coachKidsSports.com

He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery. - Samuel Smiles

Last night I held a coaching clinic for a local soccer league.  The coaches were great, very enthusiastic and excited about teaching soccer to their kids.  I was very encouraged because the coaches were all looking to learn more, even the ones who had coached for several years. 

The topics I covered would be familiar to regular readers: coaching as teaching; building upon fundamentals; how to set up practice; finding the coachable moments and building a team from a list of names.  Almost as if I've been reading my own stuff…

To support the clinic I created a new page for the site: Clinic Resources.  It has links and downloads related to the clinic, however anyone is welcome to check them out.

The downloads are soccer skills and drills I've picked up over the years as well as an Access database I created to manage my teams.  The database is very basic, but then I never thought I'd share it with the world, so use it with that knowledge.  If you are so inclined and talented, any upgrades to the database or additions to the skills and drills are appreciated.

I've also included two books on the Clinic Resources page.  I've used one of the books, Developing Youth Soccer Players, since I started coaching soccer.  It contains drills and games for all age and skill levels.  Before each season I go through it again to see if there are any drills my team is ready to take on.  The other book, Double Goal Coach, is a book I just started reading, but I'm very excited about what it says so far.  The premise of the book — and web site — is that rec league coaches have two goals; teaching and winning.  Winning is important, it's why we keep score, but teaching is a coach's primary goal and nothing should interfere with that goal.  I think you have read that somewhere before…  After I finish reading the book, I'll post a full review of the book as well as a run down of the resources available on the website.

Please take advantage of the links and downloads on the Clinic Resources page.  I hope it can help at least the soccer coaches out there.