Camp Ideas

[MikeCapps]

I am taking the plunge and running a camp for an upcoming local one day varsity boys tournament and finally have enough people signed up to make it a go.

I have an agenda worked out and top rated members of our local association will be working as instructors.

Since this is for primarly brand new and some young veterans I am looking for some helpful ideas on what members of this forum think would be useful things to emphasize.

I am going in with the KISS philosophy of keeping it simple, but any other ideas would be appreciated.

[mick]

Originally Posted by MikeCapps

I am going in with the KISS philosophy of keeping it simple, but any other ideas would be appreciated.

MikeCapps,
Personally, I dislike that method.

Without challenges, the campers may walk away with those two thoughts.

Simple.
Stupid.

mick

[ChuckElias]

I have to agree with Mick. If you have people who want to improve enough to spend money on a camp, it behooves you to get detailed and very specific and not just give them the simple stuff. You don't want to discourage them, obviously, but you want to give them LOTS of things to work on.

When you go over mechanics and positioning, go into specific situations and what each partner is responsible for. When you are watching them work, bring up specific calls and go over why it was good, or why it might've been a reach, etc.

Just my thoughts. Good luck with it!

[JRutledge]

Mike,

Teach everything the camper's need to know. Just understand that it will take them some time to understand the information and some will not grasp many concepts at all. I would not short change campers because they are new.

Peace

[M&M Guy]

I agree with mick - don't keep too simple. You may not need to get too far into minutiae, but you do want give them as much information as possible.

My concern with newer officials (and some veterans, for that matter) has been their "communication" skills. That includes everything from the volume of their whistle, to the use of the proper signals, to verbalizing when needed, and communicating with their partner(s). I've seen so many new officials that may blow the whistle, and then go on with what they were doing because they knew what they called, but forgot to communicate with everyone else what they called. Or, they come running in because they saw something, but forget to blow the whistle and everyone keeps on playing. Communicating so everyone knows what's going on is very important.

[zebraman]

Any decent camp I've ever been to provides video taping services and sends campers home with tapes (the best of the best camps actually have a clinician break down the tape with you).

A big effort on your part, but worth it many times over IMO.

Z

[sphinxicu]

Here in metro Atlanta, we just had a camp like that for a week. We used shadow officials with lots of compassion and knowledge as some of the campers it was their very first experience with the whistle. For one day, the simplier the better. Hopefully it will be just 2 man mechanics; using 3 person mechanics and terms might blow them away. Since we had a week, we did both but we were able by the 4th night to put some guys in strictly 3 man while others we could see that they could only handle 2 person with a shadow. Work on the whistle volume, closed fist, open hand (violation), two thumbs (jump ball) and then get into the various foul and violation signals. Keep a good list of the attendees and then followup later in the summer for classroom information regarding the rules and more on court recognition.

Michael