| Useful Information (July 2008) |
Stuff that can help make you a better coach now and in the future
By Jay Martin
One of the goals I have had since taking over as editor a few years ago is having something in every issue that a coach can use today. So, I offer a few bits and pieces of information from the world of soccer that may be helpful…that you may be able to use today! There is a lot of information out there. Maybe the some of the following will help you improve as a coach. I hope you find it useful.
Websites
Here is a list of soccer websites that you may find helpful and informative.
• USSoccer.com Access stats, game schedules and results. Read articles, get videos, buy tickets. Also find news, editorials, coach and referee information.
• ESPNsoccernet.com Sections devoted to English, European and U.S. soccer. Access TV listings for games, player profiles, news archives, audio clips, fantasy league info and the day’s soccer headlines.
• Womensoccer.com Breaking news on developments in all of women’s soccer. Find links to soccer federations and teams, plus reviews of soccer books and videos. Join the forum and discussion sections.
• Soccer-sites.com A huge directory of soccer sites from all over the world. You can add your own site to the collection.
• SoccerHelp.com Free soccer drills, skills, rules and tips for better playing. Also gives information on coaching the game.
• World Soccer News (WorldSoccer.com) Top international news and reports, live scores, stats and an entire section on the European Championships.
• World Soccer (WorldSoccer.About.com) Articles and resources for all things soccer.
• National Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum (Soccerhall.com) The online home for the Hall of Fame offers a complete history of US soccer and a complete research library.
• American Soccer History Archives (www.sover.net/~spectrum/) Articles on the history of U.S. soccer dating back to 1911. A summary of soccer each year with all league records, players and events. There also are articles and essays about U.S. soccer.
• Soccerspecific.com This site comes out of the UAE and offers a membership that provides access to drills, exercises, nutrition, sports injuries, fitness training and more. Authors and contributors come from all over the world. It is also the source for Session Planner Software where you can design your own drills with computer-generated graphics.
Books
Coaching the Coach – This short (115 pages) book, published in 2007, was written by Richard Seedhouse, a UEFA B coach and an FA tutor who is a football development officer at the FA Charter Standard Development Junior Football Club. He is immersed in coach education and development in his native England. Seedhouse says, “[T]his is a book for grassroots coaches who want to improve their coaching.”
The book is not just a list of drills and practice sessions. It attempts to teach new coaches why specific coaching activities are chosen, how to use that activity and what will be coached using that activity. This book serves as an education for coaches. Although Seedhouse focuses on the 7-11 age groups, the principles can be used at all levels of coaching.
The book is written in a question-and-answer style that is easy to read and, more important, challenges the coach to think. Although the book is aimed at the new youth coach, any coach will get a great deal from reading this book. It is short, it has a lot of pictures and it is very good. What more do you need for a little summer reading? You can find this book at Amazon.com for $14.95.
The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer: I just finished this book. It took a bit longer than it did to read Coaching the Coach. Published in 2006, it is long (almost 1,000 pages) and has few pictures. Written by David Goldblatt, it has generally become accepted as the definitive history of the game of soccer. Don’t be put off by the length of the book. It is very good and a fast read.
Goldblatt took more than 20 years to write about soccer on all continents, with an emphasis on the cultural, political, economic, historical and the religious influences on the game. To illustrate this point, Argentina’s President Juan Peron is mentioned as often as Maradona. The two are inseparable. And Peron couldn’t use his left foot.
The evolution of soccer on different continents is illustrated by featuring key games that served as watershed events for the sport in a particular country or continent. Goldblatt starts at the beginning of all ball games in a number of different countries and ends with the current Champions League, World Cup of 2006 and even how soccer influences al-Qaeda (it seems Osama bin Laden supports Arsenal). Goldblatt doesn’t miss much about the game. He shares information on great players and great teams. There is something here for all soccer fans.
Goldblatt is a very good writer who intersperses facts with stories and anecdotes. As ESPN Soccernet says, “Seldom does a book come along that has everything. This one does.” It can be found at Amazon.com in either hard cover or paperback with prices starting at $16.08.
Services
Campchamps.com There are many organizations out there that will help a coach with on-line registration for camps. There aren’t many organizations that will do that and help coaches market themselves. Camp Champs does both. Camp Champs helps coaches manage camps and build “brand equity.”
Coaches move around (a lot), and this site will help them maintain a base of operation, a working history and an identity. When you move around, the website and your history goes with you! Most coaches are resistant to marketing themselves, thinking it smacks of self-promotion, but to build a career in coaching today in club or college, it is becoming more important to document your efforts and activities over the years.
Camp Champs is a web-based interface for camp promotions and management that offers more than a “sign and pay” service. The owners have experience at the collegiate level in athletics public relations and athletics marketing. Site users get to know the coach, the coach’s program and the camp. Camp Champs helps create your brand by offering information that includes not only camp information, but information about you that is usable for fans, alums, recruits and the general public.
Camp Champs takes the pain out of operating your camp and helps you build a “brand” as a coach. Go to: www.campchamps.net.
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