Three Camps, One Summer

Between the end of June and the first week of August, Talata ran camps on two continents and three coasts. Canada, Lithuania, and home in Copenhagen. Here's what each one was for, and what came out of it.

Canada · Lethbridge, Alberta · 29 June to 3 July

We flew academy players from Copenhagen to Alberta and trained alongside local players for a week. Danish kids found out quickly that basketball in Alberta comes at you physical and direct. That was why we went.

The full story is in the Canada recap. Short version: we're going back in 2027.

Nida · Curonian Spit, Lithuania · 26 July to 2 August

A residential week on the Baltic coast, organised and hosted with Vaice Rules. Train hard, eat together, walk out to the sea. Lithuania takes basketball more seriously than almost anywhere in Europe, and a week inside that is worth a season of drills.

The thing we were proudest of had nothing to do with basketball. A parent wrote this afterwards:

“You’re teaching them so much more than basketball. They told me about leaving the facilities in better condition than they found them, and about giving flowers and gifts to the kitchen staff. Those are the values that stay with them long after the game is over.” Nida Camp parent, August 2026

We publish our reviews without names, because most of our players are children. That one we'd have framed.

Copenhagen · Nørre Fælled Skole · 3 to 7 August

Our biggest camp of the year and the one closest to home. Two tracks running in the same hall, three courts and eight hoops, a younger group finishing earlier and the older group going all day. It finished with an All-Star Game and Family Day on the Friday.

One parent, visiting Denmark for the summer, sent this:

“It was something we had to sell to him at the start of our trip, and by the second day he couldn’t wait to wake up and head to camp.” Summer Camp parent, August 2026

Getting a kid to want to wake up early in his own summer holiday is a higher bar than winning a drill.

What we learned

Three things carried across all three camps.

Small-sided games beat lines. Nobody stands and waits at a Talata camp. Players get touches, make decisions, and fail often enough to learn something.

New opponents expose you faster than new drills. A week against people who don't know your habits teaches more than a month against people who do.

How you leave a place matters. That isn't a slogan we invented for a website. It came back to us from a parent who heard it from her own kid.

Next up

The autumn camps ran over the October holiday at Hafnia-Hallen. Academy U12 Camp for ages 5 to 11 and Academy U15 Camp for ages 12 to 16 both ran four days, Monday 12 to Thursday 15 October, side by side in the same hall. Tuesday 13 October was a full day too, with court time in the morning and the afternoon and a session upstairs in the middle. College and Academy Camp for ages 13 to 17 is 28 to 30 December in the same hall.