I have spent a lot of time at all kinds of camps both as a clinician and an athlete. I am going to list the pros and cons of the two most common types of camps I have attended.
Weekend "power" camps: (better for an individual or a few wrestlers)
Pros:
Affordable for campers (between $100-200)
Short (multi sport athletes, and family vacations in the summer can cause some kids not to be able to attend week long or longer camps. Also, lets face it some kids are just not ready for a week long camp).
Usually one clinician pushing their style and mind-set on the sport (throwing tons of moves/ philosophies out there is not always the best for the wrestlers)
Cons:
Cost of clinician for host school (high profile clinicians can be very expensive $500 and up, personally witnessed $2200 for one day!)
Clinician to wrestler ratio (depending on the host school and their ability to provide reputable help to the Main clinician it could be a 100 athletes to 1or 2 coach ratio).
One clinician pushing their style (some wrestlers might not fit the mold or have the same style as the clinician so they might only pick up one or two things they "might" try).
Limited number of partners (small weekend camps fewer wrestling partners)
Week long camps: (better for a whole team or several kids from a team)
Pros:
Several different Clinicains (this allows a wrestler to pick up several philosophies and techniques)
Wrestler to coach ratio (most week long camps, such as those at a college or university require there entire team to be there to help out with the camp)
Many partners (usually but not always these types of camps allow for a larger number of campers increasing the odds of a few good partners to wrestle).
Cons:
Cost (these camps usually run any where from $200-600 depending on accomadations and length)
Length (could be hard to get some of your less committed guys to spend a week at a wrestling camp)
Quality of clinicians (at a lot of these week long college camps there is one marque clinician who is there for a day and then the rest of the time it is the college wrestlers running the technique sessions ((don't get me wrong most college athletes are very qualified, but some aren't)).
Distance (very few of these camps are within "daily" driving distance from say lexington ky pushing the price up because of teh cost of staying at the camp or a surrounding hotel).
In my perosnal opionion the best thing you can do for any wrestler is to get them on the mat. If that means as a coach you stay after school for a few hours each day, or you come back at 6:30 and open the room, thats what you do. The way SK, WV, WoodC, and St. X, have open mats is great and if several schools could get together and map out a schedule for each night of the week, our athletes could wrestle everynight!
