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IMG vs Bucky Dent vs Doyle Baseball Camp

Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
Does anyone know a player that has attended any of these Summer Baseball Camps? I am writing from Northern California and I want to send my 13 yo to a camp for 3 weeks.

The Bucky Dent camp is by far the most affordable of the lot. But is IMG and Doyle Baseball Camps far superior in training?

Wondering if anyone has had experience or has heard anything about these camps.

edit: I am hoping to find a sleepover camp that will last 2 - 3 weeks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!
Last edited {1}
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Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
Thanks everyone for your input! I have pm into floridafan for the skinny on Doyle and also heard positive things from another member regarding IMG. But the real mystery is the Bucky Dent Camp which is less than half the price.

I'm going to put a call into the BD camp later this week to find out what the schedule is like, and the player - coach ratio. But if anyone here has had an experience there or knows of someone who has; I would greatly appreciate your input.

Thanks again!
Last edited by Zeninfinity
Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
Thank you all for your responses!

I gotta say when a HSBBweb old timer (floridafan) and a GM (UticaBrewersGM) both from Florida, recommend Doyle, that's pretty strong stuff.

I've also gotten some very positive messages regarding IMG.

No offense 20dad, while I appreciate the input about the staff, which is indeed helpful, just wondering what the experience is like for the baseball camp.

There has to be someone out there that can tell us about an experience at the Bucky Dent camp, c'mon don't be shy. ; )

I also found out about a camp with a long history in Missouri, it folded a few years ago and may be ressurected; Mickey Owen Baseball School. Right now all they do is travel ball tournements. http://www.sandlotbaseball.net/

I read many positive things about this camp.

Doyle is looking pretty good right now, but $4k plus flights and everything else is mighty expensive for me. IMG is about the same price.

I'm still hoping to find something more cost effective.

Any ideas?
TPMTPMHSBaseballweb Member since 2003
Bucky Dent Camp as well as Doyle's have been around for a long time. Many of those camps make lots of money from people who come down to visit here in FL and use those camps to baby sit (sorry but this happens alot). My friends nephew came here for spring break and they sent him there to keep him busy, he loved it and he's 8. Most of the kids areound here went to Doyle and BD when younger.
Camp in MO probably was one where people come to vacation in Branson (a tourist hot spot) and sent their kids to baseball camp so they wouldn't
drive them nuts.
I do beleive their is a camp in Springfield at the cardinals field during summer so it may have been a conflict with the other camp in Branson.
Tommy Hutton has a camp in Jupiter...10 week sessions available! You can find anything on the internet. Smile
Why don't you look into the college camps in your area. Don't some college programs have 2-3 weeks of camp available in summer?
Last edited by TPM
Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
TPM,

Thank you for your response and insight.

Haven't found any 2-3 week programs for a 13 yo in California. I am sure they exist, but I haven't found one yet; most are 5 day programs some with an overnight stay, but mostly day camps.

I simply want my son to:

A) Learn proper technique - This is a huge one for me. My son has been told so many different things by all his well meaning LL coaches. I want someone "who really knows what they are doing" to teach my son. I realize this is subjective, but this is my true desire, to get high quality instruction of high level baseball. To me, a great teacher is everything.
B) Get lots of high quality, supervised reps in
C) Strengthen his mental game
D) Enjoy the commaraderie of the camp experience

The main thing we would like to come away with is a strong foundation to build on as well as a list of things that need to be worked on.
Last edited by Zeninfinity
N NorcalBBall_Dad10+ posts
Good info, and I don't want to hi-jack the thread but what about for a high schooler? Would one of the three camps be better for older kids? Son is 16, sophmore, plays on JV but not getting as much playing time as he'd like, so the goal would be to give him a boost to help him make the starting lineup next year. Btw, anyone with experience with IMG?
Last edited by NorcalBBall_Dad
floridafanfloridafan5,000+ posts
IMG is very good, I know of two players that attended the IMG Academy. One for his 4 years in High School. They run an excellent program, I continue to believe that the Doyle Academy is still tops. At Doyle, you will have very close work with Denny and Blake, both of who played in the MLB and have run their Academy for 20+ years. The Doyle program has had numerous players pass through that have played and are paying in the Majors. They continue to work with players that are in the Majors, even if it is just over the phone.

No one that I know has IMG contact their son after they leave the program, Denny checks in with me weekly, and he keeps up with other alumni as well, as does his brother Blake.

In short, there is no age limit at Doyle and they have the knowlege, ability, and desire to meet each player where his is and provide concise effective instruction.
Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
Follow up.

I just wanted to say that I am truly convinced that Doyle Baseball Camp is one of the top baseball camps, if not the top, in the United States. I've spoken to Denny Doyle a few times now and I finally get it.

Let me preface this first: I've been looking for a top quality camp for my son to go to for about 9 months. Via google I have searched the internet far and wide for a top quality camp. Here's my logic and why thisis important to me. My sport when I was a kid was judo. I started at 5 and went to a club 3 times a week. For 4 years I would go to local tournaments and get clobbered, never won a thing, no big. Then I took 3rd at a very small local tournament and a Japanese instructor saw me compete. My mother (also Japanese) was there and he struck up a conversation and as a courtesy invited me and my mother to check out his club.

Long story short, by 10 I took 3rd in the state, 11 East Coast Champion, 12 2nd in the US and 14 Pan American Gold Medalist. What changed? I was still going to practice 3 times a week just like the old club I went to. What changed was the level of instruction and the type of training, everything was much more detailed and we practiced with much more focus and intensity. In short, my instructor or sensei, after many years of teaching and refinement of thereof, had judo training down to a science. Our club was chock full of state, national, Pan Am, World Champions and Olympic team members. With judo in the US it is definitely the 80 - 20 rule. 20% of the clubs in the US put out 80% of the top players, the other 80% of the clubs put out 20% of the top players. I feel this is the case with many sports. Sorry I digress.

Here's another experience. I also played hockey as a kid, at first I sucked big time at that too!: ) My Dad was fairly well off and after 2 years of being a horrible player he shipped me off to Canada one summer for hockey camp for 2 weeks. Guess what, I made the travel team the next year. I went from the C team to the travel team. I went to Canada again the following summer and became the captain of the travel team.

The moral of the story here is that a top instructor is everything! IMHO ; )

The baseball inner circle is much more exclusive than the judo circle. If you were to ask me the top judo clubs and instructors in the country I could rattle them off to you in a heartbeat. Ask me about baseball and I am totally clueless. So thus my search for the ultimate baseball camp, I am out of the loop with baseball AND it is such a huge sport that there are way too many guys out there saying they are experts, which if we apply the 80/20 rule simply can't be true.

After tons of research it really came down to Doyle and IMG. IMG has lots of flash and flair, in a couple of words, very *exy. But who would be coaching? What's the coaches experience, philosophy, track record etc etc? Well, what coach your son gets, all depends on when you attend and or the luck of the draw...hmmm.

The Doyles to me are rock solid.

1) They have been training players for over 30 years. This is huge, they are specialists and have refined and refined again and again their methods over the years. Ina word they have become very efficient at what they do.

2) They all played in the MLB for a combined 30 years. Having played in the MLB doesn't make you a great teacher, but the combination of MLB experience AND the pursuit to become the best teachers is a very powerful combination.

3) They are out on the field teaching everyday of the camp; again huge. They don't show up for an hour one day to sign autographs, they are "hands on".

4) This all spells to me Quality Control

Needless to say my son will be attending Doyle Baseball Camp aka "the Academy" this summer.

If there are others in the same boat as me, trying to make your dollars stretch as far as possible and getting the best possible instruction, please feel free to pm me and I can tell you about all the camps I checked out. If someone knows of another camp that has the same high standards as the Doyles please let me know about it. But in all sincerity, I think the Doyles are one of the best kept secrets in training young men in baseball.
Last edited by Zeninfinity
S smalltownmom100+ posts
They're quality people and instructors. Our son loves and respects Coch Doyle. You will not be disappointed. Our son went to a camp at 13. Now he gets occasional lessons, but Coach Doyle keeps up with him and has come to watch him play. Another aside, Coach Doyle really does keep up with his pupils as they go on to college and the pros. On occasion we have met and even got to hit with some of them. I am sure he will have a great time, and learn alot in the process. I don't know much about the other camps, but you have made a great choice.
Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
floridafan, smalltownmom thank you both for your recommendations. floridafan, thank you for connecting me with Denny. The more I found out about the place the better I feel about my son going. It's obvious when speaking to Denny that he takes his craft very seriously; a master teacher so to speak.

Again, I thank you both, totally appreciate it!
Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
July 27th 2011 Update

My son left July 5th and has returned on the 23rd. Here's a recap of his experience at Doyle Baseball Camp.

Once my son arrived he had to turn in his phone, the policy of the camp is that players get to use their phone every 3 days for 4 hours, no laptops are allowed. This is to insure that the students are focused on baseball; I love it!

Needless to say I was a little uptight about the whole thing, my son turned 13 in late March and this was his first time away from home for an extended time. So over the next 3 days I was a little nervous. The call came in and it was so noisy in the background (his roommates/buddies) I could barely have a conversation with him, it was very frustrating, but it was obvious (now looking back) my son was having fun. We ended the conversation, but it left me still concerned of where he was at with the whole thing. So I sent him a text message, "on a scale from 1 -10 how is the camp?" His reply, "11".Big Grin

My next conversation with him was more private, he hung out in a stairwell so I could hear him. He mentioned about how he couldn't believe the strong "work ethic" some of the guys had. "Work ethic", wow I never heard him say those words before, but more importantly, he was looking up to the guys who had a strong work ethic and wanted to be like them. Powerful stuff.

My other favorite call from him was little past midway through the camp. Once again he was in the stairwell, I could tell he was exhausted. I asked him how he was doing and he said he was working very hard and was really tired. He said while talking to me he was laying down on his side in the stairwell with the phone resting on the side of his face, because he was too tired to hold it. I told him how proud I was of him for working so hard and cut the call short so he could get some rest. In earnest, it was a very proud moment for me, he was really giving it all he had.

To be honest there are no words that can explain my satisfaction with Doyle Baseball Camps. There is no doubt my son's skill level, understanding of the game and love of the game went WAY up. There is also no doubt that all the camp coaches were top notch and pushed him to greater heights. But the one thing I never could have imagined about the camp was that my son not only came out a much better ball player, but he came out a much better person with an elevated sense of self esteem. "I feel great! I feel great!" he said to me as he boarded the plane back home.

All I can say is that Doyle Baseball Camp totally exceeded, no better yet, blew away all my, very high, expectations. These guys really know what they are doing on so many levels, to say they are brilliant baseball trainers would be really selling them short. The Doyle crew are very special, it's a very unique situation, no wonder they have been around for over 30 years and have so many of their alumni move on to college and professional baseball. In short, it's so much more than a high level baseball camp.

Regarding my son, he had the time of his life!

Floridafan - Thank you so much for reaching out to me and telling me about this wonderful place. I am forever grateful.
Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
Thank you as well smalltownmom! His motivation is through the roof. My son just called me to tell me that he went to the gym and worked out, ran 10 60's and just finished up taking 100 cuts on the punching bag and then 100 more off the tee...by himself, with zero prodding from me. Yikes! There's no doubt, he's got the fever big time!

He only took 3 days off after 18 days of intensive training. I think all the discussion and then the good examples of "work ethic" really rubbed off in a big way.

Feeling like a very smart Dad right now. Once again, thank you!
JF J. Fegley10+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Zeninfinity:
I just found another contender. Sho-Me Advanced Baseball Camp http://www.shomebaseball.com/index.asp

Ok. Not crazy about the name, but again wondering if anyone has had an experience with this camp or has heard anything about it.

Thanks!


I cannot you about the quality of instruction of either Sho-Me or Sandlot (Mickey Owens). However I can tell you that my son's teams have played the Sandlot teams on several occasions this summer and in every game the coach (there were a four different ones as they have 2 teams that we played in each of the 13 and 14 levels) the coach was yelling at the kids for various things. I am not opposed to yelling I do it with my teams when appropriate. But losing a ball in the sun, missing a bad hop off of a rock, etc. is not appropriate in my opinion.
However, my post is more about the quality of facilities. Sandlot looks like it was transported directly out of the 50s. Some of the dugouts are delapidated at best. Some have holes in the roof. The cabins are exactly that cabins (no A/C which is not necessarily bad). It looks like a true camp, but it is various states of disrepair.
Conversely, Sho-Me is more up to date. Rather than cabins, it appears to be a dorm setting. The fields appear to be maintained much better. We have never played there, but I have driven by it and looked it over on numerous occasions.
Z Zeninfinity10+ posts
Hi Folks,

I've been getting quite a few PM's regarding Doyle Baseball Camps.

My son will be attending the "Academy" this summer and he keeps telling me he can't wait. In short, it's the highlight of his year!

The Academy is a 18 day intensive training camp. It's not a roast weenies by the fire pit type of camp. There is no pool. It's baseball, baseball and more baseball and in the best kind of way.

If your son is just starting out, I'm not so sure if this would be the right camp for him. I would recommend the Doyle Baseball Camp to parents of kids that already play at a sufficient level and are very motivated about improving.

If your son fits the bill, then I cannot recommend this camp enough. It's so much more than a top notch baseball camp. My son has mentioned the camp at least 20+ times since he left. He constantly recalls fun things that happened, talks about all the different kids at the camp and a lot of; "Denny said this" or "Blake said that".

I'll leave you with this.

About a month ago my son said he had a "nightmare" about Doyle Baseball Camp. This really threw me off, because everything he had said previously was so positive; how could he have a "nightmare" about it?

It went sort of like this: My son speaking; "Well I remember hearing that the word got out and the camp became very popular. Denny and Blake made so much money that they added a huge swimming pool with lots of slides like a water park. I remember arriving there and everyone was by the pool on their cell phones and hacking around. It was like a nightmare!" Lol!

The point being in his dream/nightmare the camp had lost it's appeal to my son because everyone was fooling around, it was no longer "serious". Hard work and discipline no longer ruled the day in his dream. Please don't get me wrong, my son LOVES to hack around (almost too much) and indeed there is plenty of joking around and having fun at Doyle. But my son really loved the camp because of it's structure, intensity and the work ethic. He most definitely worked harder there than any other time in his young life and the key here is that he really enjoyed it, it was a major boost to his self-esteem.

In short, if your kid is motivated, it will be the most fun he will ever have working his tail off. What more could you possibly ask for in a baseball camp?
Last edited by Zeninfinity
B BaseballtripsMember
quote:
Originally posted by Zeninfinity:
Follow up.

I just wanted to say that I am truly convinced that Doyle Baseball Camp is one of the top baseball camps, if not the top, in the United States. I've spoken to Denny Doyle a few times now and I finally get it.

Let me preface this first: I've been looking for a top quality camp for my son to go to for about 9 months. Via google I have searched the internet far and wide for a top quality camp. Here's my logic and why thisis important to me. My sport when I was a kid was judo. I started at 5 and went to a club 3 times a week. For 4 years I would go to local tournaments and get clobbered, never won a thing, no big. Then I took 3rd at a very small local tournament and a Japanese instructor saw me compete. My mother (also Japanese) was there and he struck up a conversation and as a courtesy invited me and my mother to check out his club.

Long story short, by 10 I took 3rd in the state, 11 East Coast Champion, 12 2nd in the US and 14 Pan American Gold Medalist. What changed? I was still going to practice 3 times a week just like the old club I went to. What changed was the level of instruction and the type of training, everything was much more detailed and we practiced with much more focus and intensity. In short, my instructor or sensei, after many years of teaching and refinement of thereof, had judo training down to a science. Our club was chock full of state, national, Pan Am, World Champions and Olympic team members. With judo in the US it is definitely the 80 - 20 rule. 20% of the clubs in the US put out 80% of the top players, the other 80% of the clubs put out 20% of the top players. I feel this is the case with many sports. Sorry I digress.

Here's another experience. I also played hockey as a kid, at first I sucked big time at that too!: ) My Dad was fairly well off and after 2 years of being a horrible player he shipped me off to Canada one summer for hockey camp for 2 weeks. Guess what, I made the travel team the next year. I went from the C team to the travel team. I went to Canada again the following summer and became the captain of the travel team.

The moral of the story here is that a top instructor is everything! IMHO ; )

The baseball inner circle is much more exclusive than the judo circle. If you were to ask me the top judo clubs and instructors in the country I could rattle them off to you in a heartbeat. Ask me about baseball and I am totally clueless. So thus my search for the ultimate baseball camp, I am out of the loop with baseball AND it is such a huge sport that there are way too many guys out there saying they are experts, which if we apply the 80/20 rule simply can't be true.

After tons of research it really came down to Doyle and IMG. IMG has lots of flash and flair, in a couple of words, very *exy. But who would be coaching? What's the coaches experience, philosophy, track record etc etc? Well, what coach your son gets, all depends on when you attend and or the luck of the draw...hmmm.

The Doyles to me are rock solid.

1) They have been training players for over 30 years. This is huge, they are specialists and have refined and refined again and again their methods over the years. Ina word they have become very efficient at what they do.

2) They all played in the MLB for a combined 30 years. Having played in the MLB doesn't make you a great teacher, but the combination of MLB experience AND the pursuit to become the best teachers is a very powerful combination.

3) They are out on the field teaching everyday of the camp; again huge. They don't show up for an hour one day to sign autographs, they are "hands on".

4) This all spells to me Quality Control

Needless to say my son will be attending Doyle Baseball Camp aka "the Academy" this summer.

If there are others in the same boat as me, trying to make your dollars stretch as far as possible and getting the best possible instruction, please feel free to pm me and I can tell you about all the camps I checked out. If someone knows of another camp that has the same high standards as the Doyles please let me know about it. But in all sincerity, I think the Doyles are one of the best kept secrets in training young men in baseball.
floridafanfloridafan5,000+ posts
There is nothing out there on the level of the Doyle Academy.

At 23 my son continues to see Denny Doyle. The relationship that has developed between Denny and my son cannot be overstated.

I would never consider any other academy or camp or instructor.

He played in the Majors for 12 years, has been teaching for 30 years, and is fully hands on.
S scottyball10+ posts

This is a great forum as I have been researching the difference and where to send my son...IMG or Doyle for a three-week baseball program.  I research things thoroughly. I have been getting the sense that IMG has a cold institutional setting, but the boys have the potential to learn alot.  Doyle sounds like a true baseball players paradise with no boy left behind. 

Thank you Zeninfinity and Floridafan. We dont need the best facility and the glam, just coaches willing to provide absolute dedicated hands on instruction.I think my son's demeanor is better suited for Doyle.  We will be attending in July 2014.

BB Branson Baseball5,000+ posts

I've posted my thoughts on IMG vs other places before. My sons were in the full time IMG program and have done camps at Doyle and IMG.

 

Doyle is a significantly better camp experience as others have noted. Denny and his coaches have a strong moral compass too. And very positive guys.

 

I won't belabor my negative opinion of IMG other than to say other camps have far more value for the money.  And run, don't walk, from the full time IMG program.

 

Lots of places will take your money in this world of baseball.  Things we feel were good values even if expensive:  Doyle, Headfirst Honor Roll Camp, Stanford Camp, Texas Baseball Ranch.

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