Developing Game Intelligence In Soccer

There is no greater power on the soccer field than the game intelligence of the players. With a great variety of attractive and effective simplified games, specially designed to simulate the most important game situations that may occur on the pitch, Horst Wein shows how to stimulate most of the aspects which are involved in game intelligence in young soccer players as well as professionals. Remember, Playing soccer without thinking is like shooting without aiming.

Soccer is the biggest game in the world and has proved to be an unprecedented phenomenon of social impact, inhabiting a prominent place in the daily lives of millions of human beings, a game that has impact even in the most remote places. In an ever-changing world of soccer coaching and tactics, player intelligence has become increasingly important, providing the essential ability to act effectively in a given moment. Therefore, in recent years, the tactical component has been increasingly valued and diffused. Around the world, this dimension of sport performance is being studied and applied by many professionals in the field, from the youth academies all the way through to the professional level. This book is designed to help those who devote much of their time to improving the quality of the game, by coaching and training highly informed, creative and intelligent players. These coaches devote their time and energy to improve players’ and teams’ performances. In turn, match analysts, physiotherapists, psychologists, clinicians and the sport science team dedicate themselves to optimize resources that help boost the performance levels of the players, the coaches and the team. Football Intelligence: Training and Tactics for Soccer Success presents procedures and ideas that, besides assisting in the task of evaluating the tactical performance of soccer players and teams, also allows improving their expression throughout the learning and training phase. This book will be key reading for football coaches and players alike, as well as students and practitioners of sport psychology and performance analysis.

Blending contemporary sports science theory with youth specific coaching practice, this book offers soccer development strategies that are tailored to the needs of young players.

An Amazon #1 Best-Seller! Named the #1 Soccer Book by Football.com. Named a Top 5 Book of the Year by the NSCAA Soccer Journal! Soccer iQ is the first book for soccer PLAYERS! In a world saturated with books about how to coach soccer, Dan Blank finally gives players a book on how to think it. Standing on two decades of collegiate coaching experience, Blank has catalogued soccer's most common mistakes and provides simple, connect-the-dots solutions to help players solve their soccer problems. Soccer IQ is soccer's first text book for players; an almanac of smarter soccer decisions intended to flatten out the learning curve. It covers everything from hunting rebounds to the value of the toe-ball; from playing in the rain to the world's dumbest foul. Blank tells his story from the familiar and humorous voice of a coach who has endured years of stress at the hands of his players. Written in plain-spoken language, Soccer IQ is an easy read and a quick-fix to the most common yet critically important soccer problems. Includes a bonus chapter on the college recruiting process. " Finally someone wrote this book! If every soccer player read Soccer IQ, every coach would be a lot happier." Mark Francis - Head Coach University of Kansas "Dan Blank has just written soccer's first definitive text book." Colin Carmichael - Head Coach Oklahoma State University "This book has immediately become required reading for my team. I'll take 30 copies." Steve Nugent - Head Coach UNC-Greensboro "Soccer IQ may the best practical soccer book I have ever read. There's no fluff. Just nuts and bolts principles that we teach every day. It'll solve a lot of your soccer problems." Steve Holeman - Head Coach University of Georgia

"Author Horst Wein provides more than 150 games, corrective exercises and competitions for players aged 7 to 14. Based on the internationally renowned Football Development Model, training and coaching methods are divided into four levels, resulting in the best age-appropriate coaching resource available. From fundamental skills and goal-keeping to tactics and game intelligence, Developing Youth Football Players covers it all with clear writing and colourful illustrations, making it easy to incorporate each lesson into your programme."--Jacket.

Soccer Brain - from Dan Abrahams - teaches coaches to train players to compete with confidence, with commitment, with intelligence, and as part of a team.

Soccer Speed addresses all aspects of speed, including physical conditioning, tactical skills, and mental strategies, with 36 drills and small-sided games. Players will learn to retain and regain possession, change direction quickly, master one-touch passing and receiving, and employ strategies to unbalance the opposition.

Game intelligence in team sports is hard to quantify, as top level players are noticed for their exceptional ability to read the game, anticipate the next play, and find solutions on the field. It is very difficult to isolate a single action, and then attribute it to game intelligence, but when we look at a player's overall ability, it can generally be categorized it into two parts. First, the ability to strategize and make intelligent situational decisions on the field, and second, the carrying out of those decisions with technical skill and speed. The foundation of game intelligence is found in part one; the decision-making and strategy component, but technical and physical skill, also play a part in decision-making. When I talk about game intelligence with soccer coaches, the majority of them do not want to hear about scientific studies, data and abstract theories. Coaches want logical and realistic training methods that work, which can be incorporated into their regular practices. This is why connecting the dots of game intelligence, with logical training methods is so important. For a number of reasons, I believe the most effective and direct way to develop game intelligence, is through game based trainings. These are the types of trainings where players are constantly playing, stoppages are limited, and coaches tend to speak to individual players, without stopping the game.