Over the summer, the Detroit Tigers host youth camps throughout Michigan. During these camps, 6-to 14-year-olds get coached by U18 players on the Detroit Tigers youth teams along with coaches in the program. This year's East Lansing camp took place from July 20-24, and had a turnout better than it had seen in previous years.

Karl Kling, a Detroit Tigers teen coach and lead for the East Lansing camp, was excited to host a group that was just shy of 100 campers.

All the young campers start building friendships early on by getting to know each other and their group leads very well. By day three, they are already joking around and enjoying being with each other.

Over the week-long camp, the campers rotate between stations that focus on certain aspects of baseball. Each station is led by an U18 player or coach with the skills to help the campers improve.

However, not all the stations are just strict training. 

Starting the day at 9 a.m., the groups are sent to different parts of the field to warm up. Rather than being typical warm-ups, these stations were games intended to keep the campers engaged while preparing them for the day ahead.

Some of the games included “jail tic-tac-toe” and ultimate baseball — baseball's version of ultimate frisbee. Participating in these gave the kids a way to have fun and stretch their muscles while still incorporating baseball.

Coach Karl explains, "Our goal here is just to make it a fun experience. One of the things that a lot of people don't think about is they're going to learn how to operate as a team. You know, how to share. So all of life's experiences can be had at the camp as well."

Later stations were targeted at more specific aspects typical of baseball. Everything from batting practice to shortstop drills and quick ball release. All of which the campers rotated through roughly every 15 minutes.