We’re doing more than just teaching kids to play soccer. Our coaches motivate campers through our reward points system, emphasizing leadership and teamwork, rather than just being the “best” player on a team. We provide campers with choices throughout the day, they will determine the position or skill in which they’d like to see improvements, feeling empowered to better themselves how they’d like to do so. Expect your camper to be tired out at the end of the day, and excited to head back to camp the next day.
Age Levels
Young athletes perform best when they feel confident and comfortable. For that reason, we divide our camp into five age-appropriate levels. Each level teaches a unique set of skills and encourages its own level of competition. This also ensures campers receive a new D.C. United Camps experience each year!
For our youngest campers, our focus is to create an enjoyable experience centered around the fundamentals of the game. Using competitions and fun-filled exercises, we aim to engage and excite them while also educating them on the wonderful game of soccer.
As players progress beyond the beginner level, we look to reinforce the fundamentals while increasing the pace of drills. Our curriculum aims to use soccer to teach lifelong lessons that will translate to any sport or hobby your child decides to pursue in life.
For campers maturing alongside the game of soccer, our curriculum shifts to introducing variations of drills to reinforce proper mechanics and techniques. We place a strong focus on footwork to improve every aspect of your player’s skillset.
To match the evolving love of the game with increased soccer experience, we look to speed up the game. For our older players, the curriculum is built to more closely simulate an in-game experience. We increase the pace of play and implement specific drills and competitions built to keep them engaged with the lesson and help them track their progress.
As our older players progress through the game, our coaching staff will work to connect your child’s passion with their desire to improve specific areas of their game or aspirations to master the intricacies of a new position on the field.
Skill Levels
This year we are introducing skill levels to help us create a better experience for your camper(s) to feel challenged and develop their skills! This way, we can ensure all campers are having fun and enjoying the level of soccer they are playing.
Starting with Beginner Level, these would be our campers that have little to no experience with the sport. If they have started playing within the last year and are still developing their skills, this would be the perfect level for them! As long as they share our love of the game, our coaches will be able to focus on fundamental and develop their basic skills.
Next, with our Intermediate Level, these campers have the fundamentals down and need additional help taking their game to the next level. This curriculum will be a little faster paced and will focus on developing additional skillsets that will help them take the next steps in improving their skills and soccer IQ.
Finally, with our Advanced Level, these are campers that have participated in club soccer or have been playing the sport for several years. They understand what skill they would like to develop, and our curriculum will focus on helping them develop those specific skills. It will be a fast-paced curriculum, focused a lot more on gameplay scenarios.