This might be a silly question but anyone have any experience with Wrestling Camps? Which are the best for a novice/beginner?
for a beginner, I'd say anything with Ken Chertow, most college camps are good, anytime you can find a "clinic" they are always fun to learn new moves. For a novice, I think Brian Keck's camps, J Robinson, or any of the Gable/john smith camps are good.
Ken Chertow is excellent. Great vids as well. One of my wrestlers attended a big man camp at Edinboro this summer. Supposedly it was excellent.
Def. Chertow. The jordans run a really good camp in OH too.
I have never been to a Chertow camp but heard from more than one college wrestler that he is a piece of shit (never heard it was a bad camp, but more so a bad person). I have been to the Jordan camp and thought it was good. The food sucks and you sleep on the mats but you are there to wrestle and that is what you do. Personally I have been to the Ohio State University for takedown camps and competition camp and both were great. I did both of these camps after I went through their intensive wrestling camp which I hated (in a good way) more than Jordans.
If you are a beginner, a takedown camp and competition camp woudl be good because you will learn and get to actually compete (they also show you moves before you compete) to practice what you have learned while gaining invaluable experience.
Has anyone been to Kolat's camp in MD? It's a reasonable drive from Philadelphia, and I'm really interested in making the trip if it's worthwhile.
Kolat is a great guy to learn from. Yeah Ken Chertow is known as a POS in some circles but I feel like that making your livelyhood off of camps is the promotion business, kind of like club promoting, you eventually burn your collegues and wear your friends out always asking for stuff. For the camper though, there are good clinicians, and well ran camps for the most part. Like I said clinics are where its at though.
TTT Jordan's camps are not for the faint of heart, particularly for light/middle weights I have found that there is no better way to make the jump from qualifier/placer to finalist/champ then doing a week or two at the farm with him. I also recommend getting as many summer matches in freestyle/greco as possible. The mat time will help with competition emotions management and will lead to a better understanding of technique. I also feel it freshens up your wrestling compared to folkstyle year round.
All the talk about chertow being a POS I can believe. Before i went to his camp i read his book and watched his HL video and was stoked about meeting the guy. Boy was I shocked i walk in and see this ugly old fat guy scratching his ass with the microphone. the good parts about chertows camp is the guest instructors who pretty much do all of the instructing. If anyones ever been there and remembers a guy named Tibi who was a bulgarian greco-roman olympian. I got to wrestle a greco match with him and it sucked
Granby Camp in VA...Attended em 2 yrs in HS...Very technical
My 3 boys (9,10,and 12) attended 3 wrestling camps this summer. Chertows, Bulldog (at the Citadell), and a local one at Ga. Southern. The boys enjoyed them all and are using what they learned. Perhaps at the younger ages it matters less the quality of camp and more just getting on the mat.
We dont have wrestling in our county and my boys use it to augment their Judo. My 12 yr Old is the #1 ranked in 13-14 yr old divion and won the Jr. Olymics 3 wks ago. My 9yo is top 5 in the 10yo division.
I thought that Ken Chertow was an excellent instructor who did a great job. (Just my 2 cents).He walks the walk and definitely has credentials if you are looking for a coach w/ Olympic experience.
Any of these open to us "older" folks?
I emailed the Chertow camp and they said it's only for ages 5-18. I'll be 30 this year. Any camps out there for me?