Interesting comments by coach / author John Howard on some disadvantages of huge summer gymnastics camps.
Extreme Sports Culture – Not!
We have to tell you that after years of sending our gymnasts (and our own daughters) to a commercial gymnastics Texas summer camp, we stopped doing so when the camp began simultaneously running extreme sports camps. There is no way we wanted our young daughters and gymnasts exposed in even a very limited way to the very “different†culture, attitudes and mores (morals) of the boys and men involved in those sports, especially when we were not around. You can make your own decision.
I had the same concern when I first got to Woodward West. But I must say the “bad influence” of the Action Sports athletes turned out not to be a problem in the weeks I was there. Woodward is extremely strict in monitoring foul language and behaviour.
I cannot speak about other camps except for Muskoka Woods in Canada. Excellent, as well. Kids are very safe there.
Shop on Price
We are seeing an interesting trend that the summer camp coed with the most qualified directors and coaches (gyms currently producing Elite gymnasts) are less expensive than the huge commercial gymnastics camps. There are obviously other differences in the camps, but if quality coaching is your goal, then you might look at camps run by Elite level coaches.
How Many Gymnasts?
This question is somewhat like the question of what size college to attend – a small gymnastics camp will allow your gymnast to become personally known and work with all of the coaching staff. You will want to carefully consider how well your gymnast will fit in and adapt to a huge camp with hundreds of gymnasts and if they will get noticed in the crowd.
Good points. The giant camps are expensive. Gymnastics-wise you will often get more done at regular summer camp in a regular gym. Choose wisely.
On the other hand, there is no way a club camp can match the life experience of something like Woodward West.
I advise coaches to register their kids in both the huge summer camps and private gym camps, if they can afford them. The two are much different experiences.
All the posts about summer gymnastics camps. – GymnasticsCoaching.com camps category
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