Low-Priced Sports Camps Provide A Nifty Alternative
Sports camps are a lot like athletic shoes - while you’re looking for a perfect fit for your child, you’ll find a wide range of options and prices.
However, just because a camp doesn’t charge three figures, don’t dismiss it. Hakeem Olajuwon endorses and wears a pair of sneakers that are less than $50.
Central Valley counselor Terry Irwin, who just retired as the Bears’ boys basketball coach, strongly believes there is a place for the low-cost camp at your local high school.
“The thing about the local high school camp, as I see it, is basketball is learning a skill, learning what it is you need to do, and repetition, repetition, repetition,” he said. “Many colleges have gone to … more competition, they play games, that’s what kids want to do. They spend a lot of time in game situations. (Basically, it’s not) a skill-development camp.”
Irwin has no knock against the high-priced college or big business camps; he has worked at a number of them. He just believes there is a place for the neighborhood camp.
“There’s no question that kids should very definitely go to their high school camp, if nothing else to get acquainted with the people who are there and learn what they are deficient in,” he said.
“The kids that I have had who played for me the last several years have been to camp since fourth grade. Over the course of time they get familiar with you, they’re going to see kids they look up to, they get excited to be a CV Bear, get associated with the program and come to games.”
That doesn’t mean a young player has to go to their prospective high school camp to get to play. At least not in Irwin’s eyes.
“I’ve been asked about that and the answer is, ‘No!”’ he emphasized. “That has always bothered me, when people say if they don’t go to your camp, then whether they can play or not they’re not going to (make the team). That’s not true at all.
“The bottom line is, can they play?”
And a player is going to a high school camp isn’t getting shortchanged in the coaching department.
“The basic things you are talking about in camp are shooting, passing, dribbling,” Irwin said. “There’s not an awful lot of differences or interpretation to basic skills. You can feel very comfortable with that. When you get into strategy or games, there’s going to be some differences there.”
Irwin is very concerned about the demands on kids’ time, especially if they are interested in more than one sport, but he still believes time at a camp is well spent.
“It depends on what they do with their time,” he said. “I can’t think of a better thing for a kid to do with their time than be in a gym and enjoying themselves. If they see that or view that as being pressured to be there, they’re there for the wrong reason.
“But for a fourth-grader, 2 hours a day for a week, that’s reasonable. I think they should do that every year. For $30, find out if they have what it takes.”
Because, you know, it really isn’t the shoes.
, DataTimes