Don't Go To Camp?

I've heard that too with our local camp and my response was always, "Great! Then you get to compete with the best!"

My encouragement for kids to go to camp has always been to compete against other players. It's great if they learn some things along the way, but the reality is that a number of camps teach slightly different techniques anyways.

I truly think that some coaches don't like their kids to go to the camp because the differing of schemes, like you said the differing of techniques.

They might be afraid that the kid will go to camp and be awed that the "So and So's" do this, and refute what the coaches try and teach if it is different.

We love our kids to go to camps, but we WILL discourage them from paying $$$ to go to a meat-market. If it's a local college putting on a skills camp that we are familliar with, we'll push the heck out of that, and get great attendance.

But, if a kid comes to us and asks us if a plane ticket to Penn State Camp is worth it, we'll generally tell them to save their money. You will get more attention and the same level of instruciton locally for much cheaper.

They can do whatever they want, of course, but we don't push it.

I don't see anything wrong or selfish in that.

While working in Wisconsin, the Badger camp was the same way. All the guys that they wanted to evaluate were with UW staff guys, everyone else was instructed by High School coaches. Yeah they learned something and it was good experience, but for $250+? Considering it was second hand information, maybe in came out as it would be a "waste of money", but I would think the coach is saying the same thing that some of us are saying, or maybe he did say it and meant that way lol.

I still run a camp in Wisconsin and I think the kids we bring in get great instruction as well for only $45 and 9 total hours of instruction and we get their information out to alot of school in the Midwest. Yeah the kids aren't getting coached/evaluated by Paul Chryst or Brett Bielima but they are still learning good technique football that they would get from the Badger Camp.

Too be honest I didn't know that those big university camps were typically like that. I have only been to smaller camps, and I guess I expected the same of the bigger schools.

That is really sad that that is typically the situation.

I guess I look at my days in the 90's as a 170 pound lineman. My family paid the money for me to go to the local camps and you know what I learned? I learned that I could compete with anybody. I learned that I wasn't just a decent player at my school or conference, but a decent player no matter who I matched up with. That confidence carried with me and I'm glad we spent that money.

We also went with a group of guys. So, we had a week of team bonding away from home. Great stuff!

I guess what I'm saying is that I will never discourage a kid from attending a camp. I'll let them know the potential good and bad of each, and will also try to encourage specific camps I can vouch for, but if the family wants to spend the money you never know what benefit can come from attending even if the big shots are not your camp coach.

I've worked at a big college camp for several years. It's the only camp I've ever worked so I can't speak about others but here are some comments about the camp where I've worked.

1. I've never seen the college coaches working with the top recruits while ignoring the rest.
The college coaches didn't directly coach any kids. The format was this: At each position,
the players were divided into small groups (about 10 kids per group) and assigned to a
visiting coach (mostly HS coaches, some small college, occasionally a former college player).
The college position coach would gather the full group, instruct them in a skill, and teach
3 or 4 drills. They then broke up into small groups under the supervision of the visiting
coaches while the college coach observed. When all drills were completed they called
everybody together and repeated the process with a new skill.

2. The college coaches who I've worked with always told the kids that they were going to
teach it they way that they do it at the college. They always told them to do it the way
their HS coach teaches it if there's a conflict.

3. It's a great way to get noticed for a player who aspires to go to that school and may have
the ability but isn't on the radar. It's also a good wakeup call for a kid who thinks he's a
lot better than he is.

4. It's a great experience for the kids to stay on campus and use the school's facilities.

Is it worth the price? That's for each family to decide. I wouldn't put myself in financial hardship to do it but I wouldn't consider it a waste either.

We don't discourage but we don't want that to be the main focus either during the summer. Some of our kids spend all summer going to these camps and skip our workouts, yet they might not even start for us.

Anyone ever had college coaches telling parents and players at camps they should be playing a particular position on your team?

I went to the Nebraska camp during Coach Osborne's last year. Even back then it was ran that way. If you were a "actual" recruit you were paid attention to and worked with. Everyone else was either helped by a high school coach or just basically ran through the drill with no further instruction after the fact. Even then the high school coaches could spend much time correcting you as they had a "million" kids to work with. Most of the Nebraska staff was to busy catering to DeAngelo Evans.

Most of these big time University camps aren't for lower level prospects imho. They are fun to go to for environment purposes and to soak in the atmosphere, but they aren't much help for improving you as a player. After that year, the head coach for our high school never pushed/sent another kid to a major University camp unless it was on their on accord. He tried to persuade the kids to go to smaller schools camps to actually get more hands on instruction and attention. There weren't many skill camps around yet when I was in school.

i'll be lookin forward to his reaction. I can see how it could be like that.
My only first hand experience with a college camp is the UCLA camp. Great camp. its a real good time. And its evident that they are lookin for some big name guys, but not at the expense of others. I went to this camp as a player and i was not a college level guy. But it was great to learn new techniques from other coaches and goin against 5 star recruits. A solid handful of our kids are goin to the UCLA camp this year. Not our big time recruit though. funny how that works.
Heard good things about the Oregon State camp too.
I'll be checking out the Fresno State camp this summer. From my understanding though its really just a jamboree type deal with a bunch of teams signing up and scrimmaging.

Bo started a camp at Michigan in early '70s as a way to make additional money for his assistants (shows how times have changed).

We had kids go to U-M's and other college camps. There were three problems:

1. They were practicing stuff we didn't do.

2. They spent half the day doing conditioning and-or lifting.

3. Some were getting hurt because, prohibitions to the contrary, there was contact at the camps.

So about 30 years ago a few of us decided to start running our own camp rather than line college coaches' pockets, where our kids would be repping our techniques and plays and not missing time when practice began because they were injured at a summer camp.

Also, they didn't have to pay to do conditioning and lift - they could do it for free at our school!

When we have kids interested in going to college camps I suggest they go to the local D-2 colleges where it's cheaper and they'll get more individual attention.

If we have a D-I prospect I would certainly encourage him to attend some of the "try out" camps held by the bigger schools for the exposure and experience.

careful, texas rocket is an aggie fan. that hits kinda close to home. no low blows. ;D lol

I've been to 3 diff camps but none of them at big bcs type places. When I played I went to UC Davis' camp, it was really good back then. As a coach we have sent our kids to Linfield College's team camp and Western Oregon's team camp. Both were fantastic and highly recommend the team camps. I think your kids get more out of the team camps than the indy ones anyway.

UW / Sarkesian hold a "rising stars" camp @ $250 at pop. Anyone can attend. Same format - a few recruits hangout with coaching staff the rest of the groups does drills with uninspired "instruction" from graduate assistants and HS coaches trying to make a buck or two.

At the end of the day selected recruits get a tour and hangout time with coaches and the rest of the "rising stars" get to play Hawaiian Football. It is pretty offensive to a lot of the players.
Good money maker for Husky athletics. Ripoff for the athletes.


On the other side of the coin Mike Riley at OSU holds an invitation only camp for recognized recruits. The amount of players is about a third of what UW allows and the players work in small position groups (10-12) directly with OSU position coaches who truly teach, evaluate, and give honest feedback to the players. The cost is nominal, simply to cover the cost. All the kids that I know that attend had a great experience.