It’s that time of year of course and whether we are high school or college coaches if we are attempting to constantly raise the water level of the talent in our Programs, then we usually have a plan for the identification, evaluation, and matriculation regarding the stars of the future. This multifaceted and constant process is most especially effective when incorporating summer football (evaluation) camps that not only teach general football but also mimic our own programs. At the high school level, these camps are usually geared towards rising 7th and 8th graders who could end up enrolling as 9th graders with us. At the college level, we are looking at rising 11th and 12th graders who are recruitable student-athletes per NCAA rules. There are multiple ways to accomplish the stated goal of attracting and eventually working with the best possible players available; what follows is the best of the best of what I have seen over the past several summers on how to run a one-day summer evaluation camp to improve the talent of your program. This model is best suited for a camp of 100 to 200 players in a NON-PADDED format.
5:00AM – Staff Set-Up and Final Checklist Meetings
7:00AM – Specialists Registration
*ALL PERTINENT INFORMATION for your program must be gathered here. For all of us, this is the time where we want to make sure we get height, weight, full length picture, flexibility test, etc.
8:00AM – 10:00AM – Specialists Camp
*Kickers, Punters, Snappers, Returners, Holders. Work Indy-Group-Full Operation and culminate for all 5 with charted competitions.
8:00AM-10:00AM – All Positions Registration
*ALL PERTINENT INFORMATION for your program must be gathered here. For all of us this, is the time where we want to make sure we get height, weight, full length picture, flexibility test, etc.
10:00AM – 10:30AM – Camp Introduction(s) and Dynamic Warm-Up/Static Stretch
10:30AM – NOON – TESTING
*40, 5-10-5 (NFL) Shuttle, Broad Jump, Vertical Jump and Rep Bench Test (185 or 225) if time, space, and appropriate.
NOON – 12:30PM – AGILITY STATIONS
*This is used to be able to evaluate subjectively the overall athleticism of any kid regardless of position. 6 stations of 4 minutes each with no more than 30 kids at each station is best. For example, using agility bags, multiple chutes of ability bags should be set-up so that at a rapid-fire pace kids are repping and being evaluated while not standing around. Finding the balance between teaching and evaluating while not gassing the players out is crucial. 1 minute travel/teach/set-up time between stations.
12:30PM – 1:30PM – Primary Position Individual
*Go with the coach of this position and run individual.
1:30PM – 3:00PM – Lunch/Rest
*This can be shorter, depending on how camp is going. Coaches should meet and discuss players and move them positionally and accordingly.
3:00PM – 4:00PM – Secondary Position Individual
*Go with the coach of this position and run individual.
4:00PM – 5:00PM – 1 on 1 Competition Drills
*The magic of this is always in the set-up. Even if you only have one football field with some turf behind each end zone, 1 hour is plenty of time to get even up to 200 campers plenty of reps being taught, evaluated, and competing. Players should play multiple positions on both sides of the ball according to the direction of the staff.
OL/DL
*1 v 1 zone blocking for run and 1 v 1 pass pro vs rush for pass. Both of these are quick whistle drills and focus on get-off, hands, and feet.
ALL SKILL
*Set-up both drills throwing into the end zones. The area between the 40’s is the dead zone where extra players and coaches are. There shouldn’t be too many people on the sidelines other than the corners. For both drills the QB’s are all in the dead zone with 4 ready at both drills at any one time. There are 4 lines for both drills of offensive skill players and a corresponding defender ready to cover them. It should be outside-inside-inside-outside, roughly on numbers-hash-hash-numbers. The order is: outside-inside-inside-outside then back to the original outside with 1 ROUTE BEING RUN at a time.
END OF CAMP
*Coaches should immediately meet on their evaluations of the players.
Hope this helps – have a great June!