What is Samba?

Samba is an established skills training program that places its focus on individual player development in a small group setting.  Each training group is limited to 12-14 players, so every player can be watched closely for technical improvement.

What is Samba’s goal?

Through a method of “touches, touches and more touches” Samba aims to help players develop strong technique in foundational ball skills so they can become more confident and comfortable with ball, which leads to greater creativity, field vision and composure.

When does the next session start up?

Our new session starts the week of November 9th 2009 and runs through the week of March 22nd 2010.  Remember this is a five month training program, all participants are expected to commit to the entire five months.

How much does Samba cost?

Samba’s monthly tuition cost is $105 (we average 8 training sessions per month).  Each month’s tuition is due by the 25th of the prior month.  The initial payment for this year is due by October 30th.  Each family who participates is making a commitment that they are in for the five months..

Training schedule by age and gender:

High School Boys (Tues & Wed)

High School Girls (Wed & Fri)

U14 Boy (Mon & Thurs)

U14 Girls (Wed & Fri)

U12 Boys (Wed & Fri)

U12 Girls (Tues & Thurs)

U11 Co-ed (Mon & Thurs)

U9 Co-ed (Tues only)

 Coming in January “Samba Kids” for pre-school and K1

Contact information:

Please contact Chuck Breton at sambapdp@yahoo.com with questions about training availability and specific training times or if you have additional questions about the program.

When requesting to be placed in a Samba training group, please include the following player profile information so players can be placed in the optimum training environment to maximize development. Chuck Breton will determine the proper training group.

           Name/Gender

           Age and grade

           Soccer experience (club and school teams) and years playing the game

           Perceived soccer strength and weaknesses of your child

Important Note: all players who participate in the program will be required to fill out two waiver forms one for Concord Sports Center and one for Samba.

FAQ’s:

Who is the Director of Coaching?

Chuck Breton, a state licensed coach with collegiate playing experience and coaching experience at the high school and club level.

 Are there other added benefits to Samba training?

• Samba-PDP focuses on the individual skill development of the player so that they are better suited to meet the tactical demands placed on them by their school and club coaches.

• Players cannot advance tactically (decision making and understanding systems of play) if they do not first possess the technical ability to perform what their coaches are asking of them.

What skills will my Samba players work to master?

How is this accomplished?

“Touches, touches and more touches”, with an intentional progression of moving players through three levels of training.

• Level #1 is called “no pressure” (NP) – at this level we will focus purely on having the player perfect their technique without any pressure of any kind.  As the player becomes proficient with a skill at the NP level, we will then move onto our second level.

• Level #2 is called “limited pressure” (LP) – Here we can increase pressure in three different ways; by limiting (reducing) the space a skill is required to be performed in, by adding a shadow defender, and finally we can ask the player to perform the skill at an increased speed.  This allows for a gradual building of a skill to our final level.

• Level #3 we call “full pressure” (FP) – At this level we place the player under full game simulation so they can now start working and perfecting their skill at and in game conditions.

It’s very exciting to see in a relatively short time players develop a greater sense of confidence as we continually put them under pressure and they start to become more and more comfortable with the ball in full pressure scenarios.

What is our training culture like and what is our coaching philosophy?

Very simply, we will create a fun and positive training environment that challenges the player to push themselves to new heights in their soccer skills.

We train in the “mistake free zone” which means as long as the players are giving their best effort they are free to all the mistakes that happen, mistakes make for great teaching moments.

Finally, and most importantly we have a code of conduct that we train by called “The Great Teammate Creed”, this team and others first philosophy is non-negotiable and will be the standard by which all words, attitudes and actions are measured. Each player and family will receive a copy of the “GTC”

Why does Samba keep each training group so small?

I intentionally keep the number of players in the program low so I can give quality attention to every player thus allowing for increased personal training and coaching.  Which is good news for those in Samba but bad news in that I’m sorry to say we can’t take everyone who desires to participate due to this training philosophy

 What are some current parents and players saying about the program?

Samba has taught her so much and there is a huge difference in her play now (ER, parent)

"M’s" skills and confidence have improved tremendously.  We can clearly identify the girls on her team who have taken Samba by their mastery of the ball and the field. (DV, parent)

On our last day of tryouts, Coach called us into a room ……to tell us whether we would be on J.V. or Varsity and when he called me in he said he saw a HUGE improvement since last year and was very impressed from where I was to where I am now and that I would be seeing a lot of play time this year. I owe a lot of that to you and to Samba. I just can't say thank you enough for all that you taught me and that it had a big impact on my level of play. (player)

You run a great skills clinic and both our kids have both benefited a great deal and really enjoy your training and you. (LC, parent)

Our daughter received many, many compliments on how she played the past two weekends in tournaments with her Seacoast team.  A lot of parents asked me what she had done for training in the winter because they could see a great improvement. I definitely promoted the Samba program to all who asked!  Her improvement is great press for Samba! (MB, parent)

Thank you Chuck for your energy, enthusiasm, and positive reinforcement “S” had a great deal of fun and we saw a marked improvement in his "touch". (TM, parent)

THANK-YOU for bringing this program to this community you have made so many players better and “K” is definitely one who has gained a ton of confidence and skills …… to see all the boys that tried out for ODP and make the team says a lot for your programs. (OT, parent)