Paul J. Spacey - Simple Soccer: 30 Vital Tips to Help Coaches (and Players) Excel

Paul Spacey

Copyright 2014 by PaulSpacey

No reproduction withoutpermission.

All rightsreserved.

Smashwords Edition.

CONTENTS

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"Football (soccer) is a simple game based on the giving andtaking of passes, of controlling the ball and making yourselfavailable to receive a pass. It is terriblysimple. " Bill Shankly (Legendary Liverpool FCCoach).

Bill Shankly could nothave put it in terms any simpler and I agree with him. I believethat coaches, players, the media and many other people involved inthe game are over complicating analysis, delivery of coaching andactual play on the field more and more nowadays. Why? Playingsimple actually turns out to be the most effective way of playingthe game in my opinion.

The ideas and advicecontained in the following chapters are straight forward, to thepoint and will enable you to develop and improve your coachingstyle to ultimately deliver more beneficial sessions for yourplayers. If you are a player reading this book, the ideas and tipswill enable you to deliver better performances on the field.

You might be juststarting out as a new soccer coach or player or you may alreadyhave been involved in the game for some time; either way, you willbe able to take a lot away from this book.

You have 30 vital andeasily implemented tips at your disposal. You dont need to spendhours reading through chapters (each chapter is an average of 500words so you can read one chapter in five minutes or so), you canjust get straight into the material and start improving yourdelivery as a coach and start improving your game if you are aplayer.

The great thing aboutsoccer is that you dont become a great coach or a great playersimply as a result of inherited genes. You become great bydedicating yourself to practice and improvement. Make today thefirst step on your road to being the best coach or player you canpossibly be.

This book is intendedto be used as a mini-manual; something you can quickly pick up andget ideas ahead of your next practice or game. You can even use itduring practice or games to remind yourself of the simple conceptsyou should be applying.

I am alwaysinterested in hearing from coaches and players and getting feedbackon the tips provided in this book. Please let me know how you geton by emailing . You wont get astandard response from a customer service staff member; you willget a personal response from me.

Enjoy the book!

Paul

This book is dedicatedto my girlfriend, Claire, who patiently endured endless late nightswhile I researched and wrote the material. Thank you for putting upwith me!

1 - PRACTICE AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE.

Whether you are asoccer coach or player, the importance of regular practice cannotbe underestimated.

The longer the timebetween practice sessions, the more likely we are to forget what wehave learned. Practicing regularly allows the brain to process theskills and information we learn during training and retain thatinformation more effectively. This is exactly the same for coaches;the more often you take team practices, the better you will becomeat delivering effective sessions.

If you are acoach and only able to practice with your players once or twice aweek, that doesnt mean they cant practice more often. Encourage your players to practiceon their own on days between your practice sessions. Juggling, ballcontrol, dribbling, passing against a wall; there are so manythings they can do on their own without the need for anyone else tohelp them. It is your job as a coach to encourage and convince themthat individual practice is worth the effort and they will gettheir reward as they improve more rapidly than those players whoare not prepared to put in the extra time.

The relationshipbetween regular practice and success is captured in this quote fromAmerican self-help author, Robert Collier:

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and dayout.

When you practicesoccer regularly, it becomes a habit. Remember though, it is notjust about practicing for the sake of doing it; whenever youpractice, it needs to be done with maximum intensity and focus(more on this in a future chapter).

Excuses to skip soccerpractice are not acceptable; Its too cold or Im too tired arecommon excuses. If you feel like giving one of these excuses,remember the importance of practicing regularly and push yourselfto attend practice anyway, even if you really dont feel like it.Most of the time, once you finish practice and realize the benefityou have got from it, youll ask yourself why you even considerednot going in the first place. Push yourself. Dont misspractice.

I love this fantasticquote from Eric Thomas, one of the best motivational speakers onthe planet, which relates to practice and perhaps not feeling likedoing it sometimes:

Themost important thing is this; to be able at any moment, tosacrifice what you are for what you will become .

If you dontfeel like going to practice, sacrifice what you are right now and get yourself to practiceanyway. Think about what you will become as a result of not skippingpractice.

It is a simpleconcept; the more regularly you practice,the quicker you will learn and improve .

If you are a player,remember this and focus on practicing as often as possible. If youare a coach, push this point home to your players and encouragethem to practice every day.

The US OlympicTraining Centre doors are covered with the message below so thateverybody (particularly the athletes) sees it every single day:

Not Every Four Years.Every Day.

The simplemessage reminds athletes that excellence comes from thingspracticed and mastered in every training session, every day .

2 - PRACTICE IN SMALL SPACES.

Practicing in areassmaller than a normal soccer field is hugely beneficial for playersand this is something you should do as often as possible. As aplayer, if you do not already use small spaces for at least part ofyour practice, speak to your coach about doing so. As a coach,practicing in small, tight spaces should be something you doregularly with your team.

One of the mainreasons for using smaller areas is that you get more touches on theball (sometimes called repetitions) and this is one of thefundamental requirements to develop skill and technique insoccer.

Increased number oftouches = increased skill development.

Another benefitis that players are forced to think quicker as they have lessreaction time in a smaller area of space. Your players will have toreact urgently to what Daniel Coyle, in his brilliant book The Little Book Of Talent , callsstruggle-filled crises. It is a struggle to try and keeppossession of the ball in a very tight area of space with opponentspressuring you and this struggle helps players develop quickerreactions over time.

The ultimate goal forany soccer player is to eventually progress to a level where youare able to relax in tight spaces under pressure like teams such asBarcelona and Arsenal. This level of competence will take manyyears but improvement will be noticeable within the space of just afew practice sessions so if you are a coach, think aboutimmediately employing games and exercises in small areas ofspace.

Insmall space, a player has to be capable of acting quickly. A goodplayer who needs too much time can suddenly become a poor player. Johan Cruyff, famous Dutch player and coach.