Winter Indoor Training

[Anonymous]

Winter's just a month away. We live between Capstone and HP Elite. Anyone send their kid to both care to share feedback? Pros? Cons? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

We did Capstone last winter.
Pro: the kids like it, you can get a beer next door, the physical fitness is good
Con: it’s expensive, they change drills every week and there is no repetition (my kid didn’t learn a lot of skills, but was fitter), they could place your kid in a lower skill group if you’re not coming from a top local team ie Arlington ECNL or VDA

[Anonymous]

My kid is Ulittle and they have done both.

Capstone (at least at the location you’re referring to) — We did small group last winter. Majority of sessions had kids do drills that used their interactive wall. Forgot name of tech, but it was essentially video games imo intended to help kids have fun, stayed engaged, and work on foundations (touch, kicking with accuracy/pace, and hand/eye coord). Things like where there’s a bunch of bobbles on screen and they have to try and pop the right color by kicking their ball at it. They’d use their sometimes too. The other time at sessions is spent on some footwork but mainly working on small sided drills. Things like passing, 1v1, 2v2, etc. The space wasn’t that big imo. Just big enough to open up for bit before you have to slow down and stop. 1 coach for around 5-6 kids. Kid loved it but that was basically cause it was with team members and the wall.

HP — You pick a class based on area want to focus on. So my experience is only specific to the footwork and shooting ones. Kid will get paired in group with other kids that are on relatively same club level. Usually in group of 4-6 and with 2 coaches. Sessions generally start with some juggling or some kind of relatively difficult move to do (rainbow, around the world, etc). Then main coach shows all kids footwork drill or move to practice while other coaches demonstrate. Kids then go to their own cone area and practice alone for a bit with coaches walking around. Could also get in groups and practice move based on drill. When done they go into groups and try using what just learned in 1v1. Sometimes they do 2v2. When done with that they do all over again for different move. For shooting clinic they’d also do drills to help with touch, timing, and aim when kicking. Last 5 mins of sessions they scrimmage. More space than capstone and way more fast paced. They play music throughout to keep kids hyped. My kid is smoked when done.

We prefer HP.