If your child wants to wrestle in high school and college at a competitive level, you may want to look into having them attend a wrestling camp. A camp like this can help your child refine their skills, learn new techniques, and become an overall better athlete. However, not all wrestling camps are the same, so you need to make sure you know what to look for in one that will achieve your child’s goals.
Coaches Who Know the Sport
This may sound obvious, but choosing a camp that has coaches who have actually participated in wrestling is critical to your child’s success. Anyone can open a camp and say that they’ll make your child a better wrestler, but only the camps that are taught by proven winners in the sport should be considered. Not only should a coach know the sport inside out, but they should have also wrestled at a high level with success. Additionally, anyone who works with your child at the camp should be well-versed in wrestling and able to teach techniques and skills to your child.
Coaches Have a Proven Track Record
Just because someone is successful in a sport doesn’t mean they’re coaching material. Not everyone has the ability to teach others how to succeed in a sport, even if they themselves have been extremely successful. As such, you should look at the track record of the coaches at the camps you’re considering to see the results former students have had. Look for someone who has produced champions from their camps and have done so repeatedly. This will tell you that their ability to teach is effective, which is necessary for your child to be able to apply what they’ve learned.
A Variety of Camp Choices
Your child may need work on specific skills, but not on others, which means a general wrestling camp that teaches the basics would not be very helpful. The best wrestling camps offer a variety of camp choices to focus on the skills each athlete needs. Additionally, if your child is a girl, it might benefit her to have a camp that’s dedicated just to female wrestlers. A one-size-fits-all approach is not favorable to any child beyond one who is just learning the sport.
Moreover, you may not have the time or funds to dedicate to a week-long camp, so you may need a day-long camp option, or even one that’s two or three days long instead. The top organizations that run wrestling camps offer these choices to make sure everyone who wants to participate in a camp, can.
Age Appropriate Skills
Finally, you need a camp that takes your child’s age into consideration and offers camps based not only on skill level, but also on age. A camp that has offerings for youth, teens, and college-age athletes is ideal because you’ll know that your child is learning skills that are appropriate for their age. It’s important to keep in mind that young bodies are still growing and may not have the strength to complete certain moves, or some techniques can damage young ligaments and muscles. Choosing a camp that understands this and takes the proper steps to protect your child is of utmost importance.
Conclusion
There are dozens of wrestling camps available to train your child in this fast-growing sport, but before you choose one, make sure you know exactly what you can expect from the camp and how it’s going to help your child succeed. After all, that’s the whole purpose of attending a camp in the first place.
