Football Kicking Camps: How to Choose One, and How to Actually Get Value From It
A camp can compress six months of trial and error into a weekend — or it can take your money, give you a ranking, and send you home with a swing you have made worse.
Here is the uncomfortable truth about kicking camps. They occupy a market where the buyers are teenagers and hopeful parents, the product is hard to evaluate in advance, and the most heavily marketed outcome — exposure and rankings — is the one least under anyone’s control.
That does not mean camps are a bad idea. Good ones are genuinely valuable, and for a kicker with no access to specialist coaching, a good camp is one of the highest-leverage things available. It means you need to be a careful buyer, and to know what you are actually buying.
This guide covers the different types of camp, how to evaluate one before you pay, the questions worth asking, how to prepare, and how to make sure what you learn survives the drive home.
📋 What’s in this guide
The Types of Camp
They are not the same product, and the marketing often blurs the difference deliberately.
| Type | Main purpose | Typical length | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instructional camp | Teaching technique | 1–3 days | Kickers with no specialist coach | Coach-to-kicker ratio |
| Individual lesson | Personal correction | 1–2 hours | Fixing a specific fault | Cost per hour adds up |
| Showcase / combine | Ranking and exposure | 1 day | Recruitable, already-good kickers | Little to no teaching |
| College camp | Being seen by that programme | 1 day | Kickers targeting that school | You are one of many |
| Multi-day academy | Immersion and volume | 3–7 days | Committed developing kickers | Kicking volume and fatigue |
| Online coaching | Ongoing remote feedback | Continuous | Kickers far from any coach | Quality of video review |
The distinction that matters most is instruction versus exposure. An instructional camp is trying to make you better. A showcase is trying to measure you and put a number next to your name. Both can be legitimate; they are simply different purchases, and a kicker who needs the first and buys the second gets very little.
If you are not yet good enough to be recruited, a showcase measures a problem it will not solve. Buy teaching first, measurement later.
Are Camps Worth It?
Depends entirely on your situation, and it is worth being honest about which one you are in.
Genuinely high value if:
- You have no access to specialist coaching. Most football coaches cannot coach kicking, and a weekend with someone who can may be the only qualified eyes you get all year.
- You have a specific fault you cannot fix. An hour with a good coach beats six months of guessing from videos.
- You are early in development. Getting the fundamentals right before habits set is enormously more efficient than correcting them later.
- You genuinely are at a recruitable level. Then exposure events start to have a real purpose.
Lower value if:
- You already have a good coach. A weekend of conflicting instruction can actively set you back.
- You are buying exposure you are not ready for. Being ranked poorly is not a neutral outcome.
- The ratio is bad. One coach and sixty kickers is a group demonstration, not coaching.
- You will not do the follow-up work. A camp gives you information. The improvement comes from the eight weeks afterwards.
💡 Compare a camp against its real alternative, not against nothing. The money for one showcase weekend often buys three or four individual lessons with a good local coach spread across a season — and spaced feedback with practice in between usually produces more change than a single intense weekend. Ask which one your situation actually needs.
How to Evaluate a Camp
Before you pay, work through these. Most of them can be answered from the website or one email.
- Who is actually coaching? Named coaches with real kicking backgrounds, or unnamed “staff”? A camp that will not tell you who is teaching before you book is telling you something.
- What is the coach-to-kicker ratio? This is the single best predictor of individual attention. Ask for the number, not a reassurance.
- How much of the day is individual feedback? Versus group demonstration, versus competition, versus waiting in a queue.
- Is video review included? Being told about a fault is far less useful than seeing it, and video you keep is worth more than video you watch once.
- Do you take anything home? A written assessment, a drill plan, footage. If not, you are relying on memory for the part that matters.
- What is the kicking volume? A multi-day camp with unlimited reps and no load management is an injury risk, particularly for younger kickers.
- What do previous attendees say? Independent opinions, not testimonials on the camp’s own page.
- Is it instruction or measurement? Decide which you are buying, then check the camp actually delivers that one.
Questions to Ask Before Paying
Send these in an email. How they answer tells you nearly as much as what they answer.
| Question | What a good answer sounds like | What a poor answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Who is coaching my group? | Named coaches, background given | “Our experienced staff” |
| What is the ratio? | A specific number, e.g. 1 to 8 | “Plenty of individual attention” |
| How much one-to-one time? | An estimate in minutes | Avoidance or a change of subject |
| Is video included and do I keep it? | Yes, and how it is delivered | “We film some sessions” |
| Do I leave with a written plan? | Yes, with an example shown | “You’ll remember what we teach” |
| How many kicks will I take? | A managed number with rest built in | “As many as you want” |
| What is your refund policy? | Clear and written | Vague or non-existent |
| Can I speak to a past attendee? | Yes, or a genuine reason why not | Deflection |
“As many kicks as you want” is not the selling point it sounds like. Unmanaged volume across a multi-day camp is one of the more common ways young kickers pick up hip and groin problems, and a camp that treats rep count as a feature rather than a risk has not thought carefully about the people attending.
Red Flags
None of these is automatically disqualifying, but each deserves a straight answer.
⚠️ Be especially careful with anything that promises outcomes it cannot control. Scholarship guarantees, promised college contact, or ranking positions that improve with repeated paid attendance are all promises about other people’s decisions. No camp controls whether a programme recruits you.
- Guaranteed exposure or scholarship language. Nobody can guarantee that.
- Rankings that require repeat paid attendance to improve. Consider what that incentive structure produces.
- No named coaches. The coach is the product.
- No stated ratio. Almost always because it is unflattering.
- Heavy upselling on the day. Camps whose main business is selling the next camp.
- Pressure tactics. Countdown timers and “two spots left” for a coaching service.
- No refund or injury policy. Basic professionalism.
- Radical technique overhauls in one weekend. A coach who rebuilds every kicker they meet is applying a template, not coaching an individual.
Preparing Properly
What you do in the two weeks before decides how much of the camp you can actually absorb.
Arrive fit and un-sore. A camp is a high-volume weekend. Turning up with an existing niggle means you spend it managing pain instead of learning.
Do not overhaul anything beforehand. Bring your normal technique. The coaches need to see what you actually do, not a version you assembled last week from a video.
Know your own numbers. Your steps, your comfortable range, your typical miss pattern. A kicker who can say “I tend to pull it left under pressure” gets a far more useful session than one who says “I don’t know, sometimes it goes wrong”.
Bring your own footage. Two or three clips from behind your plant foot. Coaches can work with that immediately.
Write down two or three specific questions. Vague requests get vague answers. “Why does my plant drift closed on longer kicks?” gets a real conversation.
Sleep and hydrate. Unglamorous and genuinely decisive across a long day of repetition in the sun.
What to Bring
💰 On prices and ratings: we do not print them — both change constantly and stale figures mislead. Each button opens live Amazon results for current pricing, availability and genuine buyer reviews.
Kicking Shoes (Broken In)
Never Debut New Shoes at a Camp
A camp is a high-volume weekend, which makes it the worst possible place to break in new footwear. Bring the pair you trust, already broken in, plus appropriate options for the surface you will be on.
✅ What’s good
- Consistent feel across a long weekend
- Avoids blisters during high volume
- Correct grip for the surface
- No adaptation period
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Two pairs to carry
- Needs breaking in beforehand
👤 Best for: Every camp attendee. New shoes plus two hundred kicks is a blister and a bad weekend.
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Phone Tripod
Capturing the Coaching You Paid For
You will be given corrections you will not remember by Wednesday. Filming your own reps — and the demonstrations — means the instruction survives the drive home.
✅ What’s good
- Preserves what you were taught
- Reference for the weeks afterwards
- No helper needed
- Cheap
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Check the camp permits filming
- Another item to carry
👤 Best for: Anyone paying for coaching they want to still have in a month.
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Notebook or Training Log
Writing It Down While It Is Fresh
Write your corrections and drill assignments down at the end of each day, not a week later. A camp’s value is almost entirely in what you do afterwards, and that starts with an accurate record.
✅ What’s good
- Captures detail memory loses
- Becomes your post-camp plan
- Useful for future coaches
- Very cheap
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Requires the discipline
- Easy to skip when tired
👤 Best for: Every attendee — this is the difference between a good weekend and a lasting change.
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Insulated Water Bottle
Surviving a Long Day of Reps
Camps are long days, often on hot turf, with a lot of repetition. Mild dehydration degrades coordination and concentration before you consciously notice it — which is a poor state for learning technique.
✅ What’s good
- Removes the friction from drinking
- Holds temperature all day
- Durable on a field
- Cheap
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Extra bag weight
- Needs cleaning
👤 Best for: Everyone. Especially at summer camps on artificial surfaces.
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Foam Roller and Massage Ball
Recovery Between Camp Days
On a multi-day camp, what you do in the evening decides how day two and day three go. Ten minutes of rolling and mobility is far more valuable than another hour of kicking.
✅ What’s good
- Directly supports next-day quality
- Targets the overloaded tissue
- Small and portable
- No skill needed
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Adds bag bulk
- Not a substitute for rest
👤 Best for: Anyone attending a camp longer than one day.
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Sports Bag with Shoe Compartment
Carrying a Camp’s Worth of Kit
Two pairs of shoes, layers for changing weather, water, recovery tools, notebook and balls. A bag with a separate shoe section keeps muddy studs away from everything else.
✅ What’s good
- Keeps both shoe options with you
- Room for layers and recovery kit
- Muddy studs kept separate
- Durable
⚠️ Keep in mind
- Bulky
- Another purchase
👤 Best for: Camp attendees carrying kit for two surfaces and variable weather.
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Making It Stick Afterwards
This is the part that determines whether the money did anything, and it is the part almost everyone neglects.
Write everything down the same evening. Not next week. Corrections blur fast, and a half-remembered instruction is often worse than none.
Pick one thing to work on. Not six. A camp typically surfaces several faults, and attempting to fix them simultaneously usually fixes none. Choose the one with the largest consequence — usually something about the plant — and give it your full attention.
Expect it to get worse before it gets better. A genuine mechanical change reduces performance temporarily while the new pattern is unfamiliar. Kickers who abandon a correction after four bad sessions waste the whole camp.
Film yourself in two weeks. Compare against the camp footage. Did the change hold, or did you drift back? This is the only honest measure of whether the weekend worked.
Stay in contact if you can. Many coaches will answer a short, specific follow-up question, particularly if you send film. It costs nothing to ask politely.
Judge the camp in eight weeks, not on Sunday evening. Everyone feels good after a weekend of attention. The real question is what your mechanics look like two months later. Our training programme guide covers how to build the follow-up block.
Common Mistakes
❌ 1. Buying exposure when you need instruction
A showcase measures you. If you are not yet at a recruitable level, it measures a problem it will not fix.
✅ Fix: Decide which product you need, then verify the camp delivers that one.
❌ 2. Ignoring the coach-to-kicker ratio
One coach and sixty kickers is a demonstration you paid to stand near.
✅ Fix: Ask for the specific number before booking.
❌ 3. Treating unlimited reps as a feature
Unmanaged volume across several days is a common route to hip and groin problems in young kickers.
✅ Fix: Ask how volume is managed, and self-limit if the camp will not.
❌ 4. Changing your technique the week before
Coaches need to see what you actually do, not a temporary version.
✅ Fix: Arrive with your normal mechanics and your normal faults.
❌ 5. Not writing anything down
You will not remember the detail by Wednesday, and detail is where the value was.
✅ Fix: Notes each evening plus your own footage.
❌ 6. Trying to fix everything at once
Six simultaneous corrections produce confusion rather than improvement.
✅ Fix: One change, worked on properly for six to eight weeks.
❌ 7. Abandoning a correction when it feels worse
Genuine mechanical change temporarily reduces performance. That dip is expected, not evidence of failure.
✅ Fix: Commit to a fixed number of sessions before judging it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are kicking camps worth the money?
They can be, particularly if you have no access to specialist coaching — most football coaches cannot coach kicking, and a good camp may be the only qualified assessment you get in a year.
They are worth much less if the ratio is poor, if you are buying exposure before you are recruitable, or if you will not do the follow-up work afterwards.
What is the difference between a camp and a showcase?
A camp is trying to teach you; a showcase is trying to measure and rank you. Both can be legitimate, but they are different products and the marketing often blurs the line.
If you are still developing technically, buy teaching. Measurement becomes useful once there is something worth measuring.
What should I ask before booking a camp?
Who is coaching, what the coach-to-kicker ratio is, how much individual feedback you get, whether video is included and kept, whether you leave with a written plan, and how kicking volume is managed.
How they answer matters as much as what they answer. Specific numbers are a good sign; reassuring generalities are not.
How many camps should I attend in a year?
Fewer than most people attend. Improvement comes from the eight weeks of work after a camp, not from the camp itself, so stacking several close together leaves no room for the part that actually changes anything.
One or two well-chosen events, with real follow-up blocks in between, beats four weekends of intense attention and no consolidation.
Can a camp get me recruited?
A camp cannot control whether a programme recruits you, and any guarantee of exposure or scholarship outcomes should be treated as a red flag.
What a camp can genuinely do is make you better, put credible footage in your hands, and put you in front of coaches. What happens next is other people’s decision.
What if the camp coach contradicts my current coach?
It happens, and it is genuinely disruptive. Do not simply adopt whichever instruction you heard most recently.
Take the new information back to your regular coach, show them the footage, and let them decide how it fits. Consistency with one coach usually beats fragments from two.
Camp Checklist
- Purpose decided — instruction or exposure
- Coaches named and their backgrounds checked
- Coach-to-kicker ratio confirmed as a number
- Amount of individual feedback established
- Video inclusion and ownership confirmed
- Written plan or assessment confirmed
- Kicking volume management asked about
- Refund and injury policy read
- Independent reviews sought, not just testimonials
- Arriving fit, un-sore and with normal technique
- Own footage and two or three specific questions prepared
- Broken-in shoes for the relevant surfaces
- Notes written the same evening, every evening
- One correction chosen for the follow-up block
- Re-filmed after two weeks to check it held
- Camp judged at eight weeks, not on Sunday night
The bottom line: a good camp with a real coach and a sensible ratio is one of the best things available to a kicker who has nobody qualified watching them. A showcase bought too early is money spent measuring a problem. Ask for specific numbers before you pay, arrive with your ordinary technique and specific questions, write everything down the same evening, and then pick one thing and work on it for two months. The weekend is the easy part — the eight weeks afterwards are where the improvement actually happens.
Keep Going
🧑 Youth KickingDevelopment at the right pace
🎯 Field Goal DrillsDoing the work at home
🩹 Injury PreventionManaging high-volume weekends
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