Training Soccer Champions

I've only coached men's college teams, but I'm convinced Anson's principles represent a foundation for the future of coaching -- for athletes of either sex. Competition is fun and practices need to be fun. The days of drill sergeant as coaching model are over.Kids from most countries now have hundreds of choices in terms of different sports and entertainment. Every minute of practice needs to be fun or they'll do something else. And it's only going to get worse.Obviously the "competitive caldron" can create women's US college soccer champions (UNC won the title again in 2000), but it may also be our best chance to lure the upcoming Sega generation into team sports.

This book is an excellent guide for ways to develop your soccer team and take them to a new level. This is more for advanced coaches, but I think beginning coaches can utilize these techniques also. Covers great program building techniques for youth boys and women of all levels. Great resource for all soccer coaches.

I am not a soccer coach. This book was recommended to me by a volleyball coaching mentor. He recommended it and said it was the best coaching book he had ever read.... I agree. There is not doubt why Anson Dorrance is one of the best soccer coaches in the world. His insights into success with female athletes is extremely helpful and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be a better coach, period.

I have always been interested in the mental side of sports. This book is excellent for bridging the gap that exists between the physical and mental sides of the game. A must read.

this is an insightful no nonsense guide to coaching advanced players, high school age and above, female and male. Although Dorrance is best known for coaching the outrageously successful womens team at University of North Carolina, his experience with mens teams allows this book to relate to both sexes. I found his approach to quantifying all aspects of practice, which the book explains in great detail, most innovative. The chapters on fitness, off-season training, competitiveness, and team chemistry are particularly helpful to the coach looking to produce an edge for his or her team. The chapter on field organization, I thought, was a most concise and insightful approach to this subject. Dorrance does a better job of putting into words the mystique and creative force of soccer than any other coach and/or author that I have read.