Basketball, Baseball, Soccer, Football, Lacross, Tennis– if your calendar quickly fills up with practices and games for your sporty kid, I wanted to share with you a program we signed our son up for, upon a friend’s suggestion, called ProCamps– because really you guys, it was amazing.
{ SEE VIDEO OF OUR PROCAMP EXPERIENCE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST! }
We love giving our kids experiences that support and inspire their interests. For the past 2 years, Ryan has become more and more serious about his love for basketball, so we really wanted to foster that love this summer. We signed him up for a local basketball camp and then a friend suggested ProCamps– which we had never heard of before but were immediately excited to learn more about.
ProCamps works with over 100 of the most well known athletes today to give kids the chance to spend the day practicing and learning their favorite sport along side professional athletes.
Camp Prices Range from around $50-$250
[ See The Highlight Reel Via My Instagram Pics ]
Ray Allen Camp
Since our son is quite possibly the biggest Miami Heat fan on the planet, we were drawn in by the 2-day Ray Allen camp being hosted just 3 short (read: actually-kinda-long-ish-but-totally-worth-it) hours away from our home. The camp took place for 3 hours each day from 9a-12p and was $149 to enroll (which I personally thought was a great price).
The camp was attended by about 200 kids (ages 6-19), which sounds like it could be quite chaotic but surprisingly was very well organized. I could not believe how quickly they could get 200 kids in lines. I have a harder time wrangling my 3 kids into the car.
They divided the kids into groups of 8-10.“Big kids” went into one gym and little kids in another, which gave plenty of room to spread out for stations, drills and games.
In addition to Ray Allen, our camp had a surprise guest, James Jones (“JJ”), which was very exciting for the kids.
He stole my seat, but I let it slide.
Ray and “JJ” rotated through the groups in the camp, watching, playing and helping the kids with their skills. I was impressed that they actually made their way around to spend time with each group, so every kid felt like they got one on one time.
At the beginning and end of each 3 hour day, Ray spoke to the kids offering not only advice and tips about the game, but about sportsmanship, being responsible, respectful and making good choices.
ProCamps has many other camps coming up. We have our eye on the Carmelo Anthony camp that was just announced for September. You can see the full list of ProCamps here.
#CloserToPro
During these camps, Citi Private Pass offers Citi card holders the opportunity to take this once-in-a-lifetime experience a step further by purchasing tickets to an intimate “Closer To Pro” lunch with a professional athlete. These packages are approx $50-$75.
We were invited by Citi Private Pass to attended the Closer To Pro lunch with Ray Allen to see what it was all about. The lunch hosted about 15 Citi card holders and included a Q&A session, photos and autographs.
The group was small and the setting casual, the kids felt right at home, wasting no time asking Ray , “So are you going to Cleveland?” … HA! He did not have a firm answer on that one, incase you were wondering. But after the elephant in the room was addressed, they continued to speak with Ray about his career, Paul George’s injury and about his love for the game as a child and as an adult.
It was the highlight of the camp for my son–and for me too. His face still lights up every time we talk about it (and he talks about it… often). There is nothing that compares to seeing your child inspired by one of their idols.
ENTER TO WIN A CHANCE TO ATTEND A PROCAMP!
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Disclosure: We signed up and enrolled for ProCamps on our own. While there we were invited by Citi Private Pass to attend their lunch.
Not sponsored– just awesome!
