Customer Reviews

Coaching Soccer the Progressive Way

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This book is a great stepping stone for a beginning coach to advance to next level. It explains soccer tactics in a succinct logical fashion and demonstrates how the coach can teach these tactics to his/her players through drills that graduate in difficulty. There are also excellent sections on soccer technique which are taught in the same fashion as tactics. This book will enhance the coach and his players' enyoyment of the sport by focusing in on what's important. Other books that I highly recommend include Coaching Soccer Successfully (this book is more advanced) and Soccer Skills and Strategies (more basic). These three books tend to complement each other very well and should make worthy additions to any soccer coach's library.

This was a good book, especially in that it organizes all of soccer around the concept of where the ball is, with 1st attacker, 1st defender, 2nd attacker, and so on radiating out. Gives the coach an overall unifying concept for his coaching, instead of bouncing between dribbling, passing, receiving, and shooting as separate skills with nothing connecting them.
The weakness in this book is not the theory but the execution. Many of the drills in this book are way too advanced, at least for U12s (which I coach). Trying to explain to them the intricate rules they have to follow to work through each drill quickly became a waste of time. I still use the concepts and the terminology from this book, but I try to apply it during SSGs and scrimmages when I introduce some coaching points.
Overall, good for intermediate coaches as an interesting system of coaching soccer, not good for beginners or coaches of young kids. And if you're looking for good drills/exercises, you'll need to go elsewhere.