RRSC Youth Soccer Academy
U5s for Fall 2008/Spring 2009

For children born between Aug 01, 2003 and July 31, 2004

Overview
The RRSC Youth Soccer Academy seeks to positively impact your child’s development in a FUN and developmentally appropriate environment.

RRSC looks forward to impacting your child positively and creating an environment where both child and parent(s) learn the importance of developmentally appropriate activities while providing the foundation to healthy lifestyles through soccer.

The RRSC Soccer Academy Membership encompasses:

• US Club Soccer membership (player insurance coverage)
• Up to Two (2) 60 min. professionally coached sessions per week.
• Training sessions will be Mondays and Friday evenings (tentative location: Rio Rancho Sportsplex on High Resort).
• By the 4th week of the season, participants will be invited to attend a second training session per week.
• One 45 min. game per week (Intra-club. Location: Loma Colorado Park at 555 Loma Colorado Dr.
• Two nine week sessions (Fall, 2008 and Spring, 2009)
• No tryouts; everyone is welcome!
• Professional staff coaching
• Professional program management - Developmental Director (PhD candidate in Physical Education)
• Tons of fun and physical activity
• $100 Program Fee.
• $26 RRSC uniform fee (package includes jersey, shorts, and socks). As a value-added service to Academy Participants, RRSC will collect the uniform fee for all participants at registration. Uniforms will be delivered at/by the 2nd practice.

Developmental Approach
The RRSC Youth Soccer Academy has been created to introduce developmentally appropriate soccer to children at the younger ages. The United States Soccer Federation and US Youth Soccer view the early soccer years of a player as the key to the foundation for the children to enjoy and grow positively in their development as both a child and soccer player. Our goal as a club is to create an environment in which the kids LOVE to play the game of soccer. We want our kids to want the soccer ball to be their favorite form of entertainment.

Training sessions are designed to challenge the players, in a SAFE, COMFORTABLE, and FUN environment. Once again, we want the child to LOVE the game of SOCCER and DEVELOP a PASSION for the game and physical activity.

The coaching curriculum is designed to develop younger players’ coordination, flexibility, and mental awareness. Moreover, the curriculum and overarching objectives are based on United States Soccer’s National Youth License course, which in turn is based on both academic research and practical field observations from experts in soccer, physical education and child development.

The players will play in a variety of activities that will challenge their physical, mental, and technical abilities. The program educates the children on the importance of living a healthy and active lifestyle, while allowing children to socialize and interact with players of various gender and age. Training activities will be based on the principles of the “FUN-damental Stage” of development where the children learn all fundamental movement skills (to build overall motor skills)

We will measure success along the lines of:

• FUN ... do the players smile and laugh? Do the players look forward to playing? The first question from the player's family should be, "Did you have fun today?"
• Player Retention: How many players want to participate in soccer next year?  

Youth Academy Coaching Staff
The RRSC Soccer Academy will be conducted by trained professionals. Our staff coaches have excellent playing and coaching experiences. Four of our staff coaches hold a National Youth License, a coaching course focused on developmental soccer for children ages 4-12. RRSC Staff Coaches receive regular training throughout the year so as to update them with the newest coaching techniques that would best assist our coaches in educating our youth players. Please see our Staff Coaches’ Bios at www.rioranchosoccer.com/staff.

The RRSC Soccer Academy environment also serves as a great training effort to ease future volunteer coaches into soccer coaching very slowly.

The Fall and Spring Season:
The program runs for the duration of 18 weeks, 9 weeks in the fall and 9 weeks in the spring. Players are asked to attend one practice per week with an optional second practice. Games will be played on Saturday. The players will arrive at the fields in their RRSC Uniforms and our Staff coaches will randomly place kids on a 3v3 team. The kids will have the opportunity to play with many different players through out the fall and spring season, which will further their social development and their opportunities to meet many more friends. This, too, will allow the coaches to adjust the teams as the season progress so that kids are continually exposed to a developmentally appropriate level, which engenders the opportunity for all kids to find success.

References:
The RRSC Soccer Academy has its roots in the most current school of thought coming from the United States Soccer Federation, US Youth Soccer and New Mexico Youth Soccer as well as several other federations and soccer leaders worldwide. For additional reading on this subject, please visit:

US Soccer Federation’s Best Practices on Player Development
US Youth Soccer’s Coaches Page
United States Soccer National Youth License (usyouthsoccer.org)
United States Soccer National Youth License (ussoccer.com)
The Official US Youth Soccer Coaching Manual (This book is available for check-out at the Loma Colorado Library. It provides a summary of the National Youth License)
Youth Soccer in America - How Do We Measure Success?

Have questions, need more information?:
Shane Huff
RRSC Director of Coaching
Doc.rrsc@hotmail.com or Cellphone: 505-818-9969