Bob Wilson: Soccer
Bob Wilson
ISBN 0-7207-0793-5
1975
61 pages
Chapter on Goalkeeping, defence, midfield, strikers/wingers skills with teaching points. Briefly talks about set plays. Full of vintage photos. Somewhat useful for a beginning player or coach.
Michael Owen's Soccer Skills: How to become the complete player
Michael Owen with Dave Harrison
ISBN 0-00-218935-6
1999
128 pages
Two pages on stretching. Covers basic skills, restarts, and defending with simple drills and teaching points for each. Lots of information on Michael Owen. Somewhat useful for a beginning player or someone who has a crush on Michael Owen.
Soccer for Dummies
Michael Lewis
ISBN 0-7645-5229-5
2000
375 pages
Typical for Dummies book. The 5 Ws of soccer, with plenty of factoids thrown in. As with all dummies books, only rudimentary, more for entertainment than real knowledge. Useful for bathroom reading.
Soccer with Gary Bailey - An easy manual for coaches and players
Hans Kirsten Publishers
ISBN 0958305587
1989
101 pages
A simple book with basic tips on individual skills with a couple of drills for each skill. A chapter on goalkeeping. Extremely brief chapters on restarts and formations. A summation of out of date Laws of the Game. Most useful for individual beginning player.
Soccer Fundamentals - Basic skills, drills, and strategy for beginning players
John Learmouth
ISBN 0312115326
1979
133 pages
Introduces the practice grid. Chapters on Passing and Dribbling, Kicking, Ball Control, Heading, Tackling, and Goalkeeping. Each chapter has basic tips on technique plus a few practice exercises and drills. Most useful for individual beginning player.
Youth League Soccer Coaching and Playing
The Athletic Institute
ISBN 0876700261
1988
168 pages
Covers Coaching. Role and influence of the coach. Chapter on injuries and first aid. A brief but good chapter on theory of practice/practice planning. Tips and techniques for basic soccer skills with essential teaching points for each skill. Chapter on drills with good diagrams (pics of little soccer guys rather than X and O). Chapter on basic tactics, chapter on basic formations. A summation of out of date Laws of the Game. Most useful for a novice coach.
Soccer Playbook
Robert Matero
ISBN 158865088X
2002
32 pages
A booklet. Doesn't get more basic than this. Names various soccer skills, formations, and restarts, but does very little (pretty much nothing) in the way of instruction, tips, or drills.
Soccer for Juniors: A Guide for Players, Parents, and Coaches
Robert Pollock
ISBN 0-684-18369-2
1980
190 pages
Formations is the first thing covered in "Basic Skills". Then covers the actual basic skills but not well.
Has a chapter on tactics - creating space, through ball, marking, zonal defence. A summation of out of date Laws of the Game. A chapter on the Referee. Not very useful.
The Ultimate Soccer Almanac
Dan Woog
ISBN 0-7373-9981-3
1998
96 pages
A brief history and background of soccer, major teams, and famous players. The basic skills with 1 or two drills for each, a handful of practice games, and a summation of out of date Laws of the Game. Not very useful.
One-on-One For Self Training
Walter Chyzowych and Ole Anderson
ISBN 0-9604588
1980
96 pages
"The skills book of the United States Soccer Federation". 20 solo moves for one-on-one. A bio of a retro pro player with each. Cartoony pictures, confusing sequences of arrows and numbers. Marginally useful for individual player. If you're looking for 1 on 1 moves, the Coerver videos are better.
Getting Started in Soccer
Gordon Strachan
ISBN 0-8069-0834-3
1994
80 pages
Covers a broad range of basic and intermediate skills with some teaching points for each. Most useful for individual beginning player.
Soccer Skills for Young Players
Ted Buxton
ISBN 1-55209-329-8
2000
128 pages
Short chapter on warmups and cooldowns, off season training, diet. Covers basic skills with teaching points and drills for each. Most useful for individual intermediate player.
The Everything Kids Soccer Book
Deborah W. Crisfield
ISBN 1-58062-642-4
2002
134 pages
Very basic, in the style of soccer for dummies with lots of little cartoony pictures and fluffed up with "Fun facts", "words to know", mazes, other crap. Avoid.
Showing posts with label coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coaching. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, July 27, 2009
Refereeing my first Adult game
Our local league is very small. Its all co-ed, there are only four teams in each age division, and multiple ages play on the same team. I used to coach 'Old Timers' and had a range of kids from 12-17 on my team. After grade eleven they are supposed to move on to the 'Geriatric' division, where there are four adult teams.
I had been refereeing U12 and U10 this summer, but was finding the littler ones didn't present much of a challenge or much exercise. Their enthusiasm for the game was a refreshing recharge after giving up coaching, but I wanted some more competitive games to warm up for the boys high school season this fall.
I was extremely nervous beforehand. These guys (and girls) have never had a referee before! All our adult refs play in the division so there has never been someone available. They called all their own fouls, ball in/out, offsides, and whatnot themselves according to the collective understanding (or misunderstanding ;) of the laws of the game. Hard to walk into that and establish a presence.
It was not my best game by any means, but serviceable. I've been off for two weeks with a vacation and then the stomach flu, so didn't feel I had my legs yet. I did better than expected with keeping up with play, but much room for improvement there. It was a very back and forth game. One team would pressure, then the defending team would pound it down the field to their high forwards and off I'd charge to the other end of the field. The ball would turn over and be blasted back to the other half and I'd run all the way back again. I use a pedometer in all my games, I had as many steps in the first half as I normally do in a full match. More than a couple times in the game I didn't have the gas to get to the penalty area as quickly as I should have. Missed a few fouls and what probably should have been a penalty kick by being out of position.
I had coached about half of the players on one team, and maybe a quarter on the other, plus played recreationally with a handful more of the older players. Knowing the players, I went in expected an amount of dissent from certain ones, but turns out I expected it from the wrong guys. Blue team was playing with only 10 but made a very good game of it in the first half. Green's outstanding keeper was unbeatable. As his former high school coach, I wish I could take even the smallest amount of credit, but I can't. 2-0 Green at the half. Blue scored early in the second to make it close, but then Green got a third, and the wheels fell off.
That's when the chirping started. From some of my favourite boys I coached in high school. Nothing overt, but careful conversations within hearing about the unfairness of the ref and he called this why didn't he call that and blah blah blah. Funny how players always forget the calls that go their way whan complaining about bias. I unleashed one of the most powerful tools in my arsenal - selective listening. Figured ignoring was the best bet since they didn't use profanity and was quiet enough to not listen to. Ironic how much it reminded me of coaching them on the high school team. When we struggled, which was often, these were the guys who could never say "I need to work harder", or "I can do better". It was all about blaming teammates, the coach, the 4-4-2 system, or the referee. Hard to come back with that kind of attitude. 5-1 the final for Green.
The other thing that reminded me of coaching high school was the total lack of midfield presence by both teams, particularly in the second half. Used to drive me nuts as a coach. Drives me nuts as a referee because all the extra running. The attacking team would have all their forwards and midfielders up in the penalty area against the defending team's defence and some mids, and all their defence back in their own half marking the defending team's forwards and a mid or two. 30 yards of basically empty space in between the two groupings.
Anyway, things I need to work on for next game. Fitness obviously. 33 pounds down from my high, but another 10 or 12 would be a big help. I'm thinking some cycling so as not to put wear on my knees. I also need to work on foul recognition. I've had a lot of trouble with this. I'm still a new enough referee that it isn't instinctive. I see a possible foul, I process the possible foul, I consider if it was a foul or not, I think about blowing the whistle, but 3 seconds have gone by and the play has moved on. I'm hoping that as I gain experience I will instantly recognize fouls and not have to think about it. It would be nice to have an assessment or some kind of mentoring system in our league, but believe it or not, I'm the only certified referee in the league. I also want to get a little stricter next game. I'm usually a firm believer in letting the players play if both teams are happy the level of physicality, but there was a fair amount of fouling going on, not all of which I called. I figured I'd let them get used to the idea of having a referee before I start calling all kinds of fouls they've never seen fit to call themselves.
BTW 11550 steps at end of match. Not sure how this works out to distance. I have a GPS that I've been thinking about pocketing for an U12 match and then comparing linear distance on that vs steps on pedometer. I would guess each step averages out to about half a meter, or about 6 km over the course of the game.
I had been refereeing U12 and U10 this summer, but was finding the littler ones didn't present much of a challenge or much exercise. Their enthusiasm for the game was a refreshing recharge after giving up coaching, but I wanted some more competitive games to warm up for the boys high school season this fall.
I was extremely nervous beforehand. These guys (and girls) have never had a referee before! All our adult refs play in the division so there has never been someone available. They called all their own fouls, ball in/out, offsides, and whatnot themselves according to the collective understanding (or misunderstanding ;) of the laws of the game. Hard to walk into that and establish a presence.
It was not my best game by any means, but serviceable. I've been off for two weeks with a vacation and then the stomach flu, so didn't feel I had my legs yet. I did better than expected with keeping up with play, but much room for improvement there. It was a very back and forth game. One team would pressure, then the defending team would pound it down the field to their high forwards and off I'd charge to the other end of the field. The ball would turn over and be blasted back to the other half and I'd run all the way back again. I use a pedometer in all my games, I had as many steps in the first half as I normally do in a full match. More than a couple times in the game I didn't have the gas to get to the penalty area as quickly as I should have. Missed a few fouls and what probably should have been a penalty kick by being out of position.
I had coached about half of the players on one team, and maybe a quarter on the other, plus played recreationally with a handful more of the older players. Knowing the players, I went in expected an amount of dissent from certain ones, but turns out I expected it from the wrong guys. Blue team was playing with only 10 but made a very good game of it in the first half. Green's outstanding keeper was unbeatable. As his former high school coach, I wish I could take even the smallest amount of credit, but I can't. 2-0 Green at the half. Blue scored early in the second to make it close, but then Green got a third, and the wheels fell off.
That's when the chirping started. From some of my favourite boys I coached in high school. Nothing overt, but careful conversations within hearing about the unfairness of the ref and he called this why didn't he call that and blah blah blah. Funny how players always forget the calls that go their way whan complaining about bias. I unleashed one of the most powerful tools in my arsenal - selective listening. Figured ignoring was the best bet since they didn't use profanity and was quiet enough to not listen to. Ironic how much it reminded me of coaching them on the high school team. When we struggled, which was often, these were the guys who could never say "I need to work harder", or "I can do better". It was all about blaming teammates, the coach, the 4-4-2 system, or the referee. Hard to come back with that kind of attitude. 5-1 the final for Green.
The other thing that reminded me of coaching high school was the total lack of midfield presence by both teams, particularly in the second half. Used to drive me nuts as a coach. Drives me nuts as a referee because all the extra running. The attacking team would have all their forwards and midfielders up in the penalty area against the defending team's defence and some mids, and all their defence back in their own half marking the defending team's forwards and a mid or two. 30 yards of basically empty space in between the two groupings.
Anyway, things I need to work on for next game. Fitness obviously. 33 pounds down from my high, but another 10 or 12 would be a big help. I'm thinking some cycling so as not to put wear on my knees. I also need to work on foul recognition. I've had a lot of trouble with this. I'm still a new enough referee that it isn't instinctive. I see a possible foul, I process the possible foul, I consider if it was a foul or not, I think about blowing the whistle, but 3 seconds have gone by and the play has moved on. I'm hoping that as I gain experience I will instantly recognize fouls and not have to think about it. It would be nice to have an assessment or some kind of mentoring system in our league, but believe it or not, I'm the only certified referee in the league. I also want to get a little stricter next game. I'm usually a firm believer in letting the players play if both teams are happy the level of physicality, but there was a fair amount of fouling going on, not all of which I called. I figured I'd let them get used to the idea of having a referee before I start calling all kinds of fouls they've never seen fit to call themselves.
BTW 11550 steps at end of match. Not sure how this works out to distance. I have a GPS that I've been thinking about pocketing for an U12 match and then comparing linear distance on that vs steps on pedometer. I would guess each step averages out to about half a meter, or about 6 km over the course of the game.
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