Coaching Kids to Play Soccer (Fireside Books (Fireside)) [Paperback]

Kurt Aschermann (Author)

Book Description

Series: Fireside Books (Fireside) | Publication Date: August 15, 1987

If you're going to coach your first soccer team, you know you've got a lot to learn about teaching kids this unfamiliar sport. If you coach soccer now, you want to improve your team. If your son or daughter plays soccer, you want to know what good coaching is all about. This is the book for you!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jim San Marco is head soccer coach at Edgemont High in New York State. He lives in Briarcliff Manor, New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

IT'S ALL YOURS, COACH

A simple, important, sobering fact needs to be stated at the outset: as a youth soccer coach you have a huge responsibility to everyone on the team. Not only do these youngsters want to learn soccer from you, but they also want to win, want to score some goals -- and they don't want to be yelled at. Your impact is rivaled only by that of the parent, and in certain circumstances, it surpasses that influence. You will find that your kids want to please you more than anyone else, and this simple fact can place tremendous pressure on you. It should guide your every action.

We believe that your responsibilities as a youth soccer coach are easily stated:

Fun
Learning
Individual development
Winning

...in that order! Let's look at each one in turn:

Fun: It may come as a surprise to some of the parents of the players, but 99 percent of the kids are playing soccer because they want to have fun playing it. Those kids in your charge, Coach, have joined the league and your team to enjoy themselves. The minute you lose sight of that as your principal motivating factor, you're in trouble.

Learning: Youth soccer coaches must be responsible, dedicated teachers -- more so than other youth league coaches -- because most kids in America don't know the sport! They grow up catching the things that are thrown or kicked at them, except for an occasional kickball. "Offside" is when the offensive guard (in football) moves before the ball is snapped. Couple player ignorance of soccer with magnified parental ignorance, Coach, and you can see why we put learning second on the list.

Individual Development: A nine-year-old should be compared with himself, not every other nine-year-old. You help a team develop by helping each individual. And if you've succeeded in helping most of your athletes become better soccer players by the last week of the season, you're a winning coach, regardless of your record.

Winning: We believe the outcome of the game yields winners and learners -- there are no losers. Winning is important and needs to be an important part of the development of soccer players. But perspective becomes the important consideration, because while winning is important and must be part of the education process of an athlete, it needs to be understood as the result of hard work and individual development. The coach who succeeds in teaching the sport -- individually and to a group -- will find success in the won/lost column. The coach who helps the team keep winning or losing in perspective will find success in the personal development column.

THE BALL STOPS HERE

Coaches in volunteer leagues are often acquired like goalies: no one wants to do the job, especially, so someone gets drafted. You may have come to your soccer duties purely out of love for the sport or, like many, out of love for your child. Any coach, regardless of experience, has two factors that must be dealt with quickly: (1) individual knowledge of the sport and (2) ability to impart that knowledge to the youngsters. If you have come to your soccer team because your child wanted to play and no one else was there to teach or lead the team, how you deal with the two factors may well determine if the players have a positive or a negative experience.

Copyright © 1987 by Jim San Marco and Kurt Aschermann

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Fireside (August 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671639366
• ISBN-13: 978-0671639365
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,429,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book for beginners... Not for kids older than 7, May 18, 2000

By 

MDK67 (Kernersville, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coaching Kids to Play Soccer (Fireside Books (Fireside)) (Paperback)

This book could be called Soccer 101... It's a great place to start if you have 4 to 6 year old children. It shows you how to teach the basics and how to keep them interested in the game..

Good for a first time coach, or those of us that have not coached the first time time soccer player.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a very good introduction coaching to kids soccer., December 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Coaching Kids to Play Soccer (Fireside Books (Fireside)) (Paperback)

This is a great book to read when you first start coaching a team of 5, 6 or 7 year olds. It has right level of drills and tactics for that age.

I've loaned it out several times to friends who are just getting started as coaches. It has the rules of soccer and guidelines for putting together a practice. It also has good, basic drills that are easy to set up and teach the fundamental tactics of soccer. I especially liked the way it shows how to teach heading and shooting.

I recommend it to a first time coach.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good, basic book, for the first time "parent-coach", September 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Coaching Kids to Play Soccer (Fireside Books (Fireside)) (Paperback)

This is a very good, basic book, for the parent wishing to START coaching youth soccer, at the earliest level. The book assumes no prior knowledge of the sport. Any additional coaching skills will need to be acquired by experience, coaching with other individuals, watching the game, and by obtaining other, more advanced books, including more advanced drills and focusing on individual moves. This is a good book, for that parent going out to the field on that first saturday, as well, to try to understand and enjoy the GAME more fully!