Juan Carlos Salazar

Everything started at Colombia, my homecountry. After playing several years for the academy team for several professional soccer clubs, and representing my city and country, I was blessed to obtain a full-ride to play soccer at the collegiate level. Due to my economic situation at the time, I selected to play Junior college and NAIA, as they paid for all my expenses to come here and play. After 4 successful years of playing and soccer and being a captain for my last two years, I obtained my bachelors degree in Business Management and Economics. During my team as an athlete, I was named several times as a first team for the conference awards and academic achievements. Soccer has always being my passion since I have been a kid. I played in the streets, school, academy, college and semipro level. Having the opportunity to be trained by several coaches, physical trainers and individual coaches, gave me an extensive knowledge and skills of what it takes and is needed to succeed as a soccer player. Not only being physically ready is important, but especially to be mentally though and be always focused. I got the experience to coach several youth teams in Laredo, Texas (My junio college) and in Kansas City, where I taught them the basics of the game (How to control, pass, dribble and shoot). However, I had a couple of one-on-one kids, who I trained more in depth and help them improve their physical and technical skills. I work mostly with kids from 8 to 18 years old, especially with those who are looking to get to the semi pro or college level in the future. Being a player itself gives me the experience, knowkedge and skills to properly train and help other get to their best level. My strengths are helping forwards with their movements and shooting skills, along with the passing and controlling drills to properly know how to position on the game and be ready for the next play.

As mentioned before, I played at the semipro, college and academy level in Colombia and in the United States. I graduated from Park University where I was blessed to be named the player of the year of my program, and a first conference team member of the AMC NAIA conference. I was the goal scorer and assist leader at both of my universities, and had the honor to represent my country and city when I was in Colombia. I played for Millonarios, Fortaleza, Seleccion Bogota and Colombian Youth team.

I started all with the warm-up and stretching, which is essential for avoiding injuries and be ready to a complete and intense practice. Afterwards, I proceed with some quick touches on the ball, with some passing and moving drills. In between exercises, I work on the technique of each player by doing some ball work and not letting the ball fall. Afterwards, I setup different coordination and conditioning drills with and without the ball, with an emphasis on passing and controlling, the most important aspects a soccer player must have. After that I setup dribbling drills with cones and change of directions. I always like to finish my session with some intense 5 minute shooting drills from different angles, using both legs, with some dribbling and different scenarios (ball in the air, first touch, on the run). At the end, I always like to finish with some jogging games and to do a full stretching. Something I like to do is to give my athletes different homework for our next session. For example, I ask them to analyze a specific player or watch a specific game, and give me their insights on the several aspects of the player or match (transitions, body positioning, mental agility, strengths, weaknesses, types of play). This gave them the opportunity to analyze better the game, understand why is so important what we do and how they can apply it on a real game.