101 Great Youth Soccer Drills: Skills and Drills for Better Fundamental Play [Paperback]

Robert Koger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2005

101 Great Youth Soccer Drills is an exhaustive collection of the very best drills available, providing a solid foundation for you to build your players' skills. Filled with simple step-by-step instructions and diagrams, plus a sample practice program, this encyclopedia of drills provides you with solid skill-building fundamentals as well as the advanced techniques you need to get your players in top form.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Bring out the very best in your young players with these effective and fun soccer drills

Drills are essential. The groundwork of every great play, they hone existing skills and get to the heart of any problem. Challenging and exciting, with the right attitude drills can also be a lot of fun. Written by an expert youth-soccer coach with more than twenty-five years of experience on the field, this exhaustive collection provides all the drills you need to bring your players to the next level--and have fun doing it. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced coach, 101 Great Youth Soccer Drills will be your helpful assistant at every practice.

The drills in this book are illustrated to show you each step along the way. Easy to follow and to find, each drill lets you to teach what you need when you need it, allowing you to design your own training program based on the level of your players.

Filled with energy, these drills are guaranteed to improve your players' skills in such areas as:

• Passing
• Trapping
• Heading the ball
• Shielding the ball from defenders
• Dribbling and juggling
• Protecting the goal
• Shooting to score
• Mastering their positions
• And much more

Designed for daily use, this handy encyclopedia of drills will be a faithful companion on your journey from Coach Mom or Dad to true soccer expert. You won't want to step on the practice field without it.

About the Author

Robert Koger coached soccer for more than twenty-five years, both in youth recreation and club programs. He received the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) "D" level Coaching Certificate and served as the league commissioner for several different soccer programs. He lives in Holliday, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071444688
• ISBN-13: 978-0071444682
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Coaching > Soccer
  • #32 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Soccer

More About the Author

Robert "Bob" Koger grew up in Columbus, Kansas and now calls Sanger, Texas his home. Prior to becoming a writer, Bob spent twenty year in the U. S. Air Force, two years as a Technical Writer for a fortune 500 company, and eighteen years working for the Department of the Air Force as a Civil Servant.

After graduation from high school Bob joined the Air Force. He went into teaching other Air Force personnel. He also spent four years as a Military Training Instructor. Some people refer to the job as a Drill Instructor. During his time in the Air Force he traveled all over the United States and a few exotic vacation spots like Thailand and Viet Nam.

Upon his retirement from the military he started his next job as the Lead Technical Writer for Keuffel & Esser Company. He wrote repair and operational books on laser ranging devices, heart monitors, and many other types of equipment made by the company. After about 2 ½ years the company decided to move their operations to New Jersey. Wanting to stay in Texas, Bob resigned and went back to work for the Air Force.

This time he worked in the civil service portion of the Air Force, going to work as an Education and Training Specialist. During his eighteen year career he worked in numerous faculty and staff positions before becoming the Dean of one of the major Community College of the Air Force campuses.

After retiring from civil service, Bob started writing his first book, "101 Great Youth Soccer Drills", which was released in 2005. His second book, "The New Coach's Guide to Coaching Youth Soccer", was released in 2007. His third book, "The Ultimate Guide for Stay-At-Home Parents", was released in Fall 2008 and his latest book, "The Baffled Parent's Guide to Fix-It Drills for Youth Soccer", was released in the Summer of 2009.

Besides writing books, Bob also writes a weekly opinion column for Texas newspapers. His article is titled, "As I See It", and covers a wide spectrum of issues.

Stay tuned for further updates. Bob has other fiction and nonfiction projects in the works.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment, August 11, 2011

By 

Vlad Ungureanu - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 101 Great Youth Soccer Drills: Skills and Drills for Better Fundamental Play (Paperback)

At the moment when I write this, this book is number 2 in the sales rankings for soccer coaching books. This was the actual reason for me buying the book. I am a youth coach and I like to have as many coaching resources as possible. I have bought about 10 coaching books from Amazon.com based on their user reviews or on their sales rankings.

How this book ranks so high is a mystery to me. It was a disappointment in more than one way.

The diagrams are awful.
The title seems to be just for marketing purposes - there are of course drills in the book, but they are not numbered in any way and some of the chapters don't contain any specific drills, just a few indications.
The drills are not very convincing - many drills where the kids have to wait in line.

I appreciate the hard work of the author and I have got a few good ideas from this book but it is worse than most other books in the same price range that are below it in the sales rankings. (Again: at the moment when I write this, this book is number 2 in the sales rankings for soccer coaching books.)

Skills and Strategies for Coaching Soccer is better.
The Bert Van Lingen book is better - but it has a different approach, one that uses more game-like activities and less drills.
The Horst Wein book is much better.
Coaching Soccer for Dummies is also a good read.
I don't recommend The Soccer Coaching Bible if you are looking for drills.
Knack Coaching Youth Soccer is also nice.
The "Street Soccer DVD - An introduction to small sided games" is also great, but again not the drill based approach.
Haven't read the Baffled Parent's Guide yet.

I hope the author won't hate me. This is a decent book, but in my opinion it is not among the great books on coaching soccer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, July 16, 2010

By 

saul - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 101 Great Youth Soccer Drills: Skills and Drills for Better Fundamental Play (Paperback)

excellent drills and good examples. I am a third year coach and find this book extremely helpful.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for New Coaches, October 20, 2010

By 

D. Migliore (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 101 Great Youth Soccer Drills: Skills and Drills for Better Fundamental Play (Paperback)

I am a new coach and use this book regulary for ideas for practice for my 9 year old's recreational team. I like how the chapters are divided into separate sections as to type of drill required: Defense, offense, etc. The author provides very simple step by step drills and pictures to help quickly reference the right skill.

My only complaint, not really a complaint but a suggestion - it would be nice to have some more details on building/progressing each drill - i.e. such as adding defenders or progressing a drill into separate activities (if that makes sense).

Bottomline, I recommend this book to any new or recreational soccer coach that wants to add diverse and fun drills to his/her practice!