Summer Camp Contests Are A Great Way For Players To Improve, Have Fun

At our summer camps, daily contests are a big part of motivating the players and keeping the atmosphere fun. At the end of camp, the contest winners are given awards and championship posters.

The posters are used throughout the camp to keep track of player’s progress and standings. They are very inexpensive and a great way to keep everyone motivated and involved in camp activities. The posters are made by the camp coaches and are updated by the players themselves at the end of each camp day. Each poster is comprised of the following:

• Regular poster board.
• Lettering done in school colors using markers.
• Name of school, title of drill and all camper names.

Use the posters for any drill or activity that you can perform that keeps a recordable score (like shooting drills, timed runs or obstacle courses). If it’s an intangible award like a “hustle award” or “team player” award, record each winner at the end of the day and allow that player to write their own name on the poster.

The following example is how you would keep track of free-throw shooting by using the posters:

Free-Throw Contest. Put 10 minutes on the clock. All camp players will shoot free throws for 10 minutes until the horn blows. After shooting, players come up to the coach standing next to the poster board and yell out their name and total shots made. Example: “Mike Ingram, 15.”

The coach records the score on the poster. Every time you do free throws, the score is recorded. At the end of the week, the highest total number of shots made wins the free-throw championship poster and the winning player demonstrates his or her championship form in front of the camp.

Points Of Emphasis

• Poster boards are taped to the walls all around the gym so players can check their scores.
• Players will improve their scores. It’s a great feeling for the camp coaches when a player is struggling early in the week scoring low totals (6 8 9, etc.) then on Thursday yells out a score of 25 and the whole camp congratulates him.
• Players look forward to daily contests and reporting scores to show they are improving.
• Honor system teaches players to be honest.
• Hang all the posters up in the gym so kids can show parents how they are doing.
• Girls and boys have separate divisions (they compete at same time).
• Feel free to make up your own contests. (Best dribbler, great attitude, best defensive player, etc.) But the key is to record scores or players names every day and total them up to get a winner.
• We also have camp champion in every category — everyone against everyone (boys, girls, all ages).