About 25 kids were introduced to training techniques used by professional athletes in the first Child, Youth & School Services summer speed and agility camp.
The weeklong camp was designed to teach kids skills and mechanics to train on their own time for any sport they wish to play and succeed in. CYSS invited Columbus State University women’s soccer assistant coach Colin Barnes to host the camp.
“It takes time and commitment,” Barnes said about individual training. “The mind wants to do what’s more convenient and we have to train our minds to do it the most efficient way. You have to do this stuff on your own time away from your sport.”
Barnes said the drills, mechanics and techniques he taught during the camp were the same ones he learned during his career as a soccer player and coach.
Barnes said he had themes for each day of the camp.
“The main focus has been on basic mechanics, running form and basic coordination,” he said.
One of the drills, focusing on resistance, included a “parachute” run, in which the kids ran a distance with parachutes tied to their waste.
Caleb Higdon, 12, who has participated in three of the CYSS summer camps already, said the speed and agility camp ranked just behind soccer as his favorite.
“I like getting up early and starting the day with exercise,” Higdon said. “We did a lot of running. It increased my agility a lot and taught me new mechanics.”
With the intention of exposing the kids to running over long periods of time, Barnes allowed the kids to play “Cougar Escape”, a version of capture-the-flag, at the end of some sessions.
“Hopefully what they’ve been doing an hour-and-a-half before that comes out in a game of fun,” Barnes said. Only one summer camp remains. A second golf camp is ongoing on this week.
Despite his responsibilities with recruiting at CSU and coaching the Columbus Football Club Red Star, Barnes also volunteered to do the soccer camp during the week of July 11 along with CSU women’s soccer head coach Jay Entlich.
“We enjoy coming here,” Barnes said. “It’s nice to work with kids on base and help out their families.”
