Running a Soccer Summer Camp? Turn Up the Heat with Speed, Agility & Attention Drills
- Ivan Josipović
- Jul 1
- 9 min read
Whether you're hosting your first camp or leveling up a returning one, adding structure and a bit of tech can make a huge difference. That’s where Sportreact comes in.
Want to offer a more valuable, premium camp experience this summer?
✅ Attract more sign-ups with a unique, tech-powered edge
✅ Deliver performance reports that impress both campers and parents
✅ Justify higher pricing with real data and structured insights
From day-one drills to end-of-camp testing, Sportreact brings organization, engagement, and performance tracking to your soccer summer camp speed & agility session. In this blog, we’ll walk you through some simple but powerful ways to upgrade your camp program using Sportreact — starting with initial assessments, running measurable and engaging drills, and finishing with actionable reports that bring value to all your stakeholders.
Let’s break down a few easy ways you can integrate it into your summer plans 👇
BONUS: Stick around until the end to grab the full guide with use case from one of our camps
1. 📊 Kick off your Soccer Summer Camps Speed & Agility Testing Block
Making Performance Clear and Understandable
One of the challenges at camp is helping players (and their parents) understand how they're doing. By running a few simple standardized tests, like timed sprints or agility runs, you can offer clear feedback that shows where each athlete is now — and how they can grow. It’s not about pressure or comparison, but about giving everyone a meaningful reference point.
We recommend starting with 2 to 5 key tests per camp session — just enough to gather meaningful insights without overwhelming your schedule.
Some of the popular tests are listed below:
Sprint test 0-15-30-40 yards
Use for: Explosive power, sprint mechanics, acceleration, maximum velocity, overall speed, performance tracking, speed optimization.
5-10-5 Test (Pro Shuttle)
Use for: Lateral quickness, change of direction, balance, reaction time, body control, acceleration, deceleration.
Short Shuttle
Use for: Change of direction, acceleration, deceleration, lateral movement, reaction time, body control.
Cone CoD Test (L CoD Test)
Use for: Change of direction, footwork, body control, reaction time.
Illinois CoD Drill
Use for: Change of direction, speed, body control, reaction time.
Arrowhead CoD Drill
Use for: Change of direction, speed, footwork, body control.
Stop n Go Reactive Agility
Use for: Reactive agility, scanning, decision making
Reactive-Cognition Drill
Use for: Cognitive testing, decision making, visual perception
Complex Recognition Reaction Time
Use for: Cognitive testing, CNS activation, warm ups
2. ⚽ Engage Campers with Sport-Specific Drills
Looking to go beyond the basics? Sport-specific drills, incorporated with reaction lights that show cues like arrows, numbers, or colors, are a great way to keep campers engaged while building real game-related skills, tracking their results in-app.
Sharpen focus and decision-making with cognitive agility drills that challenge scanning, attention, and visual perception — all while players move and react under pressure, measured and validated by tech
Make the most of your time and space by setting up stations for key skills like shooting, passing, dribbling, tackling, or goalkeeping. Small groups rotate through, keeping energy high and athletes active.
Not just for soccer! These same principles can be easily adapted to other sports like football, tennis, lacrosse, or hockey — whatever your camp is focused on.
Check out the most popular soccer camp drills using Sportreact
Ball Control Drill - Master the Touch
Drill Description:
Trains the athlete's ability to pass, scan, react, take a controlled first touch, and accelerate with the ball—mimicking high-level game situations where awareness and quick decision-making are essential.
Fighting Spirit Drill - Battle Mode
Drill Description:
Trains explosive acceleration, reactive decision-making, and finishing accuracy under pressure, combining sprinting and rapid visual recognition with quick execution.
93639 Change of Direction Test with Ball
Drill Description:
This high-intensity ball control test is designed to assess a soccer athlete’s ability to accelerate, decelerate, and change direction sharply while maintaining close control of the ball. The drill emphasizes explosive sprints, 180° turns, and continuous footwork under fatigue.
Ball Control Drill - Master the Touch
Drill Description:
The athlete performs continuous ball control and dribbling across a designated field space, with a focus on tight footwork, scanning, and reactive decision-making.
Killer Pass Drill - Thread the Needle
Drill Description:
Focuses on enhancing a player's scanning ability, first touch control, and quick decision-making before executing a shot. It replicates game-like scenarios where players must scan the field, control the ball, and finish under pressure, all in a single fluid motion.
Defensive Skill Drill - Last Line Lockdown
Drill Description:
Combines scanning, lateral movement, agility, and finishing into one fluid sequence, simulating real match situations that demand quick reactions and shooting accuracy.
Ball Speed Test - Rocket Release
Drill Description:
The athlete performs a high-intensity combination of change-of-direction running, zigzag agility, and shooting accuracy, while timing and scoring precision are automatically tracked.
Two Touches Drill - Quick Feet Combo
Drill Description:
Enhances a player’s finishing technique, foot coordination, and visual reactivity by requiring them to shoot at rebounders using the correct foot based on visual color-coded signals.
See the complete soccer drill exercises playlist here - link
3. 📈 Make Your Camp Data-Driven with Actionable Insights
Performance isn’t just about what happens on the field — it’s also about how you track and communicate progress. With the right tools, you can turn your camp into a more insightful and impactful experience for everyone involved.
Keep everything organized with athlete and team dashboards that store, analyze, and interpret results all in one place.
Share progress clearly by giving players and parents access to personal profiles — helping them better understand strengths, areas to improve, and overall development.
Go a step further by exporting data, creating custom reports, and adding normative benchmarks to provide real context for each athlete’s results.
What exactly can you do with Sportreact data?
#1 Quickly add all participants to a single dashboard, organize them by teams, and streamline your on-field testing.
Save time and stay organized before camp even begins — bulk upload your participant list, sort them into groups, and set up your testing plan in advance
#2 Run drills more efficiently, automatically save results, and set up standalone stations using NFC scan-and-start wristbands.
Assign each athlete an NFC wristband at the start of camp — they'll use it for every activity, helping you save time, stay organized, and ensure all data is automatically recorded.
#3 Get instant results for total time, split times, velocity, reaction speed, hit/miss ratio, and more — all tailored to the specific drill you're running.
Get immediate feedback after each drill — the app shows you everything you need to know on the spot, so there’s no need to dig through data during camp.
#4 Create a combine-style atmosphere with live leaderboards — easily cast results to any big screen to boost energy and engagement.
Display real-time results on any big screen at your venue. Highlight player rankings, performance gaps, and give instant feedback — all while building a competitive, transparent, and fair environment.
#5 Generate individual athlete reports based on camp performance, featuring key metrics like velocity, acceleration, power, and force.
Build detailed athlete profile reports by benchmarking each player against camp team averages and normative data. Upsell with custom reports to add extra value and build trust with parents and athletes
#6 Easily compare athletes to see how they stack up across the camp — highlight top performers, spot development needs, and foster healthy competition.
Create detailed assessment reports with drill-by-drill scoreboards, rich visualizations, and team-wide trends — perfect for ongoing camps and tracking long-term development.
#7 Simply share results with parents, athletes, coaches, or schools by inviting them to join your in-app team — keeping everyone informed and engaged.
No need to create manual reports for each athlete — just invite them to the app, and they’ll instantly get access to their performance data across all camp activities.
#8 Export results to Excel, create custom reports, and build a testing database — plus, integrate Sportreact with other systems using our API for seamless data management.
Sportreact lets you export results to Excel, build your own reports, and track progress over time — with API integration to seamlessly connect with your existing systems.
Want to dig deeper into Sportreact Analytics? Check out the full blog on data and reports here.
4. 📈 Soccer camp specific use-cases
✅ Use Case 1: “My kid isn’t getting enough playing time at the club.”
Perspective: Parent
Problem: A parent is concerned that their 13-year-old daughter isn’t getting much time on the pitch at her academy. Coaches haven’t offered much feedback — just general remarks like “she needs to improve her game awareness.” Hoping to build her confidence and skills, the parent enrolls her in a summer camp.
How Sportreact Helps:
At camp, the player goes through a full battery of tests, including:
Stop & Go Agility (to assess acceleration control)
Y-Test with cognitive stimuli (to evaluate decision-making speed)
40-Yard Dash (to capture linear sprint speed)
Reaction Time with visual stimuli
The resulting report shows that the player is in the top 25% for speed, but below average in decision-making under pressure, with a reaction time of 0.82s compared to the group average of 0.61s.
This objective data helps the parent and athlete clearly identify a development focus. They now have something to take back to the club — not just to advocate for more balanced feedback, but to show measurable improvement over time. The report also builds trust: the parent sees exactly where their child stands.
✅ Use Case 2: “Testing is a nightmare to manage during busy camp days.”
Perspective: Soccer Camp Coach
Problem: A coach running a 4-day soccer camp with 60 players wants to test agility, acceleration, and cognitive speed — but with multiple age groups rotating through stations, managing results and keeping things organized quickly becomes chaotic. Last year, the team used cones and timers and spent hours transferring results into Excel sheets after camp ended — only to deliver vague summaries.
How Sportreact Helps:
This year, the coach uses Sportreact to:
Preload all 60 players into the system with groups (U12, U14, U16)
Assign NFC wristbands, so athletes simply scan and go at each testing station
Set up three standalone drills:
5-10-5 Shuttle (change of direction & symmetry)
Single-Pod Reaction Test (cognitive attention speed)
10m Acceleration + 20m Sprint Split (track velocity curve)
Data is saved automatically. Within minutes, the coach sees:
One U14 player with peak acceleration of 4.2 m/s², 20% higher than group average
A U16 goalkeeper with a reaction time of 0.52s, fastest across all campers
A cluster of U12 players showing asymmetrical movement patterns on change-of-direction drills — a potential injury risk
All this is compiled into team and individual reports without any manual data entry. The coach shares results instantly with parents via the app and uses the leaderboard to boost engagement during the camp showcase on day four.
Measurable Outcomes for Coaches Using Sportreact
Save 3-4 hours on admin with automated testing and reporting.
Boost parent satisfaction by 30–50% with clear, professional feedback.
Increase premium upgrades by 15–25% through data-driven add-ons.
✅ Use Case 3: “I don’t know how I compare to others in my position.”
Perspective: Ambitious Youth Player (14–17 yrs)
Problem: A 15-year-old midfielder joins a camp, eager to get noticed by scouts — but he’s unsure where he stands physically and mentally. He's been told to improve his "game speed" but doesn’t know if that means speed of movement or speed of thought.
How Sportreact Helps:
Over the course of camp, the athlete completes drills designed to simulate in-game demands:
Y-Drill with reactive arrow cues (tests perception, scanning, and cognitive load)
Agility T-Test (measures lateral movement and footwork efficiency)
5m + 15m sprint split (captures acceleration vs. top-end speed)
Power estimation from time over distance using mass input
Afterward, his profile shows:
Top 10% in acceleration (5m split)
Below average in cognitive agility — completing the Y-Test with a miss rate of 26% compared to camp average of 12%
A Power Index score slightly below average for his age/position group
This gives the player real clarity: physically explosive, but mentally a beat behind in decision drills. Now, he can train smarter with purpose — and have a data-driven foundation to show coaches or scouts during follow-ups.
The world’s most seamless timing gates
Sportreact gates feature pod-to-pod lasers for quick setup, giving you the easiest alignment process — with reactive cues added for a cognitive twist.
Pre-loaded templates ready to go
Use one of Sportreact’s built-in templates or explore the Community Hub with hundreds of different reactive drills — complete with exact setup schemes for the field.
Split the pods into multiple stations
Run multiple tests simultaneously, split your camp into different stations, and choose the right number of athlete seats to save data and generate reports efficiently.
Use Sportreact with various attachments
Combine Sportreact with reactive rebounders, cones, goal frames, or any other soccer equipment available at your camp. Our kit comes with various attachments to make this possible.
Explore Starter Kit and Plus packages
Want to see more? Check out everything about the Sportreact Starter Kit, pricing options, Sportreact Plus tiers, and other details you need to implement Sportreact in your camps this summer.
[USE CASE] Test a Large Group of Soccer Players
Whether you’re a club S&C coach or an individual coach, testing dozens or even hundreds of youth athletes can feel overwhelming. To efficiently test soccer players’ speed and CoD, we started by preparing for the session, selecting the appropriate tests, and executing them consistently. We compiled an actionable report based on the data, and conclude with a feedback summary for the athletes and their parents.
Check out how Sportreact timing gates enhance on-field performance, streamline session organization, and facilitate comparisons between the 30-Yard Dash and Illinois Agility Test results against normative data. Read the full article here.
Ready to heat up your camps? Book a demo call here!
IVAN JOSIPOVIC
Meet Ivan: co-founder of Sportreact, brings 5 years of expertise in sports technology, exploring innovations in performance training, testing tools, and gym equipment.
A regular at events like NSCA conferences, FIBO, ISPO, and CES, Ivan shares insights on Sportreact updates, how-to guides, and inspiring testimonials from the sports world.
