The author clearly outlines the importance of defining your coaching philosophy. It zeroes-in on your values and beliefs, the individual and team’s goals, keeps you focused on what’s best for the girls, and emphasizes being true to your own personality. At the core of her approach to coaching, is developing the character of individual players and team cohesiveness.

Coaching girls soccer is extremely rewarding. They are more open to new ideas, able to adapt quickly,  and willing to work hard. Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully is a “must-read” if you are searching for motivational tips, coaching guidelines, and specific strategies for working with female soccer players.

Purchase the book now for only $14.99 at eSoccerGear.com.

Sure, I knew we’d have to focus on passing, dribbling, shooting, etc.—you know the fundamentals we all think about. However, I was looking for some news to instruct and teach these skills. My saving grace and source of new ideas for this past Fall season was a gift given to me on my birthday. The gift was a book titled Soccer Drills & Skills by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

I found Soccer Skills & Drills to be a comprehensive guide for both coaches and players. There were over 80 games and drills designed to practice those skills every soccer coach is trying to develop. The book included dozens of photographs and diagrams that illustrated technical instruction, while the application of each skill is described from both a tactical and positional perspective.

Our coaches used the insightful teaching points and effective practice activities to develop our girls’ techniques and tactics. You can benefit from this outstanding book and many others at eSoccerGear.com for only $14.95.

One of the things that helped me was boning up on the current terminology and coaching techniques.  Without question, everything I’ve read-and it’s been a lot—strongly suggests you must keep the kids moving and constantly touching the ball!  A particular book, Coaching Youth Soccer, has become my handbook for planning practices and workouts.  I found the book easy to follow.  The book was written by American Sports Education Program and Sam Snow—director of coaching for US Youth Soccer.

Coaching Youth Soccer was perfect for me because it focuses on the needs of volunteer and novice coaches. More specifically, it targets the needs for instructing young soccer players ages 8 to 14. In the book, I found helpful tips on how to run my team, communicate with players, provide basic first aid, plan and conduct practices, and keep it all fun. I incorporated the gamelike activities outlined in the book to teach my players offensive and defensive skills.

Hopefully, you’ll find this book or others like it, helpful in preparing for your little monsters—I mean tikes!!! And for more books/DVDs on coaching youth soccer go to eSoccerGear.com.

Many young soccer players come to practice or report on game days with a high sense of internal motivation. However, the question is “Is it the correct motivation for the tasks at hand?” As soccer coaches, our challenge is to ensure that individuals’ intrinsic motivation stems from an intent corresponding with the specifics of the team’s practice or game.

This is not easy because we are dealing with individuals. Our society brings young players to our doorsteps with low self-esteem, poor habits, ballooning egos, grandiose visions, etc. To make it even more complex, many of these mindsets mask deep-seeded personal issue. However, we are recreational coaches, and the community is our team.

So we must become aware of the players who are intrinsically motivated by their love of the game or desire to compete. They play for an inner pride and work hard towards accomplishing challenging objectives. On the other hand, coaches must be equally aware of young players who may need external motivation.

In Sports Psychology for Coaches, it is noted “the four primary needs of athletes are to have fun, feel accepted, have control, and to feel competent.”The most common tool to meet these primary needs is recognition. Yet there is a danger in using recognition in that it may trivialize or diminish the purpose of recognition itself. Therefore, when recognizing young players, make sure the recognition is specific, sincere, and is targeting a particular athletic feat. And above all else, be consistent in how you delve out the accolades.

For a recreational coach, it can be highly stimulating and rewarding to see apprehensive, self-doubting, average youngsters transform into self-confident, poised, hard-working athletes. These same attributes will be carried with many of our young players throughout their lives.

In the book The Soccer Coaching Bible, I recently read Chapter 2 and it talks about “Competing with Class.” The authors promote the concept that teaching and maintaining class is more important than winning. If you think about it logically, it makes good sense. Because the big picture is that we are developing individuals first, soccer players and athletes second. It can be argued that coaches who reflect good sportsmanship and class produce higher quality people.

And don’t forget about your fans—parents and family members. Most recreational soccer programs now have rules that penalize—yellow or red cards–the coach for unsavory spectator behavior. As coaches we have personal relationships with most of our parents. Communicate clearly to them what is expected or unacceptable spectator behavior towards other teams, officials and fans. This should be done at the beginning of the season and periodically during practice during the season.

In the end, coaches establish the true measure for a team’s standard of conduct. Players and most parents will follow coaches’ examples and guidelines. The bottom line for teaching your players to have class, as outline by the authors of The Soccer Coaching Bible, is to follow the golden rule: “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. Second, do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, for the right reason.”

Each successful soccer coach is challenged to make their practices productive and fun. Soccer players gain the most benefit from practices that are challenging and fun and activity oriented. They benefit from constant movement, ball touches and scoring exercises. Soccer Practice Games by Joe Luxbacher will help you plan these types of practices. The book is broken into six sections:

¨ Warm-up and Conditioning
¨ Passing and Receiving
¨ Dribbling, Shielding and Tackling
¨ Heading and Shooting
¨ Tactical Training
¨ Goalkeeper Training

The six different sections contain a total of 125 game-simulated activities that youth soccer coaches can adapt to create a favorable practice environment. All of the games teach fundamentals and focus on skills and tactics. Coaches that use these proven training methods seek to create controlled competitive situations providing players an opportunity to succeed.

Let’s face it–soccer is a running game!!! So isn’t it sound coaching to incorporate physical fitness into every skill development exercise? Sure it is. The important thing for coaches to realize is they do not have to recreate the wheel to accomplish this. This is why Joe Luxbacher wrote Soccer Practice Games—for recreational soccer coaches like us.

If you ponder the question carefully, your response to the question will come pouring out. Some possible responses might be:

• To teach the fundamentals of soccer
• Make sure the kids have fun
• Teach them how to win
• Develop them as individuals
• Help them realize their potential
• Show them how to compete
• Build character
• Winning is everything

Whatever your answers might be, you have just outlined the core tenets of your coaching philosophy. These tenets reflect the values coaches hold in their personal lives.

Recently, I completed a book titled Sport Psychology for Coaches. The book motivated me to define and evaluate my soccer coaching philosophy. I found my personal perspectives were mostly positive, but there is room for improvement. This thinking process increased my level of awareness surrounding my personal values and to prioritize my competitive objectives based on those values. Sport Psychology for Coaches is a great eye-opener!

On- and off-field duties are covered in detail, and the material in each chapter is rich with the voice of experience. From Anson Dorrance’s chapter on organizing and orchestrating a winning program to Lauren Gregg’s chapter on creating the ideal training environment, this book provides the answers you’ve been looking for. Steve Sampson explains the technical and tactical nuances of controlling the ball, and Tony DiCicco encourages and informs mentoring developing players and coaches. The vast coaching expertise is divided into six sections, making it easy to choose what to implement into your program:

§ Priorities and Principles
§ Program Development and Management
§ Optimal Training for Learning and Performance
§ Technical and Tactical Insights for Competitive Success
§ Player and Team Development and Motivation
§ Growth Opportunities in the Coaching Role

Are these folks the prevailing experts when it comes to coaching soccer? What do you think? The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) is the largest coaches’ organization in the United States. Since its founding in 1941, it has grown to include more than 16,000 members who coach both genders at all levels of the sport. In addition to a national rankings program for colleges and high schools, the NSCAA offers an extensive recognition program that presents more than 10,000 individual awards every year. It fulfills its mission of coaching education through a nationwide program of clinics and weeklong courses, teaching more than 3,000 soccer coaches each year.

The author clearly outlines the importance of defining your coaching philosophy. It zeroes-in on your values and beliefs, the individual and team’s goals, keeps you focused on what’s best for the girls, and emphasizes being true to your own personality. At the core of her approach to coaching, is developing the character of individual players and team cohesiveness.

Developing a coaching philosophy is just the beginning. Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully covers many different aspects of the coach’s role including:

• Developing and perfecting skills
• Evaluating players and defining their roles
• Organizing productive practices
• Scouting and preparing for games
• Adding variety to training
• Developing leadership qualities
• Motivating the team
• Communicating on and off the field

The coaching techniques illustrated in this book will help you develop better players, more complete athletes, and more confident young women. The book features seasonal training plans, drills for developing fundamental to advanced skills, and advice for handling off-the-field challenges. Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully is a “must-read” if you are searching for motivational tips, coaching guidelines, and specific strategies for working with female soccer players.