It’s Summer Time! I love summer because of the long days and all the availability you have for those fun activities! One of my favorite things about summer is Summer Camps! I love how many are out there for kids of all ages. This summer I am running some fun kids camps for ages 2-13 year olds. Some camps are multi-sport and others are for volleyball. I love running camps because you meet so many kids and get to share with them the things you love. However, running a summer camp can be so daunting. With volleyball, there are so many things to teach and so little time. Here are some tips that I use to run all my summer camps for all ages!

1. Learn names:

I know for a lot of people this can be a really hard feat especially if your camp is only a few days long. But do your best to learn the athletes names! Kids of all ages, even as they get older, feel significant if you make the effort to remember them as an individual person. It also helps That way you can specifically call them over if they need help with things or you can congratulate them! Kids love a good pat on the back and it makes it more personal and easier for them to trust you when you know their name!

2. Focus on the basics:

Kids need to learn the basics of each sport. Each of the skills that I teach in volleyball as a whole can be complicated. The four main skills that can be taught include serving, passing, setting, and hitting. Each day of camp, I focus on one of those skills and I break it down into what I call my Key’s or 1,2,3’s. For example, with passing, my number 1 is thumbs and hands together (shown below). My number 2 is straight arms always (shown below). My number 3 is forearm contact (shown below). These are my key’s for the basics of forearm passing in volleyball. Each piece is simple enough for a two year old to understand and do.

To practice the key’s I pick one drill to do. I will teach the first key and do the drill only working on the first key. Then I will teach the second key, do the drill again only focusing on the second key. I will repeat the same process for the third key as well. When you focus on the small pieces, it is easier for the kids to perform them.

3. Use Real drills:

For each of my camps I use real drills that I would use with my high school or club teams. The kids love trying new things, but also love trying real things. Every drill can be modified to fit the group you are teaching. I recently had a summer camp group that had 19 kids participating. Two of these kids were 5 years old and the rest were 10 and older. We did serving games and the two young ones really had a hard time keeping up with the ability of the older kids. We didn’t change the drill or leave them out, instead we modified it. My two young kids had to serve properly but we changed the distance and height for them. They loved the fact that they could still do the same drill the older kids were doing but we gave them an opportunity to succeed. Summer camps are a place to learn and grow and if you do silly drills that you wouldn’t do with a regular team, trust me they notice.

4. Play games:

When doing summer camps at least half of your time needs to be playing games. This could be live games like in volleyball we play monarch also known as king or queens, flip flop, doghouse and other games. Kids also love to play a real volleyball game. When kids are young and learning the skills of the game, they can be inconsistent and the game can go back-and-forth with not much activity. This is OK! Letting the kids understand how the real game works actually gives them motivation to try better or try new things next time around!

5. It’s all about fun!:

Summer camps are a place for kids to learn but should be a place for kids to have fun. Parents like to sign kids up so they get new experiences with new things. If parents wanted their kids to play a competitive sport and be pushed to be more competitive, they would’ve signed him up on a competition team! Excitement and energy comes from you as a coach! Make everything fun from drills to games to even talking in between activities. Kids respond well if you are fun and you make it fun! Remember they are there to learn the basics but to also enjoy the experience and if you’re too hard on the learning the fun will go out the window! According to Sportsengine.com “70 percent of young athletes will drop out of organized sports by the time they turn 13.” (https://www.sportsengine.com/article/why-are-young-athletes-quitting-sports). We want the kids to love the sport and love being there rather than feeling overwhelmed with learning.

Running a summer camp should be fun for the athletes and fun for you! Wish you the best of luck!