Customer Reviews

Developing Youth Soccer Players

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As a Brit living in the US who had played soccer for many years, I became involved in coaching youth soccer (U10) a couple of years ago. I purchased numerous books for ideas on drills and approaches to teaching soccer. I consider this book to be one of the best! It includes 5 different levels of development models to take kids from 'basic abilities and capacities' through mini-soccer, 7 v 7, 8 v 8 and 11 v 11.

All of the drills are well illustrated and explained. I have personally used most of the drills in the book. The narrative explain the characteristics of children at various stages of development and how best to develop their play from basic concepts to team play. If you are serious about 'teaching soccer' and not just running drills, I recommend this book!

This book is written by the man who has revolutionized the development of soccer training for children throughout the world. The author has trained coaches in 50+ countries, including working for the Royal Spanish Football Federation (defending World Cup champions). Anyone involved in youth soccer has been affected by his work - it was his insight that led to younger children playing smaller sided games than the traditional 11 v. 11 that predominated into the 1980s.

Many of the insights contained in this book are known to anyone who has raised or been involved with young children - simply put, the child psychology is now applied to soccer. It's almost like Maria Montessori was now coaching soccer - his theories are promoting active participation, allowing children more control, and stimulating player's minds.

To do this, Wein advocate's a "Football Development Model," consisting of 5 levels of progression:

1. developmental games (a/k/a drills)
2. mini-soccer games
3. 7 v. 7
4. 8 v. 8
5. 11 v. 11

Wein's insight is to simplify the game of soccer for small children, and then to gradually increase the complexity as the children master the technical and tactical components of the game. It sounds stunningly simple, yet this is the first book on youth soccer that I've read that creates such a logical progression rather than a mish-mash of drills.

The exercises in Wein's book are also quite good. They are well illustrated an intuitive. I've tried several of these with my children and they are excellent.

Before buying this book, I'd recommend considering your background and objectives. This book is not for beginners - it would help if you have played and ideally had some (continental) European coaches,as well as prior experience coaching younger players. I suspect that a novice coach or one who did not learn possession soccer would find this book either disagreeable or distasteful. Certainly, this is not a good book for someone who feels pressure to win right away by making sure the ball is handled by their best players, or who feels the need to play "kick and chase" soccer. This book is about developing competent players, not about how to use a player who happens to be physically dominant now but who might not be so dominant in the future.

In all, this book and the Dutch Soccer Association coaching book
Coaching Soccer: The Official Coaching Book of the Dutch Soccer Association are my two "must reads." They complement each other nicely. Wein's book is a must read for any coach (or maybe a parent with multiple children) focused on long-term player development. Moreover, it is well-written and easily understandable, which is often unusual for books written by non-native speakers of English.