Project approach to children's football camp - how it works

Oddly enough, it is at the camp that you can well show how many things work in the project management of a "regular" business.



Let's start with the risks. Each project risk is usually recorded in advance and managed. For example, in our country this means settling in two or four (but by no means three), a certain protocol for working with telephones, removing the risks of grandmothers (saving grandchildren) arriving on the second day, setting up daily reports for parents and many other solutions , which are done before the beginning of the situation itself. The choice of a camp site alone greatly affects how much a child will miss home in the early days.



Let's tell you a little how project management looks like using the example of a children's camp... Moreover, this topic is led by Masha Tankova, who once led the retail chain of Mosigra. That somewhat raises the degree of cozy, gentle madness.







^{Tactical analysis of the game}

Management of risks

You can try to remove the risk (for example, if you are traveling to Africa with equipment, you should take a second device so as not to be left without everything at once), you can try to minimize it (a good habit is to take all photos from the drone after each flight), you can ignore it and put in the price (there will be several of them, and this is almost an insurance scoring in a financial model) and so on. In general, there are principles of risk management, and these principles require the ability to describe them, plus an estimate of the likelihood of occurrence. But the general approach is this: it's better to turn on the paranoid, throw versions and do something in advance, than to be an optimistic, happily smiling idiot.



The first predictable conflict is the child wants to go home.... Usually the peak happens on the first evening, when the parents irrevocably left for 100-150 kilometers (there was a hotel "Velna" in the suburbs) or even to Moscow, despite the fact that the training camp is in Sochi. The situation is smoothed out if the place is closer to the city - for example, parents like it if the point is 100 kilometers from Moscow: you can come on the weekend and see how the child is there. This year there will be a park-hotel "Pokrovskoe" 40 km away in the forest near the lake and "Sofrino" 30 km away. Moreover, in Sofrino we are conducting an experiment with the joint accommodation of parents in a four-star hotel - they will also train with us if they want. Plus dancing, plus animation from the hotel. The third base is in Sergiev Posad, 70 kilometers from Moscow.



If we are not talking about the fact that parents are leaving, then for many children this is generally the first more or less long separation and the first camp. And they endure it, and immediately the new environment is painful. Those who come for the second or third time (and there are already many of them), on the contrary, are quite calm and look forward to rest. A vivid example - a little guy went without his parents, cried and asked to go home on the first day (like many). Parents, on the one hand, worried about him and were afraid to let go, on the other hand, they understood that it was necessary. The coach (counselor - counselor training includes psychology) talked to them about this situation in advance. In the end, the parents accepted that this was normal, and did not come in panic to pick him up on the very first evening after his calls about how terrible everything around was. In other cases, it happened, they came, yes, once they even took the child away.The second important thing is that the coach had a preparation for a personal conversation. Lionel Messi, a famous football player, at the age of 15, went overseas altogether. If this story is presented correctly, the child will enter the state of "I can do this too" - and it looks like this story worked.



On the first day, a big football match is made with 6 goals at all, and in the evening, traditional dating mechanics are used, which have not changed for 80 years, probably.



Also, if the camp is close, we try to break the shift during the parent's day. This is necessary not only for children, but also for parents, so that they delve into what is happening, inspect everything personally "in production" and look into the kitchen. The culmination of this story is a friendly match between children and dads. An important removal of the conflict here is not to put parents and children in the same team, because children already at 6 years old know what a correct pass is, and parents at 35 no longer. And so that there is no offense that dad is not a very team player, you have to play not with him in a team.



Telephones... The fact that they will be twice a day on schedule is negotiated right away. The rest of the time the phones are locked in the counselor's room. Usually (if the program is intensive) children perceive this more or less normally, but there are exceptions. The phone is an opportunity to contact parents, and your favorite games are also there. We had a kid with a serious addiction to the game Brawl Stars. As it turned out later, against the background of game deprivation, he behaved calmly, smiled, made contact with other children - and at the same time developed a very thoughtful campaign to put pressure on his grandmother. Not on the parents with whom the coach spoke, but on the grandmother. As a result, she came to evacuate him, which gave us some difficulties. Fortunately, we figured it out.



The lack of telephones gives rise to several more consequences in the first days, which clearly show the difference between generations. For example, a coach somehow missed the moment that children from the age of 5-6 are able to turn any device into a means of communication. You may remember the vulnerabilities of payment terminals, which, through the help of Windows, were allowed to enter the large Internet. Our children quickly understood all the profits of the TV, which they brought for showing a football match in the evening, which was a surprise for the coaches.



Children also often want cameras, if not phones. They are also not allowed for the same reasons as telephones. We want to add a separate photographer for the shift, so that the pictures are still there. Another interesting observation is that teachers often say that children begin to abuse their impunity, mock the teacher and film it on the phone. Either we got good children, or without a phone such a thought does not arise - but there was not a single case of disrespect for the coach. Well, except for the story when he was locked in the room. But the children did not do it directly, because they did not know who was inside.



Perhaps the most destructive was the alarm conspiracy, when the children stuck alarm clocks on their phones at 5 am at short intervals (remember, the phones are in the trainers' room).



Or how would you solve the situation when a 9-year-old child cannot sleep without a fairy tale? He has now approached you and asked you to give him a phone so that his parents would call him in Telegram and tell him this very tale. The problem is that there is a rule in the camp: phones can be used from 9:00 to 10:00 and from 21:10 to 21:45. And now it's already 21:52. If you give him a phone, the rest of the children will see the preference and will loosen the rules until they win. Children usually do it well, parents develop their skills as testers every day. And if you don't give him a phone, he will not fall asleep and will be very upset. At this moment, the coach realizes that the problem should have been solved a few hours ago, exhausting our hero with training. After that, everyone sleeps. This is a good solution, proven over the years, but a little late. And that's whatwhat needs to be thought out in advance - this is the minimum control ... The coach eventually makes a strong-willed decision to tell the child a fairy tale. What exactly he said there, he still does not confess, but we know that further, under the impression of the story of a brave little football player, the child fell asleep all the following nights himself.



Cleaning and hygiene . Children do not always clean themselves, do not always understand why to wash, and so on. Especially those who are brought up with the active participation of the grandmother, recklessly indulging. Everything works here - both the example of other children, and the points system (it gives navigation what to do) and the coach-counselor who explains what an adult man should do himself. Children really want to become adult men and listen to him.



Another case of misunderstanding of behavior patterns was associated with the theft of a chocopai. Several children unknowingly took two or three desserts, and, it turns out, someone did not get it. By the way, the story there is very typical for business. At first, the children jailed out of ignorance, just not realizing that the desserts are not endless. Then they realized the situation and were very scared because they were guilty. In the same way, employees do the same in companies where it is dangerous to make mistakes: instead of immediately saying about it and knowing that they will simply have to fix it, they try to hide the problem with all their might. Which means that it will pop up at the end of the story, and not when you can do something with it. Many parents also do not forgive their children for mistakes and scold for each one. The coach had to explain on the fly that the mistake itself is not a problem, the attitude towards it is important.As a result, three of them quickly realized this and resolved the situation with desserts, and after one took the coach aside, confessed and asked not to tell anyone about it.



... We did not have conflicts between the younger and older groups, the main plots developed between peers. For hazing, there is not enough time to change, for the hierarchy, the children of the wrong generation (they are more interested in cooperation), but almost all the guys want to show their coolness. The most striking conflict was between two roommates. It began with the fact that the parents contacted the counselor and said that they wanted to take the guy home. An investigation of the incident began: the counselor prepared the tactics of negotiations, entered into a psychological conversation, pulled out all the indignation. The child was indignant for two reasons: 1) the roommate got him, insulted and hid things, 2) the morning run was too hard and ruined the whole day. We talked with a neighbor, his parents, transferred him to another room (separate, accommodation allowed).The next run was moved a little in time. Firstly, all the coaches came to her so that the guy could see that they were running with him. Secondly, it was the time when girls-gymnasts were running along the same route for the same agonizing long 8 minutes. This solved all the problems. Starting on the fifth day, he ran the fastest and longest among his peers on the field.



It is interesting that children never fight in conflicts on the field. Even if someone is bullied, they prefer to calmly call the mediator (coach). This is a very uncharacteristic behavior for my generation. Coaches say that children do not solve small problems themselves, but always want to be judged by a third party. Perhaps there is something in this.



No interest in sports... I know it sounds strange for a sports camp, but it happens. 90% of children are passionate about football, but there are also those who were sent by their parents to develop team spirit and physical fitness, because it is necessary. The first case was with a friend who, at the age of 10, was heavier than a coach: the parents hoped to somehow correct this fact. Naturally, both running and training were hard for him. It could have ended either as a private Kucha (according to Makarenko - the onset of collective responsibility), or somehow differently. The coaches, fortunately, calculated the situation and found a suitable peer for him, who was lighter, but showed the same sports results. A couple of words, and now he already feels that he can - because he needs to try a little and surpass this comrade. So until the end of the shift, they played football with each other, trained together and later became friends.



Someone simply fulfills the standards satisfactorily, but finds interest in something else. For example, there is a guy who plays so-so, but otherwise he is the soul of the company and a tough leader. It is important to work out the part where authority is earned not only on the football field. Many children were recognized from the other side. Someone knows how to dance coolly, someone suddenly invested in a theatrical production with terrible seriousness, analyzed it tactically and proposed a strategy to win at any cost, someone tore everyone up in intellectual games and tactics, and so on. But, of course, football should also be made fun, not a duty. Another guy with glasses at the end of the shift told us that "Now I am ready to love football 60%." That's cool.







And, of course, unforeseen situations . The funniest thing with us was how the child's tooth fell out. This is normal, milk teeth are often done this way. The problem is that it was a small child, and he was in all seriousness waiting for the tooth fairy, in whom he believed much more than in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. He showed the tooth to the trainer and shared a plan to put it under the pillow as usual. The coach had to urgently contact the parents, find out the standard procedure for the visit of the tooth fairy, get the candy, develop a plan for the operation for covert penetration and replace the tooth with this very candy.

What is a children's football camp

Let's start with the fact that this is not a camp at all. The fact is that there are requirements for the camp in the standards, and they are written for the permanent bases of the pioneers. Basically, it describes in great detail the arrangement of the premises, the height of laying firewood into fires, weeding out certain types of plants from the territory, dismantling all the barbed wire, bypassing the territory for boards with nails and open hatches (it’s strange not to do this), there are also a lot of medical requirements , a bunch of standards for the admissions of children and staff, examination for head lice once a week, the organization of the territory for bathing, the role model of the staff, a stack of documents for each, and so on. All this is very rational and cool, it clearly contains all the jambs known at the time of writing the standard, and so on - but at the same time, in practice, all this refers to a stationary object that constantly accepts children.What, in fact, the camp is. And we have inconsistent trips - that is, we make training camps with accommodation on the territory of a base or a hotel with a football field. All this in this case is considered an outdoor sporting event. Not the organizers of the camp, but the organizers of accommodation (that is, a recreation center or a children's health camp) must meet the requirements for admission of children's groups. But parents still call it a camp (because the term is very clear to them). At the same time, we are still expanding the standards of the sporting event and demand more than is possible - we need a certificate of no contact with infectious patients, a certificate in form 079U, we take some of the things from the camp standard (for example, in the canteen building, conditions are provided for washing the hands of children around lunchtime hall or at the entrance to the dining room and places for undressing children),a drinking regime is organized for children around the clock, and so on.



For parents, such a sports and recreational event is an opportunity to transfer the child to us for 8-10 days, to enjoy this time and get the child back in a healthier form and with new friends. If we were in China, we would sell the opportunity to meet a bunch of new people who would later become part of the child's social network - well, you know, we have a well-known social graph of people in our country who met in judo. If we lived in Holland, we would sell it as a wellness program, after which the child will be ready for the next school year. But we live in Russia, so for parents this is an opportunity to go to Crimea or just sit at home in unusual silence.



For us, the camp is in many ways a way to compensate for the off-season and make money. During the summer, children have holidays, and since the football sections are located near the schools or in the schools themselves, the load also drops dramatically. Secondly, camps and other intensified activities are part of the preparation of the national teams, which can further result in the child's professional career. But we do not focus on preparing pro players: it is irrational and rather cruel towards children. Here I have more details about this solution and its analysis. In short, sport is good as a way to socialize, to keep fit - but bad as a career if outstanding abilities are not immediately noticed. The marginality of the camp is higher than the marginality of the football sections.



The “near-camp” event differs from the classic training camp in that the training camp is usually a hardcore intensive. When football players go to training camps, this often means losing a few kilograms for those who are not trained enough in the first week (primary fat, then the muscles begin to weigh more fat), maximum training and hellish loads. If you are lucky enough to raise your head and see nature, good. In the case of the camp, it is rather an entertainment program with an emphasis on socialization, which is supported by sports training. According to the methodology, the social function always prevails over the sports one.



From the point of view of the business model, such activities are an even sharp increase in LTV.client. The child who was with us on the shift is an order of magnitude more fond of football (regardless of gender, build and starting preparation). In a financial model, this means that he will walk until the end of the year, and will also go on the next such vacation. Casual - he will just like this hobby, and he will continue to extract endorphins from it.



Finally, and last but not least, "camp" is a way to keep fit and improve training for those who are going to play football professionally. We had shifts, almost entirely consisting of children, who were engaged in other football academies and sections (not ours), but went on such a vacation with pleasure.



We have several shifts a year, that is, you can choose slots from June 20 to August 20 in the summer, and one shift each in spring, winter and autumn. Usually, the football academy makes one slot, and if a family leaves for it somewhere, then the child is left without football.



In a shift from 12 (minimum) to 49 (so far maximum) children. They usually live in rooms for 2 or 4 people, depending on the base. It is impossible to settle in three, because in any minor conflict a “two against one” situation is formed, which further leads to an imbalance in domestic politics. Unlike autoregulating political systems, this union does not have time to change several times, therefore it is stable within the framework of the change. Age from 6 to 13. So that you understand what 13 years are - I will clarify that our senior player came to the first tournament after the camp with a 15-year-old girl. The coaching staff was pleasantly surprised. Especially because the coach does not have a girlfriend, and the players are already coming.

Stakeholder management

If anything, modern parents have already grown up with cell phones and do not understand how you can let your child go for a walk to the construction site, throw carbide into puddles, simply by discussing that it would be nice to return home for dinner. Or it’s just nice to come back. Children, on the other hand, have not seen the world without the Internet and constant communication, therefore they do not really understand how you can live without time-lubricants. These are the things that fill the minimum pauses in your life. For example, while you are driving along the escalator in the subway, you can just look around, or you can read a book, check the feed on social networks, or play.



That is, parents have a need for constant control, to which they are accustomed. For children - in a constant interesting lesson. Not that these needs have changed from generation to generation, but now transactions are more frequent. That is, if the children go on a hike, the activity will not be the hike itself, but 142 of its thought-out episodes separately. And if parents used to be able to call a child from a landline phone once every 3 days, now transactions are needed every few hours.



Each project has stakeholders - those for whom this project is being done. It is assumed that you know these very people in advance and control their behavior. The procedure implies that you inform someone (moreover, you choose the most convenient channel for the purpose, and not for yourself - up to personal messages on Instagram), you involve someone from time to time, and you constantly want something from someone. At a minimum, all stakeholders should understand what is wrong with the project, because it ultimately benefits him.



Our main stakeholder (apart from the head office) is our parents. If in business we want to look at the changes in end-to-end metrics every day, then in the camp we quickly realized that parents need to send reports about what is happening.



I suspect that this is far from a new solution (they even send me reports on the daily behavior of a sponsored elephant in Africa) - but it was a great solution for baby shifts. And such reports on the progress of projects are actually always sent in one way or another by project managers and product managers. By the way, if you don't, it's worth starting, it's very cheap (provided that you have end-to-end metrics), and the benefits of synchronizing understanding are immeasurable. This is one of those things that everyone who has been trained in management understands, and did not come to lead from mathematics / IT.



Here's an example of a report:

Second day

. . . , . ( , ). Barcelona, . 3x3, 2x2 1x1. , , , . , . «». 2-3 , , , . 30 , .

As you can see, this is far from mass personalization, but the first quite good rudiment of history. The counselor attaches a photo-video report on the day to the message, trying to capture each child in the photo at least once. Often these are goals in test matches.







The next possible step is to mark the actions of specific children in the general report, or add a comment about a specific child in the private part of the report only to his parents. Actually, this should be automated, using the very analytics that we do in the spirit of “Today Semyon ran 7.2 kilometers, his pass accuracy is 82%,” but so far it looks redundant. There is also a general collection page on VKontakte, where you can discuss.

End user management

There are two types of activities for the kids in the camp: a boring routine like making beds or some exercise elements - and something fun they do like playing football or 142 hiking elements.



The first thing to do is try to use Tom Sawyer's method to translate as much routine as possible into an interesting part. You saw an example above: we do not have a classic exercise, where everyone builds up and does exercises for the coach. Each charge is a game with certain rules from "bouncers" of any analogs of lightning or advanced hide and seek with different mods.



This cannot be done with every activity. For example, it can be very difficult to explain to a child that making the bed is fun. Therefore, gamification is used for stupid repetitive actions - this is an ideal tool for turning the routine into a little more bearable. The main thing in this business is not to make a complex system where it is not needed. After a series of experiments, it turned out that the system "5 points to Gryffindor!" Works well, which is intuitive for children. But the methodology does not imply competition between two or four groups of children, we constantly mix up the composition of the teams and, in fact, form one big team in the end. That is, we do not have a PvP camp here, but rather PvE. In general, after a number of simplifications, it became just a system for getting points for the order (almost like bonuses for a seller in a tabletop store): make a bed - keep a point.Brush your teeth - keep the score. The team won the What, Where, When, with football questions in the evening - all winners receive a point. We won the match - one point for everyone. It is clear that there is a vulnerability in the fact that a child can fall behind and decide that he does not need points - and stop looking at good behavior. But practice shows that even the most frostbitten comrades, who clearly cut through such psychological manipulations, go in the region of 60-70% of the possible maximum. We try not to focus on personal rivalry, but simply show these points to parents. For children up to about 8-10 years old, the attitude of their parents is very important. And children at the age of 10-13 already want to show that they are cool themselves, and are looking for ways to take these points for this.when »with football questions in the evening - all winners receive a point. We won the match - one point for everyone. It is clear that there is a vulnerability in the fact that a child can fall behind and decide that he does not need points - and stop looking at good behavior. But practice shows that even the most frostbitten comrades, who clearly cut through such psychological manipulations, go in the region of 60-70% of the possible maximum. We try not to focus on personal rivalry, but simply show these points to parents. For children up to about 8-10 years old, the attitude of their parents is very important. And children at the age of 10-13 already want to show that they are cool themselves, and are looking for ways to take these points for this.when »with football questions in the evening - all winners receive a point. We won the match - one point for everyone. It is clear that there is a vulnerability in the fact that a child can fall behind and decide that he does not need points - and stop looking at good behavior. But practice shows that even the most frostbitten comrades, who clearly cut through such psychological manipulations, go in the region of 60-70% of the possible maximum. We try not to focus on personal rivalry, but simply show these points to parents. For children up to about 8-10 years old, the attitude of their parents is very important. And children at the age of 10-13 already want to show that they are cool themselves, and are looking for ways to take these points for this.that he doesn't need points - and stop looking at good behavior. But practice shows that even the most frostbitten comrades, who clearly cut through such psychological manipulations, go in the region of 60-70% of the possible maximum. We try not to focus on personal rivalry, but simply show these points to parents. For children up to about 8-10 years old, the attitude of their parents is very important. And children at the age of 10-13 already want to show that they are cool themselves, and are looking for ways to take these points for this.that he doesn't need points - and stop looking at good behavior. But practice shows that even the most frostbitten comrades, who clearly cut through such psychological manipulations, go in the region of 60-70% of the possible maximum. We try not to focus on personal rivalry, but simply show these points to parents. For children up to about 8-10 years old, the attitude of their parents is very important. And children at the age of 10-13 already want to show that they are cool themselves, and are looking for ways to take these points for this.And children at the age of 10-13 already want to show that they are cool themselves, and are looking for ways to take these points for this.And children at the age of 10-13 already want to show that they are cool themselves, and are looking for ways to take these points for this.



The next moment - you need to do so that the child does not get bored. It's almost like in the army: if the personnel are not busy with anything, they begin to pose a threat to themselves and those around them. But if cool tickets are born in the army like “sweep the parade ground with a crowbar” or “repaint the leaves from green to statutory green,” then we need to change our activities a lot and often:







Leisure blocks are different all the time, as well as master classes. There is a theater, karaoke battle, disco. Lots of board games, advanced tactical soccer lessons, watching a sports movie, watching a soccer match. By the way, watching a match or a movie with the coach's comments turned out to be a very good format (well, in general, this is an interesting topic). For example, I had this: you can watch Crocodile Dundee as an adventure film, or after a trip to the Northern Territory of Australia, you can understand how many Easter eggs there are, banter over the local cultural code and clearly show the subtle nuances of life in NT - and explain this to the audience. Well, in about the same way, the coach can explain the match in the context of what the children know and can do, indicating what is worth paying attention to. In general, he is like a good streamer, only a coach.



The program for all days is basically the same, but depending on the location of the training camp, something changes. Somewhere there is a pool, somewhere a trampoline center, if there is nothing at all, we are looking for excursions or other activities such as a pandapark, cycling, etc.



Another way to turn any boring activity into an interesting one is to introduce a spirit of rebellion and break some of the established rules. In this regard, I madly adore the book "School for Scoundrels" by the beautiful Danny King (such as Guy Ritchie of the world of literature) about how criminals raised criminals. Of course, I do not recommend doing this in any way. Categorically.

A little about the finmodel

The main expense is the accommodation of the children in the camp, the coach's salary, the manager's (office) salary, and the transfer to the place. Minor shares - equipment, medicines, all sorts of badges, prizes, gifts for contests, advertising to attract people (usually ends with its own channels in the client base, plus there are small bonuses for those coaches who brought clients), entertainment rent (such as a trampoline center), stationery and so on.



A small shift in spring or winter for a parent costs from 25 to 30-32 thousand rubles, summer ones are more expensive, about 40-45 thousand (Sochi with a flight is more expensive). A day costs about 4100 with a 3-bed occupancy. In winter, there is a peak in prices from January 2 to 10, when the price of accommodation is higher, because the bases and hotels are busy with vacationers. Next shifts with prices here... Reports from the last VKontakte here .