"It's as if Dan was sitting right next to you with a dry erase board saying, 'See what I mean?' This is another must have book for the soccer lover." ~ Ray Leone, Head Coach, Harvard A follow-up to the Amazon #1 best-seller, Soccer iQ, Volume 2 is written in the same conversational and humorous tone as its predecessor. Volume 2 is an easy read that identifies more of the most common soccer mistakes and provides players with simple, connect-the-dots solutions that they can immediately implement into their games. It is another must-have book for any serious soccer player. "Soccer iQ Vol. 2 gives you way more than your money's worth." ~ Tony Amato - Head Coach, Arizona

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

POSSESSION is a book for coaches of all levels who want their teams to pass the ball and pass it well. It combines a thorough explanation of possession concepts with 30 practical possession exercises to help your team develop its ability to keep the ball. Easy-to-understand diagrams help you understand the layout and design of these exercises. More importantly, the exercises include explanations about the critical coaching points AND the most common mistakes the players will make when playing these exercises. These insightful tips give coaches a head start by showing you what to expect once an exercise begins, the mistakes to look for and the proper corrections to make.

WARNING: This is not a goalkeeping book. From the best-selling author of Soccer iQ comes a book dedicated to teaching and organizing a back four. Coach Dan Blank led the Southeastern Conference's best defense at two different universities in consecutive years. It began with a handbook he created for his defenders that ensured everyone was on the same page. Shutout Pizza is a vastly expanded version of that handbook. It introduces the governing principles that guided the SEC's best defenses, and covers a broad spectrum of scenarios that commonly occur during matches. Shutout Pizza is packed with diagrams that will help the reader visualize the concepts discussed in the text, and includes several of most effective drills for training these concepts. This is an excellent book for coaches and players who want to defend more effectively.

This is what your coaches would have said to you if you were a boy, told through the story of a small-college soccer team that won more games than it ever had a right to win. It’s an inspiring and straightforward look at the qualities that define the most competitive females, and what separates the ones who get it from the ones who don't. Everything Your Coach Never Told You is the instruction manual for female athletes who want to do more than just play. It's for those girls who want to win, win big, and never apologize for it. It's the call-to-arms for competitive female athletes who dare to color outside of the lines. Not recommended for readers under the age of 13.

In this installment of the Soccer iQ series, college soccer coach and best-selling author, Dan Blank, educates coaches and players on the most effective ways to implement a high-pressure style of team defending. Nearly 80% of goals scored are the result of three or fewer passes, and more than half of all goals scored begin when a team wins possession of the ball in its attacking half of the field. The numbers clearly indicate a statistical advantage to winning the ball in the opponent’s end of the field, and that’s exactly what high pressure is designed to do. High pressure is perhaps the most misunderstood term in soccer’s vocabulary. There are countless coaches who want their teams to play high pressure, but many of them aren’t always quite so sure about what that means. They tend to translate ‘high pressure’ into ‘run around like you stole something until we score.’ They only extract the urgency of which the term implies without much understanding of the nuance that makes high pressure a formidable system of team defense. Those coaches understand that high pressure requires a high work rate, but they don’t understand the tactical savvy that can maximize the output of that work. As a result, their teams feature only the madness but not the method behind successful high pressure. High Pressure provides an easy-to-follow blueprint for coaches and players so they know not only what to do, but why they are doing it. In this book, Dan Blank clarifies the differences between high and low pressure and explains the big picture of high pressure defending. You will learn the roles of each position, the importance of restraining lines, and how to set up pressure funnels to win the ball in the attacking half. Coach Blank also details the telltale cues that signal a team to step up or back off its pressure, and much, much more. High pressure defending requires more than just hard work. It requires organization, communication and an indefatigable team spirit. This book will show you how to create and implement these elements to get a maximum return on your team’s effort.

Soccer is a game of habits. It ́s as simple as 1+1. The right habits create players who win. And the wrong habits get punished once your opponent intercepts the careless pass you continue to make over and over again. Mastering your soccer game means stepping out of the hamster wheel you ́ve been living in for years.

Gain the competitive edge you need to win—soccer skills and strategies for kids ages 9 to 12 To reach your full potential as a soccer player, you need to know the right tactics, understand when to use them, and have the skills to carry them out. Soccer Smarts delivers the professional coaching you need to do just that. Written for intermediate soccer players and above, Soccer Smarts presents 75 innovative skills, tactics, and mental exercises to help you become a complete soccer player, inside and out. Soccer Smarts offers access to the proven methods of Charlie Slagle, former president of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, current CEO of the Tampa Bay United Soccer Club, and lifelong soccer player. Through Charlie's time-tested techniques you'll learn exactly how a good soccer player becomes a great soccer player. Inside the pages of Soccer Smarts you'll find: Specific lessons for perfecting individual player techniques from the basics to the more complex—such as 1 v 1 defending, power shooting, side volleys, goalkeeper shot blocking, and more. Cutting-edge team tactics that will help you and your teammates adopt a united approach and become a highly efficient soccer team, from possession to combination play to scoring. Game-changing mental exercises that will increase your awareness and enhance your mental aptitude to become a better player and a better leader. Step-up your game with the skills, strategies, and tactics in Soccer Smarts, and discover what you're truly capable of, both on and off the field.

"An outstanding work the [soccer] book of the decade." -- Sunday Business Post Inverting the Pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of soccer tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive styles across the globe. Through Jonathan Wilson's brilliant historical detective work we learn how the South Americans shrugged off the British colonial order to add their own finesse to the game; how the Europeans harnessed individual technique and built it into a team structure; how the game once featured five forwards up front, while now a lone striker is not uncommon. Inverting the Pyramid provides a definitive understanding of the tactical genius of modern-day Barcelona, for the first time showing how their style of play developed from Dutch "Total Football," which itself was an evolution of the Scottish passing game invented by Queens Park in the 1870s and taken on by Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s. Inverting the Pyramid has been called the "Big Daddy" (Zonal Marking) of soccer tactics books; it is essential for any coach, fan, player, or fantasy manager of the beautiful game.

Everything kids ages 8 to 12 need to know to play smarter, more enjoyable soccer As a youth soccer coach for more than twenty years, Coach Andrew Latham sets kids up for success in Soccer Smarts for Kids with his no-fluff, easy-to-understand strategies and cover-to-cover tips―from goal setting and staying fit to pre-game prep and mental motivation. Coach Latham preps young players to be their best by sharing soccer secrets, exercises, and tricks for kids to develop their skills on the field, with: Basic to advanced techniques so kids can move at their own pace Player profiles highlighting six superstar soccer players (including Lionel Messi and Alex Morgan) Playbook essentials featuring color photos and custom diagrams Need-to-know terms to crack the code of fundamental soccer definitions Soccer fans will improve their game, play smarter, and have more fun with Soccer Smarts for Kids.