McGuffin

Recording yourself playing is a super valuable teaching tool. You'll immediately see what you're doing wrong, right, and what your tendencies are. They pack a lot of information into this camp, but there is really no way to retain that much information. Just record it so you can go back and review it and incorporate that particular lesson into your drill sessions and eventually into your game. This camp was for 3.0-3.5 and 4.0-4.5 players. The reality was that there were about four 4.0 players so I played with the same 4 guys for most of the 2 days. When we mixed in with the next court over, the drop off was dramatic, like maybe 3.25 at best. 

This camp packs as much info into 2 days as is humanly possible. There is little down time and I only had maybe 20 minutes of one on one time with any of the coaches. You have to seek them out and ask a specific question. The venue the camp was held at, The Tennis Club at Newport Beach had a cafe so we pre ordered and paid for a sandwich or wrap and they were ready at the lunch break. This set up is so much more convenient than going off site. 

Video recording: 

So a major plus to this camp compared to Engage and Level Up is that they allow and even encourage recording video of the demos and lectures. If you want to record yourself playing it will be difficult. You'll need a Joby flexible tripod to attach to the fence and be quick with the set up. I didn't bring one unfortunately so it was too difficult to record the actual drills and games with a rigid tripod since we would rotate partners and courts so often and then a new camera set up would be required. You don't have time since your partner will be waiting on you. A Joby could speed this up. However, you can easily record the lecture, demo, and drill example that Tyson does with Kyle. There is really no way to remember these lectures and demos without recording and then reviewing the footage later. 

Venue: 

Get to the venue early since it isn't easy to navigate where the courts are from the entrance. The second day I walked down a dirt road to get to the courts since it was a much shorter distance. Also, there are not adequate restrooms for the number of people! Only two stalls in the pool men's room! There were some porta potties we used that were there for construction workers. Lunch was about 60 to 75 minutes. There is a cafe at this venue but I didn't try it. There are some places to eat 10 minutes drive from the venue but I didn't go, just ate bananas and energy bars at the court.

What I learned: 

I've learned this across the last 6 months and 3 camps, but play to get better. This is so important. In order to emphasize this, games to 11 should not be played until after the camp. The 4.0 Engage camp had NO games. None. Attending McGuffin camp it sunk in why this is so important. Playing out points and then rotating the serve allows us to focus on what was just demoed and not worry about winning and instead of falling back into our old bad habits, we hopefully develop good new habits. We played games in this camp, but I think games should be left until after camp hours if people want to hang out and play.

The last hour we played against Matt, one of the coaches. We got on the defense and both me and my partner were defending overhead smashes like crazy. Our defense was amazing. I dug one of Matt's overheads over to his partner and he poached and killed it. Yeah, we lost the point but hung in on defense for 5 shots and felt stoked. Winning the point isn't always important. We got some actual game time experience with smashes from a coach. I'm sure he was holding back until the last one, but that was a good memory.

Kyle: Don't lob from transition zone, dink it instead. Matt: Ready position arm position was too far out so I couldn't punch. Bring it back in a bit to make punching easier. Alex: Moving my wrist around occasionally when I dink. Not sure why I do that, but Jordan mentioned this too.
Tyson: Take off a little pace on my backhand speedups when drilling since partner couldn't handle the pace 😏 Something that sunk in during lecture/demo was play to your strengths. So this is a little contrary to the way I teach which is to strengthen your weaknesses until they are equal with your strengths. This of course specifically applies to the avoidance of hitting a backhand in favor of a forehand. This is what I tell my students, "Practice your backhand more until it's equal with your forehand." I hate it when I see my students running around their backhand and then their opponent just goes to the backhand all game long. Practice it and use it in a game. It'll get better. Still, I think we are both right here. Play to your strengths. Tyson explained his forehand is his weapon, but his backhand is still decent. Tyson makes himself readily available for any questions, and will give demos etc, but you have to seek him out. 

Cost:

This camp cost me much more than the others, about $2700 total. Uber $110, Delta Airlines $733 with $70 of baggage charges and a $235 flight change, Tesla M3 rental $365, Hampton $483, Food, Misc $159, Camp $850. Do camps that you can drive to to save money.

DAY 1 - BUILDING A SOFT GAME
Dinking
3rd & 5th Ball Drops
Defensive Tactics
Block Volleys
Lunch with the Pros (not included in camp price)

DAY 2 - BUILDING WEAPONS
Drives
Kitchen Speed-Ups
Punch Volleys
Roll Volleys
Serve
Doubles Tactics