As coaches, parents and players, there is so much to discover about our sport and about coaching and the ways in which we learn. Below I’ve listed some books that have helped me and I recommend to anyone looking to expand their knowledge.
If there’s a book you would recommend, please tell everyone by adding the details in the comments section below.
And to help you pick up a copy online I’ve provided links to Amazon – make sure you’ve signed up for Easyfundraising for all your purchases!
Crucially, for all coaches, perhaps the most important publication for you to own and read is the FA’s Future Game grassroots guide, which has already been featured on our website. Follow the link for more details on that.
“Developing Youth Football Players” is a comprehensive guide for coaches of players aged 7-14 that provides specific coaching instruction at various levels of development. The book presents coaching philosophies, skill instruction and practice games for players in three age groups: 7 years and up, 10 years and up, and 12 years and up. More than 150 games and exercises and 10 competitions are spread among four development levels to provide a sound, proven and progressive system to help young players improve. Coaching instruction is provided on how to teach and interact with young players to help ensure the children continue enjoying the game.
Can we really ALL be the best? Is the idea of innate ability holding us back? Could the ability to fail – and then get over it – be fundamental to success?
Matthew Syed, bestselling writer and international table-tennis champion (after many hours of practice) takes us on a revelatory exploration of being the best and the true nature of talent. In so doing he debunks many cherished myths – that we can be born brilliant (and that child prodigies prove it); that we are restricted by our genetic make-up; and that social background matters. He also makes some surprising discoveries, including the impact on performance of intense religious belief, why athletes and others ‘choke’ and how a Hungarian man turned his daughters into three of the best chess players in history.
Entertaining, provoking and positive, BOUNCE reveals how we can ALL be exceptional.
- Every Boy’s Dream: England’s Football Future on the Line: Britain’s Footballing Future by Chris Green
The way Britain develops its top football talent is a hot topic of debate. The failure of all four of the UK’s national teams to reach the 2008 European Championships and the ever-increasing reliance of England’s top clubs on foreign talent underlines an undisputable fact: that Britain now lags well behind the world’s top countries in producing the best footballers, despite having the wealthiest league in the world and untold riches at the game’s disposal.
Every Boy’s Dream: England’s Football Future on the Line investigates why – despite unprecedented expenditure on a huge overhaul of youth development in the past decade – British football continues to fail to nurture top-class football talent. Every Boy’s Dream does not pull any punches. It lays the blame at the doors of the authorities in charge of youth football. But, rather than just listing the faults of system – which are many, as the hard-hitting real-life examples demonstrate – it provides tales of inspiration and a blueprint for the future of the national game.
It is the most thorough book ever written about football youth development, and cracks through the age-old veneer of perceived wisdom that has stifled debate on the subject.
- Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential by Carol Dweck
World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea-the power of our mindset. Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn’t foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success.
With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals-personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.
- Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary?
In his provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined. He reveals that it’s as much about where we’re from and what we do, as who we are – and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone.
Outliers will change the way you think about your own life story, and about what makes us all unique.
2 Comments
Great list. How about “Inverting the pyramid’ by Jonathon Wilson for the more geeky among us who set up the salt and pepper as centre backs?
Another good choice Mike. Covers the history of formations and how the tactics of the 11-a-side game have evolved over the years and continue to do so.