The Kids' Soccer Book: For Kids and Coaches

W. Bruce Wrigley coaches children’s soccer in Toronto.

This volume will help first-time soccer coaches and parents who are
looking for good printed material about the game. While local soccer
associations often provide rather technical material about field
dimensions and rules of play, this book is full of practical tips for
making practices more interesting for kids who perhaps aren’t sure
that soccer is their game.

The book contains information and pictures that both adults and
children can benefit from. It outlines basic skills and positional play,
and then devotes a chapter to each field position. Dribbling, passing,
zone defence, and shirt defence are explained in simple language for the
novice player or parent. The book is also a trove of historical and
biographical soccer trivia. For instance, the record for juggling a
soccer ball using one’s head, feet, and legs, without once allowing it
to touch the ground, is almost 161/2 hours and is held by a Kenyan
player.

This book is one that I will encourage my young players to read before
the playing season starts next summer. Highly recommended.