. I have never been but a friend of mine went to this camp in Seattle last year and said that it was very good so we are going together in Portland coming up Memorial day weekend.

2. Verne Harris Denver camp. This is what I would call an unofficial tryout camp for a D2 conference that he assigns. This is local and I have heard good positive experiences from other who have attended.

3. Dave Hall Camp. Dave Hall has a variety of camps. He assigns a Juco league in which most of the teams are in or around Utah. He also hosts a D1 womens tryout camp for mountain west. I have never been to the tryout camp but have been working games when it is going on and this from what I have seen is a tryout camp there is little to no instruction. Been to the other instructional camps for many years. You work a lot of games throughout the three days and get feedback from a variety of people working D1 mostly WCC, Mountain west, and Pac-12.

[sdoebler]

Been interested in possibly going to these camps but don't know much about them if anyone else has been:

Kansas Basketball Officials Camps
Southern Arizona Officials Camps

Additionally would consider going out to Texas in a future year but not really sure what the best offerings in that large state would be.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by sdoebler

Been interested in possibly going to these camps but don't know much about them if anyone else has been:

Kansas Basketball Officials Camps
Southern Arizona Officials Camps

Additionally would consider going out to Texas in a future year but not really sure what the best offerings in that large state would be.

If you are going to travel long distances for teaching camps, I suggest going to camps run by or associated with NBA officials. Joey Crawford/Mike Callahan's Next Level Camp at Villanova is OUTSTANDING for the amount of instruction you get in a short period of time. A film session with any of these guys (Ed Malloy, Zach Zarba, Mark Lindsey, Mark Wunderlich, etc) is worth the fee by itself.

[The_Rookie]

Originally Posted by sdoebler

Been interested in possibly going to these camps but don't know much about them if anyone else has been:

Kansas Basketball Officials Camps
Southern Arizona Officials Camps

Additionally would consider going out to Texas in a future year but not really sure what the best offerings in that large state would be.

I have been to Southern Arizona Camp and Chris and Bob do a great job of teaching and you get excellent feedback especially if you are just starting out.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by HokiePaul

D3 Super Camp Basketball Officials Referee Referees Official

I attended this camp at University of Richmond couple summers ago. I found it to be a good skills development camp and would be a good first camp for someone who has some 3-person experience.

I thought it was well organized - a good balance of classroom discussion/feedback and games. They taught a very specific style/philosophy on positioning that they wanted used in the conferences they assign. I found the philosophy interesting personally but it may not translate to what your HS assignors want.

There was a bit too much of a good ol' boy club feel for me personally -- a lot of the officials there were repeat campers hoping to get noticed by the camp directors. I got the impression that attending multiple years was pretty much expected if you wanted to be part of the club.

I've observed at that camp every year for the last 4-5 years, one day out of the weekend. I attended in 2004, way before I was ready for NCAA ball and came out kind of feeling the same way as you described above. I think that is a function of not being known or familiar with clinicians/supervisors. Attended again in 2008 and got picked up by both conferences. As I've progressed through the years, I've learned that this is a tight-knit group. These 2 supervisors are easily the closest to their staffs out of any of the college supervisors I have worked for.

I won't pretend to know what goes through the supervisors' minds in making hires, but every year 5-7 new guys get hired. It is expected that you pick up on the floor positioning that is taught, especially in the C and Trail. I am a big advocate of the floor mechanics that are taught. My own video review shows that my missed calls overwhelmingly occur as a result of a lack of discipline in adhering to these mechanics.

[Lcubed48]

I agree with Raymond in that the 2 supervisors are close with their staffs. It gives the camp a friendly, family feel. They are very dedicated to the teaching aspect of officiating, but it is also a tryout camp. I'll never get picked up by either conference, but I attend every year that I can. I use it for professional development networking. It's close to home, and it gives good return on your dollar. It's a good fit for me, and that's all I'm looking for in the world of BB camps. It does indeed make for an excellent first camp.

PS - You also get to work with some greats, i.e. - the one formerly known as BNR & APG.

[Valley Man]

How about the Mountain East Conference Camp (Mike Eades) at WVU??

[Raymond]

I am not sure of your point. I work the EYBL every spring and we use full NCAA rules. I work other camps where the officiating camp directors don't even know what rules are being used.

I've never heard of a camp where campers get sent home. That is new to me.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[ilyazhito]

Originally Posted by Raymond

I am not sure of your point. I work the EYBL every spring and we use full NCAA rules. I work other camps where the officiating camp directors don't even know what rules are being used.

I've never heard of a camp where campers get sent home. That is new to me.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Earlier in this thread, a user remarked that camp directors do not care about NCAA rules "Supervisors don't care about rules differences" were the words used. To my understanding, camps for evaluating and hiring college officials were as likely to use HS as college rules, and this is surprising when the specific purpose of those camps is to evaluate college officials. This is why I mentioned the Big Ten camp, as that could be either an exception to that pattern, or an interesting trend of its own (DI camps use NCAA rules because that is what veteran college officials who would try out for DI conferences are most familiar with, whereas JUCO/DIII camps use high school rules, because that is what HS officials wanting to break into college know).

If the Big Ten Consortium Camp (and the other DI consortium camps) are tryout camps, it would make sense for an official to be sent home if evaluators do not believe that he could be hired. I suspect that the MEAC camp does not send people home, but then you would have needed to either have good recommendations or to go there multiple times to get hired there.

[JRutledge]

You really need to stop. Seriously just stop. No one is being sent home for during camps as a norm or even as a practice. I attended 3 camps this summer where the camps are used to help determine who might be hired for the BIG Consortium and no one was ever sent home. Many of the officials that attend these camps have absolutely no chance of being hired for all kinds of reasons. They are either too young, too inexperienced or just not good enough and no one is sending a person home because they do not perform to a certain standard. Most of these camps did not even use college rules.

For one sending people home would kind of ruin the entire structure of the camp to have the games covered for the event. You start sending people home you have to change the entire schedule and create holes in who was working the games that would still have to be filled. It is rare that they ask people to cover a game in the first place, let alone for someone not able to work for injury or someone leaving early. And many camps like this, people are states away from the location and sent hundreds of dollars. I would not be good business if people are doing those things and then you randomly sending people away that will not be hired. I personally was more than 3 hours away from each of the major camps I attended this summer alone. One camp I had to fly to get there as it was out east and if you start sending people like me home, I cannot just change my flight days or hours because I was not good enough. Then many of the BIG Consortium camps have schools from the North and South Dakota, to New Jersey and Connecticut while holding it in Chicago and Indianapolis and they are not sending people home that might be from those states I just mentioned where schools are located.

Maybe you need to start attending these camps, then come back and tell us what happens. I bet sending people home is not something you will ever realistically see. Heck there is going to be a lot you will see that we are telling you, but again you keep telling us what you know and have never done basic things that people here have done in these areas of training.

Peace

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

Earlier in this thread, a user remarked that camp directors do not care about NCAA rules "Supervisors don't care about rules differences" were the words used.

Those two statements are not the same thing.

And, most camps are in conjunction with some players "tournament" or "summer league" or something, and it's the TD who sets the rules.

Further, the issue you mentioned about "stopping the clock" has to do with mechanics, not with rules. And, yes, clinicians do care about the specific mechanics being used (to the extent feasible given the camp setting).

[ilyazhito]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

Those two statements are not the same thing.

And, most camps are in conjunction with some players "tournament" or "summer league" or something, and it's the TD who sets the rules.

Further, the issue you mentioned about "stopping the clock" has to do with mechanics, not with rules. And, yes, clinicians do care about the specific mechanics being used (to the extent feasible given the camp setting).

Translation: HS camp = HS mechanics, men's college camp (JUCO, NAIA, NCAA) = CCA men's mechanics, women's college camp = CCA women's mechanics, G-League camp = NBA mechanics (and rules)?

At a Proactive Referee or similar high-level teaching camp for multiple levels, use whatever mechanics I am most familiar with?