| Okay, so you either you volunteered to coach your | | | | helpful in preparing for your little monsters-I mean |
| child's soccer team or you are facing another season | | | | tikes!!! |
| as an experienced volunteer coach. Are you ready? | | | | Prior to the beginning of every soccer season, every |
| Have you thought about how will you teach the | | | | coach begins to think about what they need to do |
| fundamental skills, run effective practices, and keep | | | | to field a better-skilled soccer team for the coming |
| your youngsters attention? As participation in youth | | | | season. Rest assured, your opposing coaches are |
| soccer continues to grow, so does the need for | | | | pondering the same issue. Coaches also know they |
| youth soccer coaches and new ways to teach the | | | | need fresh ideas to make practices interesting and |
| fundamentals of the game. Whether you're a parent | | | | fun for the kids. We all know keeping their attention |
| new to coaching or an experienced youth soccer | | | | is half of the battle! |
| coach, the task can be both exciting and frightening. | | | | Sure, I knew we'd have to focus on passing, |
| One of the things that helped me was boning up on | | | | dribbling, shooting, etc.-you know the fundamentals |
| the current terminology and coaching techniques. | | | | we all think about. However, I was looking for some |
| Without question, everything I've read-and it's been a | | | | news to instruct and teach these skills. My saving |
| lot-strongly suggests you must keep the kids moving | | | | grace and source of new ideas for this past Fall |
| and constantly touching the ball! A particular book, | | | | season was a gift given to me on my birthday. The |
| Coaching Youth Soccer, has become my handbook | | | | gift was a book titled Soccer Drills & Skills by |
| for planning practices and workouts. I found the book | | | | the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. |
| easy to follow. The book was written by American | | | | I found Soccer Skills & Drills to be a |
| Sports Education Program and Sam Snow-director of | | | | comprehensive guide for both coaches and players. |
| coaching for US Youth Soccer. | | | | There were over 80 games and drills designed to |
| Coaching Youth Soccer was perfect for me because | | | | practice those skills every soccer coach is trying to |
| it focuses on the needs of volunteer and novice | | | | develop. The book included dozens of photographs |
| coaches. More specifically, it targets the needs for | | | | and diagrams that illustrated technical instruction, while |
| instructing young soccer players ages 8 to 14. In the | | | | the application of each skill is described from both a |
| book, I found helpful tips on how to run my team, | | | | tactical and positional perspective. Our coaches used |
| communicate with players, provide basic first aid, plan | | | | the insightful teaching points and effective practice |
| and conduct practices, and keep it all fun. I | | | | activities to develop our girls' techniques and tactics. |
| incorporated the gamelike activities outlined in the | | | | The end result-we won the county championship!!! In |
| book to teach my players offensive and defensive | | | | 10 games we scored 33 goals and gave up only 4. |
| skills. Hopefully, you'll find this book or others like it, | | | | |