ISHAA Question

[softball65]

Once again, no one has said you're going to go to college and get recruiting skipping travel ball. I'll disagree on the vast majority of the camps, bottom line, it's about them making money for their program. Yes it's where you can be seen, yes I've seen kids get recruited from the camps, yes it's a chance for them to work with your kid and build a relationship, but the bottom line, when there's 40-75 kids at the camp, they're making money.

I'm not gonna say every school approaches camps the same way because obviously that would be a huge overstatement. However, I've seen/been to camps that specifically stated that this is NOT about recruiting and other camps where is was so overt they were in recruiting mode you could not deny it. I know a gal who just finished up a very good career who pitched in the Super regionals last year and was an All American pitcher. She was recruited out of a camp and didn't even play on/for a showcase team. Course different rules apply to pitchers as a general rule. All that said, absolutely, those camps are first and foremost about making $$. But they are also great recruiting tools because the coaches can interact with the girls, you can stay after and talk to the coaches, and there is dialog basically. I find them to be invaluable in the learning process. My kid is still young but the coaches always find her cuz she is a tall pitcher....and she gets attention even at her age. So my recommendation is, for anyone considering a camp, do you homework and know before you go there what they are doing. The camps will tell you if you ask.

As it relates to skills development, I frankly find these camps to be of very limited value. A top tier kid most likely is doing most if not all of the things a top tier kid would need to be doing in order to get noticed. So for me, I wouldn't even waste my time or money in a camp at this point if they weren't recruiting. Just my opinion. I find it valuable to watch who the kids gravitate towards (the kids make the coach aware of the girls to watch), because its a good indication of what the coach is looking for.

one last point, the gal I mentioned who was recruited from a camp, she told me the players are instructed to be on the look out for X (whatever the coach says they are looking for) and even at the age of 12, they will point girls out to the coach and put them on the "watch list". So you may not see it going on, but it's happening. A camps is a win-win for a coach because they are making $$ and they can talk to the girls/parents if they want. One camp we went to they had a rotation through stations and had coaches strategically placed so that they saw and talked to literally every girl. I camped out near one of those cages to see if I could tell who they liked and didn't like by the questions they asked. My daughter thought nothing of it....but I knew what they were doing. So not saying camps are all that, just saying you can learn a lot about the preferences of the coach and how they work these girls. To me, very valuable experience....but only if they are recruiting.