 video now today I want to talk about how to run a pro camp or slash ID camp right now a lot of coaches reach out to us on a daily basis and they ask us they say how can I run a pro camp or how can I run an ID camp in my local area okay now typically we work with a lot of soccer and basketball trainers so this video is going to be really specific to to that those two type of sports but really and truly if you're watching this video you can apply it to any sport out there right now there's three three steps I'm gonna go through when when you want to start and you want to run a successful a pro camp in your sport right now the first one is we need to find a secured location and we need to have a set day set time for our camp right so I'm gonna be a bit more specific here when I talk about pro camp when I talk about an ID camp this can mean many things for many coaches right a pro camp might be where you're bringing in a pro athlete from the sport you you coach and they might do a workshop with your players so the workshop might be talking about injury prevention and how to get recruited to play at college or to play for a professional club it might be how to live a professional athlete lifestyle okay or you might bring them in to do a seminar where they're simply up on the stage talking about a topic right and all your athletes are sat down right the difference between a workshop and a seminar for me a workshop you can combine it with an actual practical training session right where they have a whiteboard at the session and you can they can take the session they bring the athletes in and they can talk about a different topic related to the training session right a seminar might be something more specific in terms of recruitment or like I said lifestyle hydration nutrition injury prevention okay mindset confidence it could be a load a load of things right now an ID camp might be a little bit different I know a lot of a lot of colleges in the US and a lot of pro clubs here in the UK they they run these type of camps and what they are is they're more specific for for for scouts to come attend and to recruit any talented athletes right so you can run them either way right the ones I want to be a bit more specific today are the pro camps so the pro camps is where you're bringing in a guest to to talk to to run a session right and to spend some time with your clients so you can provide more value to them and the the pricing of your camp and the value of your camp goes up right so the first thing you need is you need to have a set location okay so we need to know where the camps be held out do we need to run it in an indoor facility does it need to be on a turf field okay so if you're in a you in the UK does it need to be on a 3G pitch okay second thing we need is we need to have a set day set time okay now what we recommend the coaches in our program do is start to plan these types of camps two to three months in advance right now some coaches might be thinking oh but that's a bit that's a bit extreme why do I need to plan two to three months before now the reason why you want to do that is because in some cities right and I know especially in the United States when it gets to the winter season and we can't be outdoors okay because it might be too cold or because of the snow right these indoor for some very difficult to find right because they just they become booked out really quickly right so if you're a coach watching this and you're you're based out in in Boston or you're in Chicago and there or you might be in New York right where the winters are really really heavy okay really snowy and very cold and it practically becomes impossible to be outside you need to start planning way before so you can get those those slots in these indoor facilities okay so first of all we need a facility right depending where you are in the world okay so if you're in a more hotter region and ultimately you might be okay to be outdoors but we need to make sure we have a secure location that you can have a hundred or 200 300 clients come there and you're not like going against your local area rules right we're not we're not using that facility without permission okay so we need to make sure we have a set day set time and a set location where we know that from this time to that time we're not going to get kicked off the field right we're not going to get kicked off out of this facility I'll tell you a quick story there's a coach I spoke to a couple of weeks ago based out in in the United States he's a basketball coach now he was going through this this similar problem where he doesn't have an indoor facility to use all year round so when he came to winter he was struggling a lot to run his camps and clinics and what he did was he visited this one location on a on a regular basis and what he started to notice is that that time that he kept visiting it was free like the location that the gym was empty so in his mind he's thinking right okay if if this gym is is free or no one is using it at this time and I've been for three to four weeks and I've seen that no one is using it I'm gonna run a clinic or a camp out of it okay and I and I don't think that I'm going to have any issues so what what what happened was this coach he started to market and he started to promote his his camp which I believe he did he did a 12 player camp so he had 12 clients in this gym which he didn't book right there was no pre-booking involved he didn't have permission and then halfway through the camp right another group came in who did pay for that facility they did pay for for that space and ultimately that coach then was in a problem because he had to then move to somewhere else right and that's the worst thing that you want you want to happen in your business because it just distracts your session distracts your clients it makes your business look very unprofessional and ultimately you're not going to run a long sustainable business with that model okay so you want to make sure we have a set location set time set day so that your clients know where they're going what time they have to be at what time they're arriving and what time they leave in okay now the second most important thing we need when we want to run these these pro camps are we want to have a pre-payment system set up on our website right so if you want to run any type of a camp or clinic you need to have some type of online software where parents can can go online to register for your camp now there's a few reasons why you want to do this first one is to be able to track who's attending your camp right the worst thing is where you allow parents to pay at the gate or at the camp and you might be expecting 100 clients right but on that day only 50 turn up right that might be a good problem to have because I've also worked and seen with coaches that they've done that system where parents can pay at the camp and instead of having 100 they end up with 250 kids coming right because the kids have spoken to the art to other kids up they're other friends who have then spoken to their friends and it just becomes a complete nightmare because once you get to 250 you need to do this first one is to be able to because once you get to 250 you need more space you need more coaches right and also you might come across some legal issues depending on your insurance and how many players or clients it it covers right because there might be some insurance companies that only cover groups from 50 to 100 and now suddenly you've got 150 kids so if something happens you're not covered all right so there's a lot of issues a lot of problems that can you can come across when you don't have a prepayment system in place before your camp right now second reason you want to have an online system where parents can pay because once a parent does pay online right you get to to keep their details so you'll have their email address their phone number which you can let later contact them about any other upcoming camps or clinics that you're going to be running in the future also what I like to do and something we teach coaches is that once they have that information okay before the camp starts right it's good to contact that parent and have a conversation with them right and this can be like an introductory call where you are setting the standards for the camp you're answering any questions they might have about the camp and also you might sell them on a referral system so if you have some spots available still that you want to fill within that camp you might say to them hey miss jones like we still have three to four spaces available if johnny has any friends or family members that that they would he would like to bring to the camp there's still some time to register okay and if you guys were to refer someone into the camp we will provide you with a 50 discount of any future camps that we run in the future okay so that might be one discount method or referral system that you you put in place before the camp is run now you can only do that if you have everything set up online right so the parent can visit your website see your business see that you're in a legit business they can register onto your onto the camp you then have all their information contact details so that you can then contact them to set up an intro call to answer any questions that they might have okay now the third thing we want to do is this comes down to how good you are at networking and how well connected you are within your your industry or within your local area and this is the part where we we look to bring in a special guest right so this could be a pro athlete could be a pro coach we bring them in okay and we expose them to our clients right so depending on what type of problem your camp is solving so if it's a finishing camp right so if you're in soccer and it's a finishing camp you might look to bring in a pro striker in your area right now something I know a lot coaches do is they bring in a pro footballer so this might be a pro a current pro soccer player who might be playing at a quite high level it might be a college athlete who's currently playing for for a division one college okay or it might be a professional coach right so if you are well connected and you can close a professional coach to come in and take a session or take the camp then this will give your your players an opportunity to work with someone that is at the pro level and they can give them really good coaching tips about what the pros do to improve to improve their defending their striking their finishing their crossing whatever type of camp you are running okay so we need to make sure that we are well connected right we're building a good network of of coaches or athletes within our environment and the second thing we want to do is we want to look to make sure that we have a an agreement in place with that guest before they arrive at the session now the reason why I say this is because I've worked with a lot of coaches who try to run these pro camps and they've got everything verbally set up with a professional footballer that's going to come in take take the camp for an hour and then on the day of the session or on the day of the camp that athlete texts them to say oh I can't make it because I've got a club commitment or I can't make it because we're traveling we have an away game and we need to make sure we're traveling this evening whatever it is right so there might be a number of excuses that they they bring in and ultimately that puts your camp in in danger because what time they're leaving what their role at the camp is are they taking a session are they doing a seminar are they doing a workshop with the players are they just having a talk a 15 minute talk within the group are they doing a q&a right it could you could do a number of things with within your camp and also within there it's important and this is something I like to to express the coaches as well to make sure you have the terms and agreements right so if the coach agrees that they're going to do an hour so it's good to have in the agreement right you're going to come in to do an hour with my clients and I'm going to pay you $50 or I'm going to pay you $100 whatever it is right so it's good to have all the terms and conditions of that camp on written out sent to the coach signed by them so we have everything in place in order before the camp happens so that way the camp can run smoothly and if it runs successfully this is something we can then look to do maybe every quarter or maybe once a month if you have them good connections and then we can provide more value to the clients and then ultimately we can charge more for our services okay because they ultimately become a premium type of camp that we're solving a specific problem for our clients okay so this video has helped you please like and also if you haven't already subscribed to the channel every day Ben and myself we're putting our content for trainers in all sports okay every single day where we're talking to coaches in different sports helping them with their business getting them to the next level and if you would like to schedule a free 15 to 20 minute call with me I'd be more than happy to jump on a zoom call right you can do that by visiting the link in the description of this video click on it and you can book a free 15 to 20 minute call with me we jump on zoom I'll ask you a couple of questions about your business see where you are see where you want to get to and I can show you some actionable steps to take this week with your business okay thank you for watching and I'll see you on the next one