Tony DiCicco was the head coach of the US Women’s National Soccer Team back in the 90s. His book, “Catch Them Being Good”, is a good read for the soccer coach, or any coach, particularly those working with females.
Here are 10 points to ponder from the book:
- Know your limitations and use them as strengths
- Play hard, play to win, play to have fun
- Less is more: prepare well, but don’t over train.
- Players need to know your coaching decisions are performance related and not personal
- Always aim to complete a training activity at the peak of player intensity, enjoyment and competition versus playing to boredom and fatigue
- Start the season with a vision of the type of team you want to have and share it with the team, then have them buy into it
- Always look for teachable moments
- Have the parents work together to simplify the lives of players on the team so that the team can focus on the goal
- If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
- Winning and losing is not life and death