UPBasketball Summer Camps: Building Skills, Confidence, and Community
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By: Andrea Aruino
Summer is officially over which means UPBasketball’s Summer Camps have come to a close. This summer, UPB’s gym buzzed with energy and every player came in ready to dominate and put in the work during their off season. Summer Camps give everyone the opportunity to stay focused on their goals as well as have fun with the community. Aside from players, this gives UPB’s coaches an opportunity to hone in on their coaching skills and learn from the players that come into the gym more than ever. It allows for growth in every aspect that both players and coaches can look forward to.
Camp consisted of week-long runs that focused on different skills that included ball-handling, mini games, defensive drills, and more. These camps serve as a space in which players can keep their sole focus on improving their skills with no distractions. During the off season with five weeks of Summer Camps, coaches hoped to take advantage of the extended amount of time they had with players in order to keep them in shape and work on specific goals before the school year began.
“The goal is always to figure out what each individual wanted to improve on and make sure we really implemented drills that were tailored to what they wanted to get out of camp. The goal is always to make it a lot of fun and have the best energy possible,” Coach Hannah said.
The campers were divided by skill level and were challenged according to their skill set. Understanding each individual and age group’s focus for their week in the gym is important in creating a camp agenda that works for all athletes involved. Coach Hannah also made it a goal to focus on the smaller aspects of the game that can easily be overlooked if not worked on.
“We worked on a lot of the little details simply from being great teammates, communication, high fives to spacing, what you do after you get rid of the ball, different finishes and footwork. Obviously with the older groups you're able to challenge them in different ways but all across the board we had similar themes,” Coach Hannah said.
Each session is a reminder that they’re working for something bigger, whether that be to make it on the varsity team, an AAU Team, or make it onto their middle school team. Each age group was taught different skills that many coaches expect of them going into the season. The concepts taught over the course of this summer set them up for a better season as well as give them an idea on what they should be working on throughout the season.
Ultimately, UPBasketball wants Summer Camps to be a place where players are excited to come in and get better at their game with their friends. Alongside their peers, they’re able to challenge each other as well as learn new skills that each of them have to offer. Shared goals have the power to create a life-long community of friends who are understanding and who are ready to take on similar journeys together. It serves as an easy way to learn from others under the guidance of coaches who simply want to see their players succeed.
“It gives kids a space to be themselves, learn the game and just really have a good time. We challenge them and push them but we aren’t getting mad at mistakes or missed shots, we encourage it because that’s how you learn and get better so it’s also a place to make mistakes and improve,” Coach Hannah said.
Just because summer camps have come to a close doesn’t mean the fun and community building is over. UPBasketball continually has camps that are wired to improve the skills and minds of players that want to get better. We offer many camps throughout the year that have a consistent goal which is working on fundamentals and individual talent that can translate to positive team impact. Camps here are year round, but make sure to take part in our next camp for 3rd-7th graders which will be on Monday October 13th from 9am-12pm. Don’t miss out on this opportunity and we hope to see new and familiar faces, learn more here! Like all camps, the goal is to challenge and deepen each player’s understanding of who they are as an athlete and instill the confidence they need in order to succeed.
