Coaching Kids to Play Soccer

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! Jim San Marco (head soccer coach at the highly successful Edgemont High School program in New York State) and Kurt Aschermann (co-author with Gerard O'Shea of Coaching Kids to Play Baseball and Softball)have written this friendly, easy-to-use, fully illustrated guide that teaches youhow to run a successful soccer team - from setting up the first practice to choosing callisthenics to running individual and team skill drills to getting everyone a ride home at the end of the game. Emphasizing that helping kids to have funand learn about team spirit, competition, and themselves is far more important than winning games, the authors detail every step of building a soccer team that plays well and plays healthy. Instructions are fully illustrated with photos and diagrams: * Teaching the rules * Pre-practice preparation * Choosing the right equipment * Evaluating talent and assigning positions * Drills and exercises to teach fundamentals * Offensive and defensive tactics * Game strategies You may not have played much soccer or know much about it, but Coaching Kids to Play Soccerwill teach you everything you need to know. Don't start your season without it!

Jim San Marco was a teacher, athletic director, and coach at Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, New York, who finished his eighteen-year soccer coaching career with a 211-67-24 soccer record. He was recognized as the Section I Soccer Coach of the Year, New York State Section I Athletic Director of the Year, and he has served as a New York State soccer coaching clinician and a New York State Physical Education Convention speaker. He lives in Briarcliff Manor, New York. Kurt Aschermann is currently helping to launch Charity Partners, a firm that creates fund-raising platforms for national charities, and he is a sought-after speaker, workshop leader, and consultant. A physical educator and coach, Kurt is also coauthor of Coaching Kids to Play Baseball and Softball, also published by Fireside. He is a graduate of Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts.

CONTENTS Foreword Preface 1. It's All Yours, Coach 2. General Guidelines for Parents, Players and Coaches 3. Pre-Practice Preparation 4. 25 Important Things Your Players Should Know 5. The Rules of the Game and Dimensions of the Field 6. Juggling 7. The Skills of Soccer 8. Exercises to Improve Skills 9. Goalkeeping 10. Offensive Tactics 11. Defensive Tactics 12. Restarts 13. Systems of Play 14. Pre-Game Check List 15. Practice and Pre-Game Warm-up Routine Some Concluding Thoughts Glossary General Resources