Prepare your sports-fiend teen to be challenged and inspired during their time at Nike Sports’ summer camp, held at two of the most beautiful independent schools in the south of England and coached by top-flight athletes. Children from the age of 10 will improve their skills in tennis, hockey, football and golf irrespective of ability. Non-native speakers may combine their sporting passion with an immersive English-language experience over one or two weeks.
Tennis and golf enthusiasts are based at Bradfield College, an hour west of London and blessed with phenomenal sports facilities. The Total tennis camp (like the football, golf and hockey programme) is an intensive four, six or 13 nights taught by former ATP and WTA professionals on three indoor and 12 outdoor clay and hard courts. There are also workshops on nutrition, physiology and match tactics.
The programme for overseas students consists of morning language instruction and afternoon coaching, with English as the common language amongst the campers. All future superstars on the golf programme are coached by a former PGA professional on the school’s own nine-hole course and, as with tennis, the language instruction option is available to overseas McIlroys.
If football is more your child’s thing, Nike camps offer weekly or fortnightly residential, gender-segregated coaching by Chelsea FC, based at the stunning, centuries-old Charterhouse School in Surrey, south of London. The format is identical to the tennis or golf programmes, with language instruction in the morning for international campers. Off-site excursions are made to the Chelsea FC training ground, Stamford Bridge stadium and the historic Portsmouth Dockyard.
Residential hockey camps based at Charterhouse are open to (mixed) girls and boys from 11 to 17 and coached by former and current GB Olympian and international players. Junior athletes at all camps sleep in the respective school’s boarding houses, mostly in single-occupancy rooms, and international campers can be collected from Heathrow or Gatwick airports.