Alan Hargreaves (1)

I've read a lot of soccer coaching books, and I like this one a lot. But I don't think it's perfect for every soccer coach.

The book has the usual collection of drills plus sections on coaching philosophies and dealing with "problem" parents and kids. Although the number of simple drills is limited, one of the strongest points of the book is the increasing difficulty of some of the practice ideas (so we get one or two skills training drills for dribbling, then another two for intermediate players, and then another couple for the advanced players). That allows a coach with a wide variation of players to practice certain skills without boring the stronger players or frustrating the weaker ones. (However, most of the advanced practices require either the full team or a full field, so the different practices for different skills won't work in all situations.)

Another strong point of the book is the depth it covers "principles of play." Some -- well, very few that I've read -- of the beginner books might mention that a team on attack should use the width of the field, while the defense should concentrate and cut down on space. The authors illustrate this with several examples (Xs and Os), often giving the better play after suggesting other alternatives. These concepts allow an intermediate coach to anticipate questions when s/he barks out an order like "Cut down on his space!"

Ultimately, though, the book gets into concepts that most youth recreational coaches won't ever see -- they're still too busy trying to get the kids to spread out. There's also an implied knowledge about the laws of the game already expected; I can't point to anything specific, but during some of the chapters, I felt as if the authors thought they could skip over some pieces of information because it would be familiar to the reader -- which is not usually the case with mom and pop recreational coaches.

If you're a brand-new recreational soccer coach, pass on this one -- but if you stay in coaching for a few years, be sure to come back to it. Intermediate rec coaches or beginner travel coaches should definitely hunt it down for its insights.

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LT Haiku:
Manual for how
To coach the beautiful game
And deal with players.… (meer)