I am enclosing part of an email I sent to Bob Gonzales yesterday. It offers some potential options on the camp idea for Southern Plains. Personally, I do not see a need for a camp but if enough people feel that we need one then maybe there is a way to do it so it's viable for more kids.
Please let me know what you think.
Bob,
It was good to see you this weekend. I appreciated hearing your thoughts and reasoning for the Southern Plains Camp. Personally, I am not convinced that a camp is required for Southern Plains.
That said, I am also not one to be a nay sayer and a stumbling block. I think there may be some other ideas out there that would allow us (Kansas Kids Wrestling) to achieve the objectives I heard you lay out. The following are what I consider the objectives you expressed....
1. Maximize participation in Southern Plains.
2. Teach the kids some standardized technique (thus the need for a camp).
3. Create a team concept amongst the kids in Kansas.
The following are some ideas I have on how to possibly achieve these objectives (if these objectives are not correct then I am out to lunch on my ideas).
Course of Action #1: Do not have a mandatory camp for Southern Plains.
Rationale: Southern Plains is a qualifying tournament for national level tournaments. Thus, focus on the standard technique, coaches, and team concept for the National Teams, ie, the duals, Fargo, etc. We have to look at the timelines and the age groups. For example, it is asking quite a bit of our Schoolboys to go wrestle in the duals and then drive thru the night to make it to a camp. We also have to look at how much do the kids really gain by having a camp as far as technique is concerned. These kids have been coached by their club coaches all year during the freestyle and greco season. Going to a camp for a week is not going to drastically help you achieve the objective of teaching standardized technique (I have a different idea for that and will explain it later).
If we have the camp, here's what we are telling the wrestler and the parent....We expect them to participate in a camp for Southern Plains ($145 if I remember your numbers correctly). If they qualify, then we expect them to participate in another camp for Fargo and possibly additional camps for the Schoolboy, Cadet, Junior Nationals and duals. That gets to be quite a bit.
Not sure we gain a whole lot by requiring kids 10 and under to attend a camp without their parents or coaches. I am willing to bet that it will greatly reduce the participation by kids in this age group. If this requirement is maintained then I strongly enourage that club coaches be allowed to participate. This would help teach the coaches the technique that our National level coaches are teaching.
Advantages: Doesn't add an extra camp requirement for those participating.
Disadvantages: Doesn't help us achieve objectives 2 & 3 listed above.
Course of Action #2: Do regional or district camps.
Rationale: This would ease the travel requirement and probably make it an easier opportunity for the kids. This would require a larger number of coaches to teach at the different camps. Another challenge with this COA is that we would have to look at making them commuter camps because it probably wouldn't be cost effective to do overnight camps (we would have to research this).
Advantages: Allows the accomplishment of objective #2 and starts on objective #3. I think it would help in getting more participation but we won't know that without doing a survey or actually trying it. Another advantage is that it would allow more club coaches to attend and thus start learning the technique that the state coaches want the kids to know.
Disadvantages: May not be cost effective.
Course of Action #3: Keep as is and make camp mandatory at one location.
Personally, I do not see the rationale in this and I think it greatly limits participation.
Just some thoughts I had. I look forward to hearing additional ideas or feedback.
Shawn
