Youth soccer training in East Pasadena for players 5–18. Group sessions, small groups, one-on-one, school-break camps, and league play. The curriculum doesn’t change between them. What changes is how often your player trains and who is standing next to them.
Four players walk through the gate at The Lab, and they arrive from four different places. Find the one that sounds like yours — it points to where we’d start them.
Your player is young, or new, or still deciding whether they like it. They need touches, coordination, and the confidence that comes from being able to do something — taught patiently, at a pace where they succeed early.
Saturdays aren’t enough anymore. Volunteer coaches give kids their weekends and youth soccer would collapse without them — but most were handed a whistle, not a curriculum. Your player is ready to be taught.
Team practice runs on shape and scrimmage, and the individual technical work never fits in the session. That’s the work we do during the week. Your player keeps their team — we’re club-neutral.
Some players don’t need more pressure. They need a room where the mistake is the point and nobody is keeping score of it. Bring them to a session and we’ll tell you honestly what we see.
Not sure which one your player is? That’s the normal case. Come to a free session — we’ll watch them train and tell you where we’d place them and why, including when the answer is “not yet.”
A five-year-old and a thirteen-year-old work on the same things in the same order. The difference is speed, pressure, and how much we ask them to solve on their own.
Nothing improvised. Every drill has a reason, and the reason connects to the one before it. A session is a lesson, not an hour of activities.
What they can do with the ball. What they see before they get it. How they compete when it’s hard. How fast they solve it. Four coaches, one lens, every session.
No laps, no lines, no standing around waiting for a turn. We train in small numbers because small numbers mean more decisions per minute for every player.
Same curriculum, same coaches, same expectations. Choose the setting that fits your player right now — and move whenever it stops fitting.
Group training for players starting the journey. Sixty minutes of ball mastery, first touch, and 1v1 confidence — taught at a pace where beginners succeed early and nobody is asked to catch up. This is the base everything else is built on.
Ages 5–10 · 60 minutes · Mon–Fri 5:00pm & Sat 10:00am · Open enrollment
The advanced group. Seventy-five minutes on the same core skills, now at game speed, in tighter space, against real resistance. Moves stop being tricks and start being decisions. For the player who has a base and needs it tested.
Ages 8–14 · 75 minutes · Mon–Fri 6:15pm · Open enrollment
Two to four players, matched by level, training together. The economics of a group session with close to the attention of a private one. Built for players already competing at a good club or high school level who need the individual reps team practice has no time for.
Ages 12+ · 2–4 players · 60 minutes · Placed by evaluation
One player, one coach, one hour. The fastest way to fix a specific thing — a weak foot, shot mechanics, body position, first touch under pressure. Run as a short block of one to three sessions with a defined target, not an open-ended weekly slot.
All ages · 60 minutes · By appointment · 1–3 session block
Full-day training during school breaks. Same curriculum, concentrated — a week of camp is close to a month of group training in touches on the ball. Summer, winter, and spring, at The Lab.
Ages 5–14 · 3–5 days · 9:00am–2:00pm · Summer · Winter · Spring
Two sessions a week is where real progress lives — the player comes back before the last session fades. Foundation One and Foundation Two share the same rates, so the price reflects how often your player trains, not which group they’re in.
Recommended starting point
Recommended for real progress
For the all-in player
Training + league, fees included
1×/week $200 · 2×/week $400
Per session
Per week, school breaks
New Foundation rates take effect October 1, 2026. Families enrolled before then keep their current rate through January 2027.
Everything runs at The Lab on East Del Mar Boulevard. We keep the same days and times year-round on purpose — families can plan around us, and a player never loses a week to a shifting calendar.
Foundation One at 5:00pm. Foundation Two at 6:15pm. Come any day your schedule allows — your plan sets how many days a week, not which ones.
For families whose weeknights are already full, and for players who want a sixth day on the ball.
Make up a missed session on any other day we train that week. Makeup credits never expire — just send Coach Rafa a message when you use one.
We’re club-neutral. Most of our players still play AYSO or club on the weekend — we take the technical work during the week, the part their team hasn’t got time to teach. No conflict, no pressure to leave.
No. Foundation One and Foundation Two are open enrollment — every player who wants to learn the game has a place in them. Academy Teams and semi-private are the two settings placed by evaluation, and that evaluation happens on the field with coaches who have already watched your player train.
No. A brand-new five-year-old learns ball control alongside players at the same stage, at a pace built for succeeding early. There is no cut and nothing to catch up on. Most of our beginners had never kicked a ball with intent before their first session.
Ask us at a trial and we’ll answer honestly. A club player usually belongs in Foundation Two or semi-private, where the same skills are trained at speed and under pressure. If we think a player would be under-challenged, we’ll say so rather than take the enrollment.
No. We’re club-neutral by design. Most of our players keep their weekend team and train with us during the week. Saturday stays exactly as it is.
Two, if it fits your family. One session a week builds familiarity; the second is where the work compounds, because the player comes back before the last session has faded. Three is for the kid who has fallen in love with the game.
Your player trains a full session with the group we think fits, and you watch the whole thing. Afterwards a coach tells you what we saw, which program we’d start them in, and why. No cost, no commitment, and no sales conversation.
Yes. Our staff is bilingual, and we work with families in both Spanish and English.
