Preparing for a Camp or Clinic

Identify the skills you are good at is important to know & understand your role for any team you may play on. But being able to identify the holes in your game is also just as important, if not more.

Nobody is perfect & when you can be self-aware and proactive about finding your weaknesses, it makes it easier to know which type of camp or clinic you could benefit from the most.

In order to learn a new skill, you have to be willing to put in effort practicing the things you are not comfortable with. This means you also have to be ok with making mistakes and making them multiple times.

When you learned to walk, talk, ride a bike, recite & write your ABCs, you tried and failed probably hundreds of times before you got it right. Learning new skills in sports like basketball is the same way. You will fail many times on the way to success.

So, don’t just always choose camps or clinics that fall within your comfort zone. Every now & then, those can serve as a reminder for yourself about what you’re good at, giving a nice confidence boost to practice & be successful at the things you can already do. This can also continue to polish your current game.

But when you want to learn a new new skill, you need to be ready to step out of your comfort zone. As you practice things more, you will be able to eventually execute the skill. Then you can progress in speed & difficulty levels.

You should always give eye contact & be listening when coaches are talking. This also means no dribbling, shooting, or talking, when a coach is speaking as well.

Always come with a great attitude. How you respond when a question is asked of you doesn’t go unnoticed. How you treat others around you is also important. Are you positive & encouraging to the players at your basket or on your team? Or are you critical?

You should also hustle to every spot, every drill, & going to & from every water break. Being the first one up in line is great for coaches to see. Show coaches enthusiastic body language so that they know you are ready & wanting to get better or play.

You never know who the camp or clinic coach knows in the basketball world. It’s smaller than most people think it is, & when a coach has nothing but positive things to say about their interactions with you, it could go a long way! Coaches talk openly & honestly with one another & you should always put your best foot forward.

Every chance you get, whether it’s a water break or at the end of you reps, jot down things you’ve learned. This could be the name of a new move for you to study online later, a drill you want to do at home, or some tips on how to properly master a specific skill.

Whatever the case, having a notepad will come in handy so that you don’t forget what you did at a camp or clinic, and so have important messages & feedback from coach in one place.

Pay attention to each little detail. Try every drill as many times as you can. Repetition is the key to mastering skills or seeing improvement. Request feedback from coaches as well.

Attending a camp or clinic is also a unique situation where you have access to basketballs, hoops, different players that you may not see regularly, and coaches who may have knowledge of many other skillsets & who may have many other connections in the basketball world. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about all-things basketball that you have been wanting to know when you are in their presence.

Coaches will teach based on their own personal experience & based on what has been successful for them & those they have played with or coached. But everyone is different. People learn differently, people practice differently, & people certainly play differently as well. The truth is that different things work for different people.

Take in all the information you are taught, study, experiment with drills, study different methods, go to more camps & clinics, & then decide the best way for you to master a skill.