Softball Camps - What to expect? Worth the cost?

[Coach-n-Dad]

We took DD to a Jenny Finch camp a few years ago and it was a fun experience for her, she got a photo with Jenny and got to hold one of her Gold Medals. As far as learning anything, not really.

Now that DD is a Junior in HS, the only camps that she goes to are at colleges that she has interest in attending and playing softball for. Going to those camps get her looked at by the coach/staff and the chance to talk to them if she really wants to. Other than that, most colleges have camps that are mostly for fundraising.

 

[PA SB Dad]

If your DD is 13, try to get her to camps that are geared to older players. There are a number of D1 colleges in my area that hold winter softball camps as fundraisers, and often they are broken down by age groups (ie 1st to 8th grade, 9th to 12th grade). My DD is the same age and recently went to a hitting clinic with about 60 HS girls. They were broken up into small groups of 3 or 4 working with 1 or 2 college players per station and rotated during the 2 hour clinic. She really enjoyed it and got a lot out of the different drills. We're planning to do at least one or two more this winter at other colleges that are running clinics.

I am less likely to have my DD go to one of the large indoor facilities that hold these clinics since they do tend to have large groups of kids rotating through a few stations and don't provide a lot of instruction. We had this experience with the Jennie Finch clinics at Diamond Nation. These are mainly advertising for the facility to get you to come in and sign up for the more expensive private and semi-private lessons. I think it's worth going once for the experience of your DD meeting some Olympians and Team USA players, but not something I would have DD sign up for regularly.

 

[absdad]

I don't think there's any hard and fast rule on clinics. DD has been to several different college clinics, most were good and offered as individualized instruction as possible (mostly the same college). One in particular seemed completely like a fundraiser, and the instruction was limited. She's been to some non-college clinics that were good, and some that were pretty worthless. Do your homework like anything, and get other's opinions.

Best clinic of all, is the Bustos hitting clinic. If you can get your dd to one of those, do it. It's not just hitting, but some good life lessons.

 

[shawjbjr]

You should always be able to find a camp or clinic that can improve her in some way. The different styles and methods are good to get exposure to and determine what works for her. The larger Finch type clinics are more about the celebrity but you can still pick up some good pointers. The last camp at Diamond Nation in NJ had Crystl Bustos running the hitting station and it helped my DD understand the mechanics of swing as is relates to girls a great deal.

Try them out with a purpose in mind. What are they known for? Who will be involved? or It may just be a way for your DD to see a school that she may be interested in the future.

 

[DOG310]

Looking at most of these replies I'm starting to lean toward using $$ toward private lessons say through middle school. If DD starts to look like college SB material THEN using some $$ toward camps to colleges that she is interested in.

Thoughts, comments?

 

[sluggers]

That sounds like a good plan...

 

[howellhandmade]

Take into account what position dd plays and what sort of instruction she has already had. My experience with a dd pitcher is that at any given clinic there's about a 95% chance they'll try to make her go hello elbow. And there are lots of different ideas on hitting as well. If you haven't invested a lot in coaching, if she isn't on a team that has a strong instructional program already in place, or if you know the clinic follows the same sort of approach used by her current instructors or team, absolutely should attend.

 

[ms244]

We have decided to attend the camp. The camp is being put on by Western Illinois University in Macomb, iL on January 14th & 15th. Sounds like we have 3-4 girls from our team along with a couple others from teams within the same organization. Should help the girls feel comfortable being around players from the same team and others they know. Looking forward to the camp and as a parent I will be taking plenty of notes. Thanks for everyone's input!

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Funny ms244 => we'll see ya there at Macomb!

We have a bunch of 15 & 16yr olds from our team coming too.

We can come back and compare notes

Hopefully they play some scrimmage so I can test out my new tablet with Gamechanger software !

 

[ms244]

Good idea on the Game Changer. See you there!