A performance camp is one of the fastest ways to move a young athlete forward. In a few focused days, your son or daughter gets the kind of expert attention, honest feedback and hard work that would normally take months to accumulate. But here’s the thing we’ve learned after training more than 100,000 athletes: two kids can attend the exact same speed camp and walk away with very different results. The difference usually has very little to do with talent. It comes down to how they show up.

If your child has an athletic camp coming up — whether it’s with us at Acceleration or anywhere else — here are three simple habits that will help them get every bit of value out of it. They’re worth talking through in the car on the way there.

Turn Up Early

Turning up early is a great habit in sport and in life, and it pays off in a real way at a performance camp. Getting in before the session starts gives an athlete time to prepare their body properly — things like trigger pointing on the available trigger balls is a great start to your session. A body that’s ready to move gets more out of every drill and is far less likely to pick up an injury.

Just as importantly, arriving early prepares the mind. It clears the little distractions out of the way — saying hello to the coaches, getting comfortable in the environment, settling the nerves so that when the coach says “go”, your child is switched on and ready to learn rather than still catching their breath. The athletes who wander in at the last minute spend the first half hour catching up. The ones who arrive early are already ahead.

Actively Listen

The whole point of an intensive camp is to accelerate progress, and that only works if an athlete is actively listening and soaking up as much as they can. Think about it this way: twelve hours of ski lessons packed into one week will make you a far better skier than the same twelve hours spread thinly over twelve weeks. The concentration of learning is what creates the breakthrough.

A speed camp works the same way. The coaching, the corrections and the repetition all come thick and fast. So, the athletes who lean in, who watch the demonstrations closely, ask questions and really try to understand the “why” behind each drill are the ones who improve the most. Encourage your child to treat every coach as someone worth learning from, and to stay curious for the full session rather than switching off once they’re tired. Active listening is a skill, and it’s one that pays dividends well beyond the camp.

Walk Away With Key Takeaways

Like anything worthwhile in life, the goal is to come away with at least one key takeaway from every interaction with a sports performance professional. It might be a cue that finally makes their sprint start click, a mobility drill that unlocks a stiff hip, or a way of thinking about training that they’d never considered. Those takeaways are meant to go straight into their “athlete toolbox” – the growing collection of things that work for them personally, ready to be used in training long after the camp is over.

This is one of the most common traits we see in veteran professional athletes. The best ones are brilliant at holding onto what has worked for them over the years and continuing to do it, bolting each new lesson onto their existing program rather than chasing the next shiny thing. A young athlete who starts building that toolbox early and keeps adding to it, camp after camp, is setting themselves up to keep improving for a very long time.

The Bigger Picture

None of these habits require extra talent, extra money or extra hours. Turn up early, listen actively, and hold onto a few key takeaways – that’s it. They’re the same behaviours that separate good athletes from great ones, and the wonderful part is that they carry over into school, work and everyday life just as neatly as they do onto the track, field or court.

A performance camp gives your child the environment, the coaching and the intensity to make real progress. How much they take home is largely up to them. Help them show up ready, curious and switched on, and you’ll be amazed at what a few focused days can do.

Written by,

Stewart Briggs, BHMS, M.Ed., C.S.C.S., RSCC*E

Managing Director of Acceleration Australia