You’ve almost certainly heard about all the adventurous activities that you can take part in at overnight Summer Camp in some amazing locations around the US, but did you know that as well as making friends, having fun and exploring the great outdoors you can also improve your sports skills at overnight camp?
Many camps either include a variety of sports activities in their program, or specialize in sports activities, giving a great opportunity to try out new sports or to spend time with experienced coaches and like-minded participants and really up your game and develop your skills.
Sports activity overnight camps can be split into three rough categories:
1) Traditional overnight camps offering the full range of outdoor activities, but which also include a variety of sports activities in their program. On these camps you might find soccer, tennis and swimming on the program alongside sailing, hiking, nature studies, crafts, climbing and raft building. The choice of sports activities on the program is fairly limited depending on the facilities available, and the sports activities are likely to be delivered by an enthusiastic camp counselor. The other participants may or may not have experience at these sports and the objective is more likely to be having fun together than developing skills.
2) Sports camps offering a wide range of sports activities (multi-sports camps). These camps are often run on a school, college or university campus with a good variety of sports facilities, although some are on purpose-built sports campsites. The program will be dedicated to sports, with a few other social and fun activities added on. There will be good facilities and experienced sports coaches for each activity. You get to try out a breadth of different sports activities, building up general fitness and transferable sports skills such as accuracy, control, co-ordination and timing, and having a lot of fun. Whatever the starting point and skill level the focus will be on fun and developing a wide range of fundamental skills.
3) Specialized single-sports camps allow you to really develop your skills in one particular sport. Spending several weeks playing and learning your sport daily, with the support of experienced and skilled coaches you will be able to take your chosen sport to the next level. Alongside your sport activity of choice, there will be supplementary activities to give a more rounded experience and help develop those all important social skills and just take the pressure out of the sports environment.
So what type of sports are available in overnight summer camp programs?
If you can name the sport, you can probably find it in an overnight summer camp program somewhere!
The traditional summer camps offering some sports activities in their program will usually include sports like tennis, swimming, soccer, frisbee and volleyball. Other sports may be on offer depending on the facilities at the camp and the expertise and interests of the camp staff.
Multi-sports camps include a much wider variety of sports activities, which might include golf, bocce, table tennis, baseball, basketball, badminton, cricket, disc golf, field games, flag football, touch rugby, hockey, handball, kickball, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, swimming, ultimate frisbee and volleyball, or any other sport you can think of. You just need to find a camp that offers a good mix that appeals to you. The main point of the camp is to try a lot of new sports and develop transferable sports skills while having fun.
Specialist single-sports overnight camps are out there, but a little harder to find. Many run as day camps or shorter camps lasting just one or two weeks, but there are longer overnight camps out there running single sports from two to seven weeks. You should be able to find longer overnight camps for golf, tennis, dance, swimming, soccer, football, gymnastics and many others. If you are dedicated to improving your practice at one particular sport, you may need to travel to get to your camp, but the reward will be first-class high-quality facilities and great professional coaching, as well as spending time with other young people who share your passion for the sport.
Whatever sports activities you choose to take part in during your Summer Camp, you’ll return home at the end of it, with increased fitness and personal confidence, your sports skills will have developed and you’ll have had a great time.
