Fun yet (somewhat) challenging camp for U12-U14?

[brsmith]

I am interested in learning about experiences (good/bad) with soccer summer camp for upper elementary and middle school. I've read good things about Dutch Soccer School in the Forum. Any recent experiences? I would also like to hear about experiences with some of the team affiliated camps (e.g., Real Madrid, Arsenal, PSG). Thanks.

[Mdmom22]

Following, interesting to know as well, including local club-affiliated camps.

But also sharing feedback on the RM camps which my kids did last year. They did 3 soccer camps last year, RM, DCU, and another local club super close to us. Their feedback was that RM had the best players, DCU was the most fun, and the local one was fun but not challenging at all (mostly because the participants were not very good soccer players, mostly rec level, which reflects the level of play that the club competes at). I don't think they noticed any difference in the level of coaching between RM and DCU but their pre-ECNL age so not sure if they'd notice much difference apart from how they are treated. They had no complaints about how they were being coached.

We'll likely do DCU again this year because the kids just really enjoyed it and want to do it again. Nixed the Dutch camp as too far and bc one of my boys doesn't want to do an overnight camp just yet. My kids' club practices during the summer so it's not that essential for us to do soccer camps during the summer. We may try a local camp with a more competitive record (BSC, Achilles, etc.) or if I can find a futsal camp that's convenient to us. Otherwise, we'll sign them up for other camps for fun or to learn something new.

We were never interested in going but if if you were interested in knowing, both my boys got the RM invitation to play in Spain over spring break. They both play travel, one on the A team, the other on the B team.

[brsmith]

Thanks so much! This is terrific. Our kids also play travel, but have only tried the local clubs and DCU so far. They did not like the DCU camp, but I think that the experience may differ based on location or attendees that particular week. They've enjoyed some of the smaller, local camps (DCYFC, FourSoccer) with friends over the past couple of summers.

[NoYou]

The camp that sucks one week is killer the next.
The camp that has some friends in it is great, the camp with random kids from another team is awful.
The camp with this coach is atrocious and the camp with that one is amazing.

Basically--it's really too hard to say "this camp is great". You'll find much better luck finding a camp with something like "all of our friends are there" or "our team is there" or "we really like this coach" than a specific camp brand name.

[brsmith]

NoYou- I agree! This is kind of a tough ask and experience will vary. That being said, we are interested in trying something new -with good coaching- and would like to hear about other families' experiences. Thanks!

[Mdmom22]

NoYou wrote:The camp that sucks one week is killer the next.
The camp that has some friends in it is great, the camp with random kids from another team is awful.
The camp with this coach is atrocious and the camp with that one is amazing.

Basically--it's really too hard to say "this camp is great". You'll find much better luck finding a camp with something like "all of our friends are there" or "our team is there" or "we really like this coach" than a specific camp brand name.

I also agree with this. Your kids experience is going to vary a lot on their situation and what they (or parents) want/expect out of it. To add to what I shared above, my kids have not gone to any camps where they had friends either from their team or from school or with a coach they knew before. But soccer has always been very separate from their social and school life. None of their close friends from school or in the neighborhood play at their level. And their teammates don’t do summer camps. That said, none of my kids have given me any feedback abt negative interactions from other kids at the camps they’ve been at. I imagine part of it is that my B player has good social skills while my A player is good and clearly plays at a higher level than his age group. As I mentioned above, the easiest observation that my kids can make is the skill level of the camp participants. And for me, I like the exposure to other players and coaching, I think it helps them to learn to quickly play well with different players and situations. So that’s kind of what I would look for mostly these days for soccer camps. Hope that helps!

[MrNick]

We did the DCU camp and my kid had a good time. He was with a couple of friends, so that may have added to the enjoyment. Not sure if it is challenging, but a good time was had. For a more challenging camp, you may want to look at the University of Maryland soccer camp. Heard good things about it and they are offering both residential and day camp options.

[soccerallday]

We did several camps, barca camp a few years back - when my son was younger. Good training drills, but they did accept all level players. Some kids did not have soccer experience.
Coaches are not from Barcelona either - they had one guy there. This year we will be doing the Ajax camp, a friend did the camp before and loved it. You have apply to be accepted, small groups and all coaches are from the Ajax academy. High level training and coaches are very personable. Same group is also doing a Dutch Pro camp, same concept.

[brsmith]

OP here. Thanks for all of the helpful responses! We'll check out the Ajax camp, too.