Learning how to run a summer gymnastics camp can provide your club with a new source of revenue while providing athletes with fun new experiences.
Like any new form of programming, running a successful summer gymnastics camp requires extensive planning. As a sought after gymnastics software provider, we’re dedicated to helping clubs succeed with their summer camp offerings.
To help get you started, we’ve come up with 6 tips for running successful summer gymnastics camps. These tips will help get you on your way to diversifying your business and attracting new athletes!
1) Decide on a target market
Before you can begin planning your summer camp you need to decide who your target market is. Do you want to offer a skills camp for elite gymnasts? Or, do you want to run a camp for recreational gymnasts?
Of course you can offer both types of camps but some clubs may find it easiest to just focus on one. By focusing on one audience, you’ll limit the number of coaches needed and the amount of planning required.
If you choose to offer both elite and recreational camps, be aware of your gymnasts’ expectations. Recreational athletes are more likely aiming to have fun practicing gymnastics with friends. Whereas elite gymnasts will be focused on improving their advanced skills.
Understanding these expectations will impact the themes and activities you offer each group.
2) Understand the power of themes and themed days
Your gymnastics camp theme can be a powerful selling feature for recreational athletes.
When kids are on the fence about joining a summer camp a good theme can be the deciding factor.
Better yet, a great theme can prompt gymnasts to encourage their like-minded friends to attend your camp. That’s why picking themes can be such an important part of learning how to run a gymnastics camp.
How to pick your themed days
Look at your competitor’s past camps to understand what’s been offered to local gymnasts in the past. Of course, if you have experience running a winter or spring break camp, consider which themed days were most engaging for your gymnasts.
Would any of your past themed days work in the summer? If so, add one or two of your most successful themed days into the fold.
Just make sure there’s enough variation between your past camps and the upcoming camp you’re planning. Adding fun new activities and themes will keep gymnasts excited about what your next camp will offer.
For your remaining themed days, or if you don’t have any past themed days to choose from, brainstorm an exhaustive list of ideas with your coaches and administrators. Once you have a list of options run them through this checklist:
i) Is the themed day viable?
You need to be able to create fun and engaging programming related to your theme, so it can’t be too abstract. Your gymnasts will know if the theme doesn’t connect to your programming so consider mocking-up some basic programming connections.
For example, if you’re considering a space theme, you might mockup a list of connections like this:
- add star jumps to warm-ups on floor
- coaches say “blast off!” when kids hit the springboard on vault
- tuck jumps on the mini-tramp can be “flying meteors”
ii) Is the themed day trending?
Picking a themed day that fits a current trend can be a powerful motivator for kids. When kids are excited about a trending movie like Wonder Woman, having a Wonder Woman themed day allows them to share and express their excitement through physical activity at your gym.
Not every themed day needs to hit on a trend. But, try to have one or two days that touch on trends.
These trending themes can be powerful tools in marketing and advertising your camp.
iii) Are kids interested?
One of the most important aspects about learning how to run a gymnastics camp is learning how to generating interest.
Our best intentions as coaches and administrators may not always hit the mark. Consider surveying your regular gymnastics classes to ensure your programming interests your gymnasts. Share your list of themes and themed day ideas and allow your gymnasts to vote on which ones they like best.
In some ways this vetting process is also part of promoting your camp. When kids get to choose their favorite themes they become part of designing the exact camp that they want to attend.
3) Run a summer gymnastics camp with safety measures
Today, it’s even more important to emphasize and build safety processes into your operations. If you haven’t yet, make your registration contact-free and paper-free. Get gymnastics class software for your camp to eliminate touch-points and securely automate your registration.
When you automate with the right software you can easily generate contact tracing reports to help protect your gymnasts and staff.
Plus, you can also ensure your gymnasts review and digitally sign recurring liability and health and safety waivers.
Need to ensure staff complete daily health questionnaires? With good gymnastics software you can create health questionnaires and set them to recur on a schedule as desired.
As an added bonus, automation features like Uplifter’s drop-in capacity management allows your club to maximize your revenue by filling all available class openings while still abiding by class and camp size restrictions.
Ultimately, all of the built-in safety features from your gymnastics software will show parents that your summer gymnastics camp prioritizes the health and safety of gymnasts. And for parents, there’s nothing more important today.
4) Promote your summer camp
The first step in promoting your summer camp is creating a permanent summer gymnastics camp page on your website. This will establish a designated location for parents to find information about upcoming summer camps. Furthermore, it’ll also create a permanent place for search engines to direct people looking for summer gymnastics camps in your area.
Once your permanent page is ready, start promoting general information about your summer camp to your recreation classes in early spring. While it may not make sense to start registration in early spring, sharing general information puts your camp on their radar and begins generating some excitement.
When your registration is launched, promote it across your website, email and social media channels, linking directly to your online registration. If you have email tools built into your management software, you can easily email current and past gymnasts to share news about your upcoming summer camp.
5) Payment flexibility and contingency plans
Summer is a busy time for a lot of families. Not everyone can commit to a weeklong gymnastics camp. For that reason, your club should offer per-class or per-day pricing. This will allow kids to register for specific days while leaving other days available for drop-ins.
If you have software like Uplifter, you’ll also be able to adjust each day’s pricing for registration. As a result, if one of your camp days includes a field trip you can factor that cost into pricing for the day.
You’ll also want to make a contingency plan for drop-outs.
If a camper decides they no longer want to attend camp, there are two ways to make sure you’re able to fill that new camp opening.
First, ensure that you immediately list vacant positions on your site with an automated drop-in management tool. Take advantage of this hands-free automated feature by easily switching it on with software like Uplifter. With automated drop-in management it’s easy for new gymnasts to register for the days that your previous gymnast dropped out of.
If you use automated waitlists, the system can also automatically email the first person available on your waitlist. Once they receive your email, they’ll have a set amount of time to register and claim your camp opening. In this way, your registration system can automatically fill vacant positions without any manual effort from your administrators.
6) Skills assessments and achievements
When you complete skills assessments for your campers, you can easily highlight their successes and give them something to remember their summer camp fun! It’s an easy way to share in the excitement of young athletes and help them build lasting memories.
Once skills assessments are completed, coaches and administrators can send digital report cards straight to an athlete’s profile. From there, athletes can print-off their accomplishments or keep them on file in perpetuity.
Manage your summer gymnastics camp with software
Now more than ever summer gymnastics camps are best managed online. Learning how to run a summer gymnastics camp with software will give your a huge advantage. From promotion, to registration, safety waivers, skills assessments and more, good gymnastics software can boost enrollment and grow your waiting list.
If you have any questions about streamlining registration and management for your upcoming gymnastics camp, contact us. We’re always happy to listen and provide custom advice for your club.
