Summer basketball camps are a great way for coaches to connect with their communities as well as build up their basketball programs. For players, camp is a great way to improve all of their skills and continue growing their love, and excitement, for the game of basketball. But, there are a few different factors that go into how to host a positive camp experience for coaches and players alike. Here are our 8 tips for running a successful summer camp for any age and skill level.
1. Have a Camp "Purpose"
Whether you’re hosting a one week camp or a multiple-week camp, communicating the purpose of camp to players and their parents will help to get everyone excited because they know what they’re going to get out of the experience. Hosting a youth camp for ages who are just being introduced to the game? Communicate that you will be focusing on fundamentals while having fun! And then each day of camp you’ll be able to build up basic skills while introducing competitions to the players.
Thinking of hosting a more elite camp for your junior varsity and varsity players? Share that you’ll be running them through game-like situations to increase competition and work on advancing shooting accuracy, reaction time, etc. Having a purpose for camp not only gets attendees excited to participate, but helps you create building blocks and plans for each day of camp.
2. Be Organized
Now that you have your plans for camp outlined, it’s time to organize. Not sure where to start? Here are just a few questions you should ask yourself:
- How many campers are attending?
- Do you have different age groups?
- How many hoops are you going to need?
- How many other coaches are planning to help out? Do you need to ask others?
These questions will help you build out your camp schedule even further and know what kinds of backup drills and activities to have ready in case something isn’t going as planned (i.e. players not engaged with drill, there’s extra time). Being organized with your plan for camp will also help you effectively communicate with the other coaches and staff who are helping out.
3. Communicate with your staff
This leads to the third tip for a successful camp, communicating with your staff. If you are using multiple gyms or have older players helping out, communicating with those who are supporting you and working with the players is one of the biggest keys to success. Starting a group chat or scheduling check-ins throughout the day will keep everyone on the same page and will allow. Plus, you’re allowing your staff to speak to what’s working and give suggestions on how to improve.
And if something goes wrong, which is almost inevitable, you and your staff will be able to quickly handle the situation. And most importantly, keep the chaos away from the players attending. If they can feel you are in any way stressed or something isn’t going as planned, they will reflect those feelings. But with effective communication, your team can attend to what’s happening then move on, keeping the camp experience positive for your players.
4. Keep camp moving
Now that you have your schedule and your staff is prepared, you must keep things moving throughout the day. Just like practice, you shouldn’t spend too much time on a certain drill or game. If you do, you’ll quickly lose the interest and excitement from your players. If one player, especially at the younger level, stops giving effort, then others are soon to follow which could derail that section of camp.
Even if you want to work on the same skill, you can incorporate different drills that relate to that skill. Want to focus on ball handling? You could run dribbling relays, full court drills, and even play a group game all in an hour. Spending 10-15 minutes (the shorter the younger they are) on each activity, keeps things moving, but also mixes things up enough so your players can have fun!
5. Keep everyone involved
It’s possible that you could have a large group of campers. Outside of the small group and individual skill work you have planned, you must get and keep every player involved in the larger group settings. If you’re looking for new drills and games that keep all players active and participating, you’re in luck.
With a larger push for recreating game-like competition and actions, Small Sided Games (SSGs) are becoming more and more popular because they help improve skill development by: Getting all players involved and increasing reps, simplifying player decision-making, and creating higher levels of engagement and competition. Which is why we teamed up with Coach Tony Miller to create two great small-sided game resources for coaches of all levels.
Check out Small Sided Games Vol. 1 and Small Sided Games Vol. 2 to download 20+ FREE small sided games to incorporate into your summer camp.
6. Have prizes or giveaways
While a big part of camp is improving your game, an even bigger part is having fun. Of course having different games and drills is a good place to start, but adding in competition and motivation is what will really get your players engaged. And an easy win is having prizes! Choose certain games or dedicate the end of each day for a competition that will have prizes to get everyone excited. The prizes could be anything from sports drinks and water bottles to team merchandise and basketballs. You could even go old school and give out customized ribbons.
If you’re looking for something different, have a system throughout the whole camp where players can earn/win tickets to then be entered into a giveaway happening at the end of camp. The more tickets, the more chances those players will have of winning that prize.
7. teach skills players can do at home
Because camp is camp, it can be easy for coaches to choose to do things that they would not normally do during the preseason or at practices. You should of course be trying out new ways to keep your players engaged, but you also should be teaching skills and drills your players can also do at home.
Camp is only a small fraction of the summer, and if you introduce players to things they can do after camp at home they will continue to work on those skills the rest of the summer because it’s easy for them to do so. And if you do teach things players can do at home, it could also be helpful to have drill breakdowns players (especially younger ones) can take home in case they don’t remember certain drills from camp.
8. incorporate more than basketball development
The final tip for a successful camp is not only focusing on basketball skill development, but also personal development of your players. While the purpose of your camp is to work on the certain skills you communicated, you should also strive to improve their skills as individuals. Incorporate lessons on the impact attitude and kindness has on your players themselves and others around them. Help to teach the importance of hard work and how that translates to off the court. Not only helping these players grow in basketball, but in life will make for the most rewarding camp experiences.