Christina R.

I have coached youth soccer camps at Arizona state University for 2 summers in a row. I also went to Barcelona and coached at a boys youth camp for boys called ISL.

I made varsity as a freshman at Casa Grande high school. We won the NCS title 3 out of the four years I was there. I then played at Santa Rosa Junior College and one of those years we won the state Championship. My last year I earned MVP out of the entire conference. I then got a scholarship to Arizona State University and played there for two years. After College Soccer I continued to play professionally in Switzerland for FC Lugano Femminile.

My sessions are very dependent on the age group and level of athletes. For instance, being that this is under 12s, I would still stick with a strong base of fundamentals while incorporating more technical skills and complex strategies that are useful to teach at an early age. I didn’t have this when I was growing up, and I think my game could have been far more advanced with learning the game in more detail early on. First and foremost, the key in my trainings start with fun. I like to start out by getting to know more about the children/athletes I’m working with and who they are. I build great connections with kids and I want them to feel comfortable with me so they can feel confident in their play. Having fun is the most important aspect of development as you want them to be engaged in the sessions and have passion and intention while they work. After getting to know them we would start a session by warming up with dynamic stretches and getting our muscles loosened. Injury prevention is also a huge part of my trainings which involves a lot of other exercises that my session would entail. Stretching is big! I like to do agility and ladders to sharpen strength and footwork. Then I’d walk through some basics with them such as touches on the ball, passing, dribbling, volleys, shooting etc. With this kind of baseline I can then kind of assess them and their skill level and see what areas we need to work on and what kind of goal I would have for them as an individual. I then add in some competitive games where I’ll jump in with them to make it fun!