Planning A Summer Volleyball Camp
I’ve been slow to publish this information because there are so many variables when it comes to planning a volleyball camp! It really is an art, and therefore requires a certain amount of experience and creativity to get the planning right. And as I’m sure we coaches all know, even the best plans don’t always turn out as expected!
That said, I’m going to do my best to highlight important considerations in the planning process to help you create your best summer volleyball camp plan! I’ll give you a general outline and a list of questions to answer, but the final drill choices and design are up to you!
Some of these suggestions are more targeted towards middle school or younger high school-aged players, but coaches at all ages will benefit from reviewing (and even printing out) this article!
When to have camp
When are the courts available? (Check with the school or facility, gyms often close for resurfacing over the summer)
Are there any major holidays or events in the area during your planned camp time? Is it in the middle of summer when families travel?
Drop-off and pick-up times are important, would your camp schedule work for busy parents? Ex: 8am-12pm often works much better than 10am-2pm.
Are there enough coaches/helpers in the area to hold camp when you want?
Is the length of time appropriate for the age group you plan to work with? (4 hours is an excruciatingly long time to keep 1st-3rd graders interested in volleyball activities, just saying!)
What days will you have camp? I prefer Monday-Thursday for the best participation rates, but you may find that something else works better for you!
Deciding what ages to work with
Will there be large differences in skill that cause problems or safety concerns if you lump too wide of an age range together?
Are there enough courts to separate players into appropriate levels?
How will you separate players? By age? Skill? Ahead of time? On the fly?
Can parents accurately place their child in the right camp without calling you? (Camps listed as “elite,” “intermediate,” and “beginner,” will always result in phone calls and emails, consider this your warning! :) )
Do you have enough qualified coaches to work with the age group? Different experience levels and natural talents are better at different levels.
What will your coach-to-camper ratio be? One coach for every court can work, but at least two is better! Three or more is incredible. I recommend more coaches for younger players; their attention spans require more mental energy from coaches :)
Gym Logistics
How many courts do you have?
Any additional space that can be utilized? Wall space can be used for wall traps, a passing station can occur in space to the side of the gym, etc.
How many volleyballs do you have (and are they the right type?)
How many volleyball carts do you have?
Do you have extra equipment you could use like boxes or targets? These make camps fun and memorable!
Do you have a whiteboard or chalkboard? And markers/chalk/erasers to go along with it?
Is there access to restrooms and water fountains?
Do you need space to hold snack or lunch breaks? (Once you cross 2-3 hours this might be a good idea!)
Are you going to allow parents to watch? Do you have bleachers/seating for them? Or will it be a closed camp?
Do you have secured space for everyone to put their bags?
Is there room for a check-in/check-out table?
Will an athletic trainer be on-site while you’re holding camp?
Procedures
How will you market your camp? Facebook? An email list? The newspaper?
How will you prep your coaches for camp? Email them your camp plan? Meet a day or two before to go over everything?
What is your check-in procedure? Where will children be dropped off? Signed-in? Are there enough coaches who can stand there to answer parent questions?
How will you accept and track payments? Do you need to issue receipts?
Where will you place medical release forms/waivers? Do you have any from your school/facility that you need to get before camp starts?
What will players do once they’re signed in? Will other coaches be available to get players warmed up?
What will your warm-up be every day? What about stretches?
How will you address the group? Will you have drill demonstrations as a group or individually on each court?
Will you do stations? Or have each court do the same drill but at different levels? Will coaches stay with one group or rotate?
What are the camp rules? How do you deal with broken rules? Any consequences? Things DO happen, be sure to have a plan to deal with poor behavior that disrupts the group.
What are camp expectations? Different than rules, but just as important! (Ex: run everywhere, ask questions when you don’t understand something, etc.)
Who deals with injuries? Are they certified/trained properly?
Are you going to have *extras* at your camp? T-shirts, prizes, etc. all require advanced planning and should be assigned to one or two people to oversee.
Have routines for starting camp, going on breaks, coming back from breaks, and ending the day. This could be a simple cheer or some other collective speech/celebration/etc. Not having these results in players wandering around and parents asking each other, “So is it over? Can we leave?” You don’t want that!
Drill suggestions
Choose drills that can be completed with a varying number of players (drills that must have groups of 3 or any other specific number require too many adjustments if the numbers are off).
Choose drills that require a lot of movement from all participants. Hitting lines are unfortunately very slow-moving and boring, so this is an example of a drill I would try to avoid or alter to include more movement and participation for all players.
Choose drills that can be adjusted to make them easier or harder if needed. Serving to zones can be made easier by switching to serving to one half of the court or the other. Make it more challenging by having players hit the same spot 3 times in a row.
Use a mixture of competitive drills and cooperative drills.
Consider breaking the skill down into basics first, moving into a game-like drill, and then running a competition.
Drills should
Be FUN
Be SAFE
Be easy to explain
Incorporate lots of movement for all players on the court
Offer slight challenge but allow all or almost all players to succeed
Miscellaneous
Camp is meant to be a fun way to experience volleyball.
Fun means different things to different people! Fun at the higher levels can also mean growth, improvement, and high-level volleyball!
Not everyone who comes to camp will be a rockstar (or even very athletic). This is CAMP, not a season, and they still need to enjoy their experience. Make sure coaches working with lower-skilled athletes have the patience to do so and can keep the mood light and fun on those courts.
A “floater” is a good thing to have! Maybe it’s you or another high-level coach, but someone who can walk around and monitor the entire camp, watch the time, fill in where needed, and handle emergencies is always helpful.
Use older players to help run the camp if possible. Players learn by teaching, and younger players will have someone to come and watch and cheer for during your regular season!
Do you need a sign-out procedure? Who will run it? How do you know who’s allowed to pick up each player? What if no one comes to pick up a player?
Don’t hyper-focus on technique to the point that you don’t get to play volleyball. Get your players to “good enough” so they can rally a few times. This will be fun for them, and the parents will be glad they signed up their child for your camp!
Please, please, PLEASE don’t do all passing one day, all setting the next day, etc. This is extremely boring for the players! Players love to HIT the ball (serving and attacking), so I like to structure days this way:
Day 1: Passing and serving focus, with scrimmage games at the end.
Day 2: Setting and hitting focus, with scrimmage games at the end.
Day 3: Offense and defense focus, with scrimmage games at the end.
Day 4: All skills review, with tournaments/competitions/round robins throughout the day.
Players and parents will expect information regarding tryouts and the upcoming season at the end of camp, be sure to have that ready to go if it applies!
And finally…
You can run your camp however you want! Whether that means you’re hosting a 3-day, 2 hours each day camp or 5-day, 4 hours each day camp… whatever works for you is best!
Good luck with your summer camp, Coach! If you have any additional suggestions or considerations for others, please leave them in the comments below!