Soccer Training: Games, Drills and Fitness Practices
By Malcolm Cook
5/5
()
About this ebook
A practical training handbook for soccer coaches, it contains over 60 practices and drills aimed at developing specific skills, from controlling and passing the ball to tackling, shooting and goalkeeping. It also features photographs of leading players in action.
This eighth edition also looks at all aspects of the modern player's fitness needs (aerobic and anaerobic fitness, strength training, core stability, agility and flexibility) and features updated illustrations throughout and action shots of the current crop of young football stars.
Malcolm Cook
Malcolm Cook was a professional player and has since worked for many years as a full-time coach (with a full FA/UEFA full international coaching licence) at many professional clubs around the world. He was also Director of Youth at Liverpool FC.
Read more from Malcolm Cook
101 Youth Football Drills: Age 12 to 16 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5101 Youth Football Drills: Age 7 to 11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Southeast Asian Affairs 2018 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoutheast Asian Affairs 2016 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSingapore Lectures 1980-2018: A Selection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoutheast Asian Affairs 2020 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Soccer Training
Related ebooks
Soccer Training Blueprints: 15 Ready-to-Run Sessions for Outstanding Attacking Play Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Attacking Exercises to Improve Decision-Making Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pre-Season Soccer Training: A Seven Week, 50 Session Guide to Building For The New Season Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soccer Fitness: Workout Routines, Secrets and Strategies to Improve your Soccer Fitness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Passing & Possession Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeveloping Soccer Players: Forward-Specific Practices Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Modern Soccer Coach: Pre-Season Training Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Soccer Drills: A 100 Soccer Drills to Improve Your Skills, Strategies and Secrets Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making The Ball Roll: A Complete Guide to Youth Football for the Aspiring Soccer Coach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTraining Sessions For Soccer Coaches Volumes 1-2-3: Training Sessions For Soccer Coaches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeveloping Skill 2: A Guide to 3v3 Soccer Coaching Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soccer Intelligence: Soccer Training Tips To Improve Your Spatial Awareness and Intelligence In Soccer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Defending Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoccerROM Coaching Series: Winning Coaching Methods Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImprove Your Game: Learn How to Improve Your Basic Skills of Soccer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings101 Great Youth Soccer Drills: Skills and Drills for Better Fundamental Play Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Soccer Goalkeeping Handbook 3rd Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConcept Soccer : A Step by Step Method to Score Goals and Develop Players Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Modern Soccer Coach: Position-Specific Training Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ultimate Soccer Coaching Bundle (5 books in 1) Volume 1: Training Sessions For Soccer Coaches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings101 Youth Football Coaching Sessions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Improve Your Soccer Team Players - Elite Book For Elite Player Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoordination in Soccer: A New Road for Successful Coaching Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTraining Sessions For Soccer Coaches Volume 2: Training Sessions For Soccer Coaches, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTeaching modern football Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYouth Football Coaching: Developing your team through the season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScientific Approaches to Goalkeeping in Football: Goalkeeping Basics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoaching - A methodology for managing a football team Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLet's Talk Soccer: Using Game-Calls to Develop Communication and Decision-Making in Football Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Soccer For You
Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Soccer Rules and Positions In A Day For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWOLFPACK: How to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and Change the Game Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soccer Intelligence: Soccer Training Tips To Improve Your Spatial Awareness and Intelligence In Soccer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Forward: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soccer For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scientific Approaches to Goalkeeping in Football: Goalkeeping Basics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoccer iQ Vol. 1: Things That Smart Players Do Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ultimate Soccer Coaching Bundle (5 books in 1) Volume 1: Training Sessions For Soccer Coaches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSolo: A Memoir of Hope Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Around the World in 80 Games: The Earth Shaped Ball Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPOSSESSION: Teaching Your Team to Keep the Darn Ball Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soccer: Soccer Strategies: The Top 100 Best Ways To Improve Your Soccer Game Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Happened to the USMNT: The Ugly Truth About the Beautiful Game Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBrilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoccer iQ Presents... Shutout Pizza Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Woman's Game: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Women's Soccer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMastering the Premier League: The Tactical Concepts Behind Pep Guardiola's Manchester City Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5101 Goalkeeper Training Practices Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings101 Great Youth Soccer Drills: Skills and Drills for Better Fundamental Play Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat's Wrong with US?: A Coach's Blunt Take on the State of American Soccer After a Lifetime on the Touchline Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Training Sessions For Soccer Coaches Volume 2: Training Sessions For Soccer Coaches, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Journey to the World Cup: Updated Edition Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Futebol: Soccer, The Brazilian Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Watching: Anson Dorrance and the University of North Carolina Women's Soccer Dynasty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Articles of Faith Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Football’s Principles of Play Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Soccer Training
3 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Soccer Training - Malcolm Cook
Contents
Acknowledgements
Forewords
Introduction
Part 1: Coaching
Control and passing
Dribbling, screening and tackling
Crossing and heading
Shooting
Tactical games
Indoor games
Goalkeeping
Part 2: Games and practices for fitness
Soccer fitness components
The warm-up
The cool-down
Games for fitness
Summary
Christiano Ronaldo, the Real Madrid and Portugal player and World Player of the Year 2008, has practiced diligently over the last few years to scale enormous heights in performance and become one of the most feared attacking players in world football. When he was first signed by Manchester United he was dismissed by many critics as a ‘one-trick pony’ who could only dribble with the ball on his own. However, he practiced relentlessly with his coaches and became the complete and devastating player that we see today.
Forewords
Having worked in the Football Industry field for over thirty five years, I have found that players, and teams, respond best to a programme which is simple, varied, progressive and maintains interest for all through its sound organisation.
Players want to see improvement in their game, whilst enjoying the work at the same time – and this is precisely what this book does, in a clear, instructive and logical fashion. The manual presents coaches, trainers and teachers with a wide range of ideas for improving and developing their players techniques and skills, and also gives them an insight into tactics and specific football fitness programmes.
Author Malcolm Cook, who has a vast experience in football coaching, has produced an excellent practical book that I am delighted to recommend to coaches, trainers and teachers at all levels of the game.
The late Sir Bobby Robson, CBE
The late Sir Bobby Robson, CBE
Fulham, Ipswich Town, England, PSV,
Barcelona, Porto and Newcastle United
Every coach, whether a beginner working with children, or an experienced professional club or national team coach, requires a pool of soccer knowledge, and a portfolio of technical practices and fitness training sessions in order to provide their players with a structured coaching and development programme.
Using simple language and clear diagrams, this excellent book provides these tools. The basic principles of coaching and training are explained clearly and simply in a format which can be used on a daily basis by the working coach.
Malcolm Cook is a professional coach with extensive experience of professional club coaching, player development and coach education. I fully endorse his book, and consider it a welcome addition to the literature available on soccer coaching and fitness training.
Mark Hughes, MBE
Mark Hughes, MBE
Former Manager of Welsh National Team,
Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City
Malcolm Cook is a true Da Vinci Coach ... he has done it all and is still a master of the craft of coaching. The process of coaching is much more than rolling a ball out and blowing a whistle when something goes wrong – it is making a real contribution to the sport, leaving a legacy and helping to make boys and girls into good men and women. In my work as Director of Education for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America we are always on the lookout for quality books to recommend to our members. I thoroughly recommend Soccer Training and every book that Malcolm has written for coaches. The NSCAA is a world-class coaching organisation and I am pleased to recommend to our 31,000 members the work of Malcolm Cook, a truly unique individual."
Jeff Tipping
Jeff Tipping,
Director of Education and
Coaching Development,
NSCAA
Theo Walcott, the Arsenal and England forward, is beginning to realise the expectations placed upon him earlier in his career. He has, under the astute coaching of Arsene Wenger, added a more consistent end product to his dynamic dribbling skills. Continuous practice sessions have improved his crossing delivery of the ball and his ability to score more goals. This practice routine is a never-ending process for young players who want to fulfil their potential in the game.
Introduction
This book is designed to offer systematic coaching and training programmes for soccer based on sound learning principles. It contains fundamental games, drills and practices that can be organised with the minimum of equipment to develop technical skills, tactical understanding and fitness. All the activities are challenging and interesting, and coaches and players alike will be able to measure progress.
The book is divided into two parts. Part one contains drills and games which are set out to develop technical skills, goalkeeping and tactics of the game, and caters for all players. The activities begin from a basic level, gradually increasing in difficulty, thus extending the players in a systematic fashion. Part two provides information and guidance on the major fitness practices of aerobic fitness, anaerobic fitness, strength training, core stability, agility, and flexibility.
The emphasis throughout is on purposeful, enjoyable and progressive activities that add variety to the routine of regular soccer training which can be a drudge and also unprofitable if players are provided with the same activities at each practice session. This book will ensure that the soccer coach has a wide repertoire of games, drills and practices at his finger-tips to improve his players’ technical skills, tactics and fitness. I have tried wherever possible to provide games or game-like activities, as I believe this is the best way to learn the sport.
Note: Throughout the book soccer players and coaches are referred to individually as ‘he’. This should, of course, be taken to mean ‘he or she’ where appropriate.
Part 1: Coaching
Control and passing
Dribbling, screening and tackling
Crossing and heading
Shooting
Tactical games
Indoor games
Goalkeeping
Introduction
To obtain maximum benefit from a practice session the coach should pay attention to three organisational elements.
Practice area
Space must be utilised properly and practice areas designated for the squad if the game is to have full effect. Basically, the coach has two ‘types’