Play With Your Brain: A Guide to Smarter Soccer for Players Coaches and Parents

In soccer most goals are scored with your feet. But as Johan Cruyff noted soccer is fundamentally a game you play with your brain. Technical skills are essential tools to be sure but (like any tools) they are useless without a clear understanding of how when and why to apply them. In Play with Your Brain Travis Norsen helps you develop your soccer brain by providing a deep and detailed explanation of some of the games basic principles. Aimed at intermediate-to-advanced youth soccer players and their coaches (as well as parents who want to understand the game more deeply) the book presents eight key soccer concepts in illuminating detail showing what and how but also clearly explaining why. Specific topics include the value of possession the importance of horizontal and vertical spacing why the direction you face is as important as where you are and where youre going the nature and value of speed pressuring with a purpose and why defense - the science of generating turnovers - requires a coordinated team effort. The book contains more than fifty detailed diagrams illustrating these principles in various concrete applications and is written in a style that is simultaneously accessible and lucid. Whether you are a youth soccer player who wants to develop your game to the next level a volunteer coach who needs a clear vision of where to lead your team or a soccer parent who just wants to more clearly comprehend your kids passion this book will provide the systematic understanding you want and need.