Coaching Kids to Play Soccer (Fireside Books (Fireside))

Jim San Marco (head soccer coach at the highly successful Edgemont High School program in New York State) and Kurt Aschermann (coauthor with Gerard O'Shea of Coaching Kids to Play Baseball and Softball) have written this friendly, easy-to-use, fully illustrated guide that teaches you how to run a successful soccer team -- from setting up the first practice to choosing calisthenics 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 fun and 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 Soccer will teach you everything you need to know. Don't start your season without it!

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


A very good, basic book, for the first time "parent-coach"   September 18, 1999
 26 out of 26 found this review helpful

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!


This is a very good introduction coaching to kids soccer.   December 19, 1998
 35 out of 35 found this review helpful

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.


Very basic and abbreviated, but a good start.   September 4, 1998
 10 out of 18 found this review helpful

If you want to develop a system for making 10 and 11 year old girls understand simple offensive and defensive concepts, this book is not for you. Dealing with low attention spans is frustrating, and kids this age know it all, are mouthy, but have difficulty learning a new concept. With a practice of an hour a day for two days a week, you can't show much, and you can't be complex. This book needed MUCH more defensive emphasis.