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EDITION 9 Wow, I can’t believe how late I am
in getting this newsletter out. I have been meaning to send out the newsletter
on camps for weeks now but for various reasons (including procrastination) I
have not done so. I would like to start off by writing
about what a keeper should look for in choosing a camp. I believe that the first
factor in this decision is the age of the keeper. If she is High School aged and
has plans to play college soccer, there are two things to consider. First, does
she have an idea of what College or University she would like to attend? If she
does then it would be an excellent idea for her to attend the camp of that
college’s coach. This will give her an excellent opportunity to be seen by the
head coach and the staff as well as give the keeper an opportunity to experience
the staffs coaching style. It’s one thing to hear about a coach’s style but
another thing to see it and experience it up close and personally. For example,
if I was a junior in high school and I was interested in attending Marshall
University (self-serving example but you get the idea) I would try to attend a
Marshall University Soccer Camp. If they did not provide adequate keeper
training, or were disorganized in the running of the camp, then I would have to
give a great deal of thought to whether that was the type of organization I want
to be associated with (of course there are a lot of other factors regarding the
college selection but that is a totally different newsletter). If you are selecting a camp without
regard for college exposure and experience the most important factor to consider
is the training you will receive at the camp. Pretty facilities and swimming
pools and things like that are nice but they will not affect the training at
all. Most of what it comes down to is who is doing the training and what exactly
are they teaching. I have been to some big well known soccer camps where the
keeper training was completely inadequate because it was based on how much
yelling the coaches can do and how hard they can have you work. The first day of
camp, I have observed keepers diving over each other to show their ability to
extend on dives when these keepers didn’t know how catch a ball properly. The
uneducated observer might think it was pretty cool to see the keepers doing that
but I believe it’s borderline negligence. If the coaches don’t coach within
the capabilities of the campers then they are not doing their job. In choosing a
camp, check out the keeper coaches. Are they qualified? Are they simply college
players with no background in coaching who are following a schedule without
regard for the level of the campers? Are they capable of coaching different
players at different levels at the same time? Unfortunately, none of these are
easy questions to answer. What makes a coach qualified? Certainly not coaching
licenses since there are too many coaches running around with A licenses who
don’t know a damned thing about keepers (or about field players for that
matter). I guess the best indicator is history. Has the keeper coach
successfully coached quality keepers in the past? In using history as an
indicator, there is always the qualifier that is used in investments "prior
success does not guarantee future success" but it is probably the best
determination. If at all possible, check out the keeper coaches in a training
situation prior to signing up for a camp. I realize this is difficult to do but
it’s the best thing I can think of at the present time. One of the difficulties with some of
the big camps out there is that the "name" coach doesn’t show up
often or doesn’t do any of the coaching. This does not mean it’s a bad camp
but rather it just means that you have to do more research to find out who will
be doing the training and find out about them. If you contact a camp to find out
who will be doing the training and the camp wont tell you then in my opinion;
this speaks volumes about the camp. There are a lot of arguments for and
against isolated keeper camps Vs keeper camps connected to field player camps.
Rather then getting into it here, I will simply say that you need to determine
what is best for you. I have worked at both and think both types can be very
effective if done properly. When it comes to talking about big
keeper camps, there really are two. They are Tony Dicico’s SoccerPlus and Joe
Machniks Number One Goalkeeping Camp. (I apologize for the spellings but it’s
the best I can do on short notice). Both are very intense, high level camps that
are also very expensive. I believe most people leave the camps feeling they were
worth the cost but when I say they are expensive, I am talking about $600-800
dollars per week. Both camps are very structured but still if you consider going
to them; find out the director will be for the session you will be attending. The other camps, I am going to
recommend are camps at which I will be working. The first one (and the one I
recommend the most if it’s convenient and especially if you are looking for an
inexpensive day camp) is my own keeper camp in Atlanta GA. It is highly unusual
because it’s a very informal, very intense, camp in which you don’t have to
worry about who the coaches will be because the only coach you deal with is I.
This will be my 5th year doing this camp and sometimes I bring an
"assistant coach" (whose sole qualifications are they must have been
trained by me and do things exactly as I want them done) but most of the time I
do all of the training myself. This camp is from 9 AM to 3 PM and will be June
14-18 in NorthEast Atlanta (hopefully in Stone Mountain). The cost of the camp
is $150 for the week and I can guarantee you that it will be some of the most
intense training you can get anywhere. There is no schedule going into the week
and everything is done based solely on the needs and levels of each of the
keepers involved. I will not put my qualifications down on this email because if
you are still reading this 9th edition of my newsletter then you must
have some reason to believe I know what I am doing. If you want more information
or have some questions, then click on this link to get to my web site http://finesoccer.com/camp.htm.
You can sign up for my site online. If you are looking for an overnight
camp there are a couple I will be working at. For the third year now I will be
at the UAB Women’s Soccer Camp run by Paul Harbin. The past 2 years, I have
been the sole keeper coach at the camp and while I am definitely working there
again this year, there is a chance I will work with field players and someone
else will train the keepers. I have known Paul for 8 years and know that besides
being an excellent team and keeper coach, he would never allow his camp to have
anything but an excellent keeper coach. The UAB camp is from July 18-23 (I
believe) in Birmingham Alabama. Please contact Paul Harbin at
pharbin@uab.edu
for additional information. One of the interesting things about this camp is you
train in the mornings with the keeper coach and in the afternoons you spend with
an assigned team who will incorporate the keeper into the rest of the team. This
gives you the benefit of more tactical training then a lot of camps provide. A
highly qualified coach hand picked by Paul Harbin coaches each of the teams.
While most camps have a set curriculum that coaches must follow, each of these
coaches is capable of designing the training session based on the teams and
individual needs. It’s an excellent camp for everyone The Marshall University Women’s
Soccer camp will be July 26-30 in beautiful Huntington WV. Teresa Patterson, the
head women’s soccer coach at Marshall University, runs this camp. Teresa was a
high level keeper at Mercer University and is an excellent keeper and team
coach. This is actually a team camp for female soccer players but I believe if
you contact Teresa, she might be able to make room for some extra keepers. The
cost of the camp is an amazingly low $275. She can be emailed at patterso@marshall.edu The Marshall University Men’s
Soccer camp is June 6th-10th at Marshall University. I
honestly don’t know anything about the camp except that I will be doing the
keeper training. For more information contact
grayr@marshall.edu.
Good luck in your decision-making and if I can be any help please feel free to contact me at comments@finesoccer.com The next newsletter will go out
later on this week. I promise. Lawrence
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