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Sports Camps Teach More Than Athletics

They Teach Lessons in Life

By Mark Major

     Traditional camps offer all the great things you want from a camp, but sometimes you want a more specialized program for your child, like a sports camp. Sports Camps fuse the family atmosphere of traditional camps to the world of sports. This unique marriage allows sports camps to expose children to the rich and challenging learning environment of athletics while providing the safe, fun, and learning conducive atmosphere of a traditional camp.

     Sports camps teach campers life long skills they can adapt and transfer to all aspects of their lives—they’re not all fun and games. Learning to win or to lose, developing social skills while interacting with team members, stepping out of one’s comfort zone to take on a new challenge, working together to reach a common goal, and respecting others all walk hand-in-hand with sports.

     Campers take away not only life skills from sports camps, but also a well-rounded experience in sports. They learn leadership, experience team building, sportsmanship, and responsibility. Children, like all of us, learn best by experience, and sports camps fill the voids that exist in academic instruction. Discovery, exploration and participation are the best ways to learn. Let us not forget that sports have developed and created some of our finest leaders and other great leaders who accredit their abilities to lessons learned through sports.

     Of all the benefits of a sports camp, perhaps none is more important than the increase in self-esteem campers receive. Children discover more about themselves, they become more self-reliant and more confident in their own abilities. Also, the lessons they take away from camp will help define their personal growth. Be ready to hear the boasting about all the activities they participated in though.

     While each child grows from his or her own individual experiences from camp, there is also significant team-building in these settings. Through group living and team-based sports, children learn respect for others and themselves. They learn the need for cooperation and the tools of teamwork. These children will learn the importance of working together and finding their own place. Often, the nontraditional settings will further nurture this type of behavior. Kids learn to rely on one another and encourage one another as they undertake new challenges and experiences throughout their summer camp experience. The character development and personal growth they take away from their summer will last a lifetime.

     Mark Major, camp director of International Sports Training Camp, has worked in the camping industry for 12 years. You can reach him by mail at International Sports Training Camp, 1100 Twin Lake Road Stroudsburg PA, 18360, or call him at 570.620.2267