Summer Camp/Thoughts:

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Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
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We started our summer camp today. We had over 50 participants and so, this is the largest summer camp we have had. We will have our "Advanced Hitting Camp" next week and it is already filled. I wanted to make a thread about what we do and some of the things we share with our camp players.

First, as the players were arriving, we separate them into 6th grade and below and 7th grade and up. We don't have high school players in this camp. The high school players will participate in the advanced hitting camp but in their own time slot. BB and I waited until a significant number of campers were present and both dugouts were filled and then we went out to play catch. I love playing catch with my kid. We were letting it fly some and some of the parents who were waiting for camp to start were amazed at us playing catch. BB has a hose and I still can throw pretty hard. We had a completion on who could hit the other in the chest and that can get intense. I scare myself sometime when I really let one go but BB is pretty good and is not scared. When we finished and it was time to start the introductions, The HC asked these players what they were watching. The answers were amazing and some of the veteran players got it right away. I took the time to say to the players that there will come a time as they grow up where they are going to want to run with friends etc. but don't forget to grab their mom or dad and ask them to play catch. BB comment about our relationship and how playing catch is so much more than just throwing a ball. I hope all of you develop that same relationship.

Then, we gave these players their first quote. Of course we do this every year and when I started, I don't complete the saying and we always have young ladies who came to previous camps complete the sayings. Our first quote is, "Repetition is no fun but its the reason we have won." Then, we ask various players to explain it. We continue saying this all day long. Another one for this day was, "Attention to detail is everything."

Our HS players also work this camp. I have always believed that for them to be able to explain what they do and why they do it to a young player cements in their own mind what we teach and coach. We had several college and former college players show up as well. In all, we had 15 coaches there. Today was mostly fielding since we had 25 mph wind gusts and so the cages were a little dangerous. Tomorrow, we get after hitting. Our camp is inexpensive and we don't really care about making money. We are trying to build a program. I think that this year's success has made this camp bigger. More to follow.
 
Sep 21, 2017
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Coach - I'd love to know what types of things you do at your camp. I am looking into starting a camp next summer, in an area that has ZERO camps for younger kids ran by HS coaches & players, and am always looking to learn what others do at theirs.
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
Coach - I'd love to know what types of things you do at your camp. I am looking into starting a camp next summer, in an area that has ZERO camps for younger kids ran by HS coaches & players, and am always looking to learn what others do at theirs.
Sure. We break stuff down and concentrate on fundamentals. Yesterday or the first day, we do simple into and we evaluate some skills stuff. We have a dedicated catcher's station where our HS catcher who is now going to play in college works with catchers. Yesterday, they did simple blocking drills like the 3 ball drill and did framing work. Today, they did past balls with a slide to the ball and flip to pitcher covering the plate. They did throw downs to 1st and 3rd. Naturally, they started with a review of what they did yesterday. For infielders, yesterday, they did some simple fielding drills starting with a drill where we create two lines of 5 balls and the kids go from ball to ball "landing the plane" instead of being a "helicopter." Then, we did what we call, "The Arizona Drill" where we roll the ball out in the same fashion as they do on the YouTube video. Today, we broke it down to doing angles and drop steps. We did position work teaching the SS and 2B all of the pivots. We had our HS 3B and 1B work with fielders at those positions.


They keep the line going. In the outfield, we had two high school players tossing balls and doing our basic OF drills. We had a machine shoot balls today and the outfielders did what we call the "4 cone drill" since we take a cone and have 4 places we set it up for outfielders to stand as they react to the ball shooting out of the machine. BTW, at one point, we had everyone be an outfielder. Then, we did our double infield. That can get intense and players can get hurt if they aren't paying attention.

Today, we broke the older group up into 6 and 7 graders in one group and 8th and 9th graders in the other.

The players, including some 6th graders who haven't played much went to another diamond and did much the same but without the double infield.

For the older girls, we had half in the cages with 8 hitting stations. Then, when half of the time was up, we switched groups. In the younger girls, they hit 10 inch balls into nets in the same format. In my opinion, it is a really good camp. We picked up even more girls today. What was amazing is that I had a bunch of young ladies come up today to tell me that I had coached their dads. When these girls mentioned it, no wonder they were ahead of the others their age. Their dads were players.

As I have mentioned before, I am a yeller and so, you could probably hear me in Missouri. At the end of practice one of the young ladies said that she wants to be as intense as I am and the HS players laughed.

We have thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow. Our camps are 4 days and not 5 since we build a rain day into the schedule. What I found out a long time ago is that if you create a camp for 5 days and it rains, parents tend to want their money back if they don't get 5 days. Next week, we have our "advanced hitting camp."
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
Today's camp thought:

"Take one day off and you know it. Take two days off and your opponent knows it. Take three days off and everyone knows it."

We wrapped up our camp today. We continued to gain players as we went and had a huge camp for what is typical for us. Today was a more trying day with regards to patience etc. but has to be attempted to have a good camp. Base-running and run-downs were a main goal! LOL We do a drill where we set up 4 lines and the HS players helping with the camp, as well as two adult coaches instruct and hit ground balls. A player has to catch 3 in a row before they can advance to the next line. The competitive part of this is that they need to keep track of how many players they pass. It can be a lot of fun but also intense. Of course my life gets stacked up since I am not hitting dinkers. You can see the young ladies get a little hesitant when they get in my line. Naturally, I have common sense and am not going to hit rocket shots but I do put a little bit of a charge into a ball or two. At one point, there were 11 girls in my line. The other half of these young ladies were fielding balls in the outfield off of a machine. Then, we flip groups. Typically, we wrap this week off by incorporating double infield again and making comments on player's progress during the camp. As we wrap up, players are rotated in and others are instructed by position players. This day had one draw back that made me disappointed a little with instruction in that several of our players had to take off last night to whatever destinations they are playing this weekend.

I thought we put on a great camp that was inexpensive, provided a T-Shirt for attending the camp and one that overall had outstanding instruction.

Next week we are putting on our "Advanced Hitting Camp." We have 3 groups of 10 players coming in and they will hit for one hour. We have 5 adult coaches who will work with these players. Of those coaches, I am the only one who did not play softball in college but I was fortunate to be able to play baseball in college. Of the 4 women who played in college 3 hold offensive records where they played in college. Not bad for $30 per player for the week. All of this money will go back into our team.
 

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