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by Thomas Denigris (Author)
One of the greatest things about this sport of soccer that the one and only Pele once famously labeled The Beautiful Game is the fact that youngsters can begin playing it as soon as they are able to walk and run. Young players can start to learn the ins and outs of The Beautiful Game as early as age four, and this is why the two most important words in training and coaching youth soccer players are--and should be--player development. Too often, at these early stages of training and coaching youth soccer players, trainers and coaches are concerned more about winning matches, and there is way too much emphasis on match results rather than the improved performances of the players. Winning a soccer match should be nothing more than the result of what took place in the days leading up to the game, that is, the training sessions. The TOTAL SOCCER Fitness and Training Guide to Player Development is here to show potential coaches and trainers, not to mention parents, just how to develop a youngster into a complete soccer player. Author Tom DeNigris, recently retired after thirty-plus years of training and coaching as the owner and director of TOTAL SOCCER Fitness and Training, explains in detail just how he trained and coached teams of various age groups. Using his own player development ladder as a guide, DeNigris illustrates by virtue of drills and advices a way to teach young athletes how to play The Big Beautiful Game by adhering to his coaching principle of "Keeping the fun" in fundamentals, highlighted by games and drills used when conducting a weekly clinic for pre-K-aged boys and girls. Once his own children began to play at the competitive level, DeNigris entered the world of coaching, and he writes about his own experience of first leading a team of nine-year-old girls into the travel soccer environment--a team he stayed with for more than a decade. He also writes about the many other teams, including his son's team. As a United States Soccer Federation-licensed coach, DeNigris also soon earned a certificate as a Speed, Agility, and Quickness Trainer and includes many of the drills used to train and teach his teams on how to become faster both with and without the ball. Many of the drills he used can also be seen on his previous soccer coaching book, Play Faster: Speed, Agility & Quickness for Soccer. All in all, the TSFT Guide to Player Development will help trainers, coaches, and parents teach The Beautiful Game.
