Hosting a clinic

[absdad]

Has anyone ever hosted a clinic with a popular coach or player? I'm looking into the feasability of doing this. Not looking at it from a money making angle, just wanting to provide something for the girls in our area. Would like to hear some do's and don'ts, and any advice that those of you have done this before, might be able to offer me. Would appreciate any input. Thanks.

 

[FastpitchFan]

It can be done. A few factors to consider:

1) Local market - how many coaches/players in the area? Is Softball big where you are? Because of economy, most people will not travel and stay overnight.

2) Speaker - of course, the bigger name, the bigger draw. America is a celebrity-driven society.

3) Marketing - It's all about marketing, getting the word out to potential attendees (local associations, local coaches, local players, etc.). You have to be willing to get dirty (i.e. do the work yourself) to promote it and not rely on others' good intentions to make it a success.

4) Price - Price it fairly. People are a lot more careful on where they spent their money. They want to get their money's worth. When budgeting, be very conservative in estimating how many people will come and see what your cost is (speaker fees, facility rentals, etc.) and then fix your price with a low projected number of attendees to break even. If a bit successful, you will make money as more people than you planned for came.

Offer bonuses (recordings of the sessions, handouts, etc.).

5) Topics - offer people what they want. You can never go wrong with hitting and pitching. Mental game and speed training are always good topics too.

Hope that helps.

Coach Marc

 

[druer]

I've been very blessed with the instructors that I've contracted to do camps/clinics. They have all been very passionate about doing instruction and really are in it to help the girls. I've heard some horror stories from others that have targeted very big names for clinics and then found out first hand that they were just in it for the money, watched the clock the whole time, and in 1 case the athlete (very big name) actually spent most of the time on her cell phone even during the clinic and remarked "I'm only really here to sign autographs later."

Sometimes I work with clinicians who are traveling a great distance and who's pay is agreed to in advance. Then you are assuming a ton of risk should you pay for travel etc ahead of time and usually a deposit as well, and then find out you can only fill half of the spots for the clinic. Most that do clinics regularly understand that their pay will vary based on the attendance of the clinic and just expect a "range" of potential money.

In terms of who to try and book it really depends on the audience you are trying to reach. If you are trying to reach A level players and help them improve you will need to book a big name that they would know and would have respect for. However, if you are doing a clinic to help a rec association then you would do well to just try and target former players from that association that are now in college. They would be cheaper and would probably work harder than anyone else you could find.

Organization: You need to put a schedule together that your instructors can follow. The last thing they, you or the campers want is to spend half of the time trying to figure out what to do next, have an instructo spend 20 minutes with 1 group, and 1 1/2 hours with another group. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish you can do the camp as stations that each group rotates to so that every player gets all of the skills. Or you can do the camp as a friend of mine does as a U-PICK where the players choose the stations they will go to based on their needs. That format works well for large camps of advanced-elite athletes that know what their position is and what their interests are. You can then have specialty instructors.

Finding names: So how do you find the names of people you could possibly invite? Look at the flyers from other clinics/camps around and then "google" those people or look them up on facebook and try and make contact. Contact your nearest college and make contact with the head coach and ask if they have any players that are looking to go into coaching who they think might be interested in working at your camp to make some money. The biggest names in the world typically have agents that you'll have to to go through.

Long Term: If this is something you are looking to do long term then you need to build your reputation with the instructors and the players by creating win-win situations for everyone. You want the players to be "repeat" campers, and you want the instructors to want to return and want to tell their friends to work for you. If you hire a big named pitcher lets say that would be great for your campers that are pitchers, but how much would it really be worth to the other 8 position players to have that person at the camp. If you are doing just a speciality clinic then having a big named pitcher might be appropriate, but then consider "who are the pitchers going to pitch to?" So you might bring in a pitcher/catcher combination so you can cover both skills in stations to learn, and have the catchers there to catch for the pitchers for other drills. Most college pitchers would probably still be in contact with their catcher(s) and could help you make contact to arrange that.

Hope it helps,
Dalton

 

[Hitter]

Has anyone ever hosted a clinic with a popular coach or player? I'm looking into the feasability of doing this. Not looking at it from a money making angle, just wanting to provide something for the girls in our area. Would like to hear some do's and don'ts, and any advice that those of you have done this before, might be able to offer me. Would appreciate any input. Thanks.

Something to think about when setting up a clinic

What is it going to cost you to conduct the clinic?

Speaker’s fee or appearance fee sometimes requires a deposit and contract.

Look to see who in your area is holding a clinic. Is there a major tournament taking place because these are your potential customers and if they are playing they will not be coming. Talk to the major select teams to tell them who you have coming to speak. Look at the recreational coaches and teams also as they are potential customers. Also make direct contact with the high school coaches so they encourage their players to attend.

You may want to do coaches clinics the night before the clinic. If you are doing hitting clinics and pitching clinics your pitchers will not be at the hitting clinic so make sure you offer multiple sessions other wise you loose attendance and the same thing applies to defensive or fielding sessions.

So are we doing it indoors or outdoors? Unless you are God you do not know what the weather will be and if it rains I doubt you will have a grounds crew have the field prepared by 8 AM. So do you have a backup plan and a way to communicate it to the people helping you?

Facility cost and size are important because some facilities will not allow you to use hard balls and require low impact balls and you may have to purchase them and that costs money. Also a major consideration is restroom facilities especially if it is softball! Both parents usually attend plus kids and maybe even grand parents so where are they going to sit? Baseball parents usually just drop them off. Make sure the restrooms stay clean and stocked.

Look at your parking lot size and will you be able to handle the cars? If you have 60 kids you may have 70 cars and if one session ends there is a lap over and then you need 140 spaces…something to consider and did you consider the workers cars in your count?

Speaking of workers you need more than you think so getting volunteers is important. For example having someone in the parking lot especially if it is small to make sure you use the space properly. Setting up the night before and making sure the equipment is set up properly.

No one hits the catch nets every time so what can be broken or dented will be hit! Don’t just look around but also look up and see if the lights and sprinkler system is caged/ protected or not.

We try to keep the number of kids per station at no more than 5 so there is quality not quantity. Yes you should want to make money however consider your reputation and if you want to do another clinic word of mouth spreads fast about how bad or good your clinic was the last time.

So you still want to do this clinic?

Let’s just use 60 kids as a number divide by 5 and that is 12 stations that you will need. That means 12 pop up nets, 12 tees, 12 throw down home plates and we recommend at least a 10 pound sand bag per net especially if it is in a gym to prevent the net from sliding so you need 12 sand bags and 12 5 gallon buckets to put balls in. Sometimes the parents of the sponsoring organization will bring their own nets and tees IF ask. Sometimes the plastic coated weights on bar bells work as good as the sand bags. WE let the kids of the instructors helping at the stations get in free for helping.

Set the nets up with about 10 feet between the nets so if a lefty and a righty were hitting next to each other they would not hit each other. If you have a cage use it also inside and out and set your tees accordingly and using a horse shoe design works pretty well.

If you do the Big Zone drill we need caution tape, about a 12 foot length tied to the net and then use the tee as an anchor and you lay home plate directly under the caution tape and that represents the plane of the pitch. We need 2 clothes pens (24) and a tape measurer per station or 12 to measure with.

We will need at least 10 softballs per station or 120 balls, plus 10 tennis balls per station or 120 tennis balls. Some gymnasiums will not allow you to use regular softballs so you will need the low impact ones or maybe even whiffle softballs.

If you do the Throwing 101 drills we need 30 balls with a piece of black electrical tape, taped around the ball so as to divide it in half.
When putting the tape on the balls makes sure the tape is oriented so it divides the ball in half over the horseshoe of the ball like when a player throws/ gripes the ball.

If you are doing the Barry Bonds drill we need a cage and a pitching machine. So now we need about 3 buckets of balls, extension cord and L screen.

If we have 12 stations we need 12 instructors to run the stations and it would be nice to meet them the night before so we can go over how we do things.

I use a lap top so I need a screen, projector and a patch wire to connect to a projector and an extension cord.
The cord needs to have a multi adapter plug for the lap top and projector. We need a table for the laptop and a table to put “stuff” on and two chairs. Sound system is a plus but not a requirement.

We usually have the kids sitting on the floor in front of us and the parents are behind them in the stands if you have any stands or bleachers other wise tell them to bring their lawn chairs. Make sure the stations are not pointing towards the parents!

If you have any sporting goods stores in the area that will donate or let you purchase at a discount get products and you can raffle it off and make money.

You need to have petty cash to make change and raffle tickets in a double row so they keep one and you put one in a jug.

The night of the clinic raffle off a dinner with the speaker/ athlete….they get the opportunity to have dinner and they also pick up the check so make it a bidding war!

Registration forms should have a release of liability on it also and a medical treatment statement.

Consider if you are going to provide tee shirts or sell tee shirts. Why you ask because you do not want to get stuck with inventory. Offer a cheaper price if they pre order the tee shirts when they sign up or just include it in your price. On your form if you put limited quantities on day of clinic will be sold at lets say $18 dollars and pre clinic $14 you usually sell more.

Sometimes you can make a little more money by offering coffee and donuts or hot chocolate in the morning sessions. Do you have concessions facilities on site and if so who will run the concession stands?

Make sure you spell out in your announcement if you will offer food for purchase on site and if not how far is the McDonalds, Wendy’s or Subway. We usually shut down for an hour for lunch.

Check with your local hotels and see if they will offer a deal to the people attending your clinics and then get the word out on softball sites in your areas. Make sure you try to communicate to your high school coaches recreational and travel ball teams also.

At registration make sure the tee shirts are separated out by size to make it easy and quick to hand out and have name tags the kids can put on and magic markers. Pre make the name tags and put in alphabetical order to make it go faster and the same applies to registration forms and T shirts.

Howard