Making The Ball Roll: A Complete Guide to Youth Football for the Aspiring Soccer Coach

by Ray Power

Making the Ball Roll is the ultimate complete guide to coaching youth soccer. This focused and easy-to-understand book details training practices and tactics, and goes on to show you how to help young players achieve peak performance through tactical preparation, communication, psychology, and age-specific considerations. Each chapter covers, in detail, a separate aspect of coaching to give you, the football coach, a broad understanding of youth soccer development. Each topic is brought to life by the stories of real coaches working with real players. Never before has such a comprehensive guide to coaching soccer been found in the one place. If you are a new coach, or just trying to improve your work with players - and looking to invest in your future - this is a must-read book! - Analyse how football coaching has dramatically grown and changed over the last decade, and help prepare your players for the modern game - Understand the age-related development of technically, tactically and physically - Gain an insight into new research around psychology in soccer and the growing effects of social considerations like communication, teamwork, leadership, and rapport - Consider age-appropriate methods, sessions, and curriculum planning, used by top coaching programmes - Learn the methods of top coaches like Mourinho, Guardiola, Sir Alex Ferguson and Wenger and apply them to your work with youth players About the Author. Ray Power is one of the bestselling soccer authors in the world. With over a decade of experience working in soccer and education, coaching players from non-league to Premier League levels, and internationally, he is the author of the "Deliberate Soccer Practice" series, "Making The Ball A Complete Guide to Youth Football for the Aspiring Soccer Coach", and its 2020 "Coaching Youth What Soccer Coaches Can Learn From The Professional Game". As a coach developer and educator, Ray has worked for, and consulted with, numerous national FAs, as well as governing bodies from other sports, including the NBA. He also works as a consultant - mentor - educator on a freelance basis, working with grassroots coaches all the way to professional teams.

Genres: Football, Sports, Soccer

357 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 18, 2014

Reviews

[Benscopato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive

If you're new to coaching or just winging it at your current club, this book serves as a great guide to best practices. After reading through this book I have a much clearer picture of how to structure my season and deal with my players. It's not enough to just know your soccer, this book will help you coach it successfully to all age groups if you approach it with an open mind and the spirit of self-improvement.

Light on sessions and drills. Full of theory and solid methodology.

[Gary Watts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good background reading for the modern day game, youth football and youth coach. No Drills or training tips, as this instead focuses on areas such as development over winning, psychology, culture, parents, and goes through the different needs from varying perspectives of under 8s, 8-11s, 11-14s and above. This is a better book to dip into and remind you on certain aspects. Is a good complement to a training drills compendium (such as The Soccer Games and Drills Companion)

[Colin Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Go To Book for UK Youth Coaches

A great book which covers everything in decent depth and points the reader to other books (by other authors) if the reader wishes to drill down into details.

A perfect accompanyment to the FA Level 1 In Coaching, not a replacement.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, informative, thought-provoking, research-based. I would mark this down as a must-read for anyone starting their coaching journey. Note that it is not full of activities/session plans, more the theory and understanding that can aid the coach.

[Pieter Coussement · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super book for new coaches

[Reidar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book I have read on being a parent coach in a grassroots soccer environment. Deep knowledge combined with extensive experience along with practical examples. A good and must read:)

[Andyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, full of age specific and relevant coaching information and examples that back up the FA Courses and Modules I have taken. Definitely one for a coach whose taken Youth Module 1 & 2 for reinforcement and an intro to coaching the next age levels - in my case 11yr olds from 2016.