A Guide to Selecting Lacrosse Camps

Thank you to the staff of Dallas Jesuit Lacrosse for comprising most of the information below.

For those of you with little or no experience in selecting a lacrosse camp, these pages will provide a suggested approach. If you go through the process, which will not be as time-consuming at it may seem, we hope you will be reasonably confidant with your choices.
There will be well over 200 lacrosse camps available for boys this summer. In general, the camps in Tennessee and Georgia are more convenient (and thus involve less travel expense), and the camps in the established lacrosse states are on average more competitive as they draw on players from more developed lacrosse programs. Please, do not sacrifice quality for convenience. If you are interested in looking into either group of camps, we suggest a three-step approach.

1. Get a Sense of the Range of Offerings:
This can be done several ways. For a start, we suggest you browse the website maintained by LaxPower.com. This site contains a database of over 200 boys’ lacrosse camps across the country, together with a separate page of “camp pointers” for use in selecting a camp. This site should help familiarize you with the different types of camps offered and start you thinking about your choices.¹

2. Review the different features:
The camps often differ from one another in important ways, and you will want to consider a number of factors in order to narrow your choices. Here is his partial list:

• Cost. The cost of camps range from approximately $300 to $650, excluding travel and personal expenses. 

• Day camp or overnight camp. Apart from the difference in cost, you may be more comfortable having your son at home in the evening.  Or, you may want her/him to have “lacrosse immersion” in an overnight camp.

• Location. Travel expenses will obviously add to the total cost, and your child may have to travel alone. On the other hand, you might be able to combine the camp with a family vacation or visit to out-of-state family or friends. Carpooling is always an excellent option.

• Dates. The camp needs to fit into your other plans for your child and family this summer. But if your child wants to attend two out-of-state camps, perhaps you can use the dates to combine them in one trip.

  • Reasons for going. Consider why you and your child want her/him to go to camp. Is it to improve her/his basic skills, to get more “playing time,” to be seen by college coaches? Or is it just for “fun” or to keep her/him busy during the day?

  • Skill level. If your child is fairly new to the game, the more realistic you are about his/her skill level in selecting a camp, the more likely s/he will be to enjoy his experience. If he is advanced, however, s/he will probably benefit most from competing with other experienced players. 

  • Camp staff. Be sure to look at the instructor-to-camper ratio. Also, check who will be coaching at the camp, i.e., college coaches, high school coaches, professional players, college players, etc. All else being equal, you will probably want instructors with coaching experience. Beware of big names that don’t participate much in the daily operation of the camp. If it is an overnight camp, find out how the living areas are staffed and supervised at night.

  • Daily activities. Find out what percent of the instruction time is spent on drills vs. scrimmages or games. This is a key difference among camps, which you will want to consider along with your son’s skill level and his reasons for going to camp. In general, less experienced players need less scrimmage and more drill work.  

  • Recruiting camp, team camp or teaching camp. Recruiting camps are staffed by college coaches who are there to evaluate and recruit, not to teach. The activities consist almost entirely of games and can be very high pressure. Team camps are designed to develop team chemistry in a competitive atmosphere. It is an excellent option for players making the transition from JV to varsity. Teaching camps give greater attention to instruction in a more relaxed  atmosphere, where it is more important to learn than to score points. Player evaluations are also an important part of teaching camps.

  ¹   In March each year, Lacrosse Magazine usually publishes its Camp Issue, which is devoted exclusively to lacrosse camps state-by-state across the country.  To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive listing available anywhere.  It is sent to all members of US Lacrosse (www.lacrosse.org) , which you can join for a reasonable annual fee.