"Together with Deportivo Saprissa we started Saprissa Soccer Academy (SSA) to address a serious problem that we felt existed in the youth soccer community. There are many, many soccer tour programs available that will take a player on a lovely bus tour of a foreign country, get the players a few games while they are there and then send them home with nice photos and memories but with no appreciable improvement in their soccer skills. This is certainly a nice time and a nice vacation, but with little to no training involved there is simply no way anyone could convince me that my child's soccer skills would be improved by such a bus tour trip. It's a simple concept, you can't become a better soccer player riding on a bus!
TRAINING NOT TOURING is Saprissa Soccer Academy's motto because it describes exactly what we are all about. We have made available to both individual players and teams training with us the full training facilities, coaching staff, and regimen of Deportivo Saprissa, Costa Rica's 29 time National Champions.
Players training with us get integrated into Saprissa's professional youth development program. SSA's participating players train for a minimum of 6 to 8 hours a day, every weekday, with the same coaches that coach Saprissa's youth program. Many of the Saprissa youth players are on Costa Rica's National team for their age groups. SSA's players train with and thereby become friends with the Saprissa youth players. Our days are filled with practices, touches, exercises, games, a lot of hard work, and even more laughs. We believe a player improves their game by training hard every day and not by taking a glorified bus tour. This is what a soccer program should be all about !!
We also decided to offer an optional Spanish language immersion program where players attend professionally taught conversational Spanish classes so that they improve their Spanish language skills, enhance their interaction with the Saprissa players and with the Costa Rican culture in general. We schedule the classes in a way that doesn't take time away from the soccer training !!!
Weekends are filled with trips to experience the beauty and culture of Costa Rica. These trips, for example,may include a trip to a Saprissa professional game where our players get to meet the pro players, or to the beach, the rain forest, white water rafting or zip cording, give the players a chance to rest their bodies and see the country at the same time. Except for the 45 minute ride to and from the airport and the daily 15 minute ride to and from Saprissa Stadium where the players train with the Saprissa Development squads, these weekend trips are the only time that our players sit on a bus instead of playing soccer.
"TRAINING NOT TOURING " ADDS UP TO THE YOUTH SOCCER EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE TIME !!!!!!!!!!!!! "
"Together with Deportivo Saprissa we started Saprissa Soccer Academy (SSA) to address a serious problem that we felt existed in the youth soccer community. There are many, many soccer tour programs available that will take a player on a lovely bus tour of a foreign country, get the players a few games while they are there and then send them home with nice photos and memories but with no appreciable improvement in their soccer skills. This is certainly a nice time and a nice vacation, but with little to no training involved there is simply no way anyone could convince me that my child's soccer skills would be improved by such a bus tour trip. It's a simple concept, you can't become a better soccer player riding on a bus!
