News

PRESS RELEASE

26 May 2009

Fun Soccer Games for Kids

A new soccer manual that makes it easy to coach fun games to young children is published today.

Fun Soccer Games for 5 to 8 Year Olds provides 25 simple and engaging game ideas for dads and mums who may be coaching for the first time.

Every game has a theme that boys and girls can relate to including “Space Wars”, “Ghost Hunters”, “Aliens” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

The manual is written by Keith Boanas, a coach educator with the English Football Association and head coach of Surrey County Football Association in England.

In line with guidelines adopted by the English Football Association and United States Youth Soccer, the games teach basic soccer skills, promote teamwork, encourage creativity, and most importantly ensure the kids have fun and keep coming back.

Boanas said: “At this age, above all else, children want to have fun. Games are fun which is why we continue to play them well into adulthood.”

The manual is from specialist sports coaching publisher Green Star Media and is available in two formats, an A5 spiral bound pocket book and A4 colour PDF.

As well as 25 fun and exciting games, the manual has 25 tips on coaching young children collected by Boanas over nearly three decades of soccer coaching.

Each game is explained on a single page, which can be printed from the PDF version, shared with assistant coaches, and taken out on the pitch as a coaching aid.

Fun Soccer Games for 5 to 8 Year Olds has been designed for coaches to be as easy to use and understand as possible. For each game you get the following:

  • Set up - Showing everything a coach needs to run the game, from the suggested number of players, to the size of the area, and the number of balls and cones.
  • Main Objectives – What is the game principally teaching? Passing, dribbling, tackling, heading.
  • The rules – Who goes where, how to score a point, who wins. This section has everything you need to know to keep the game running.
  • What to call out – Never be lost for words with these concise phrases to address the key factors of each game and to boost your player's confidence.
  • Progressions – Ways to adapt and develop the game to suit your players.
  • Coaching hints – That little bit of advice. These hints are not key to the game but they'll make your life a little bit easier.
  • Difficulty – Indicating the relative difficulty of game. Choose from easy, medium and hard. Even new coaches will find them easy to run.
  • Key – Making sure you can differentiate between runs and passes, and pitch markings and try lines in the illustrations.
  • Illustrations – Three pictures clearly show how the game is set up and developed, and roughly how it should unfold as you play it.

Kevin Barrow, publisher said: “This manual is all about fun for the kids and making life easy for the mums and dads doing the coaching.”

Fun Soccer Games for 5 to 8 Year Olds is only available online. A4 PDF £7 ($10), A5 pocket book, £10 ($15) or both versions £12 ($18). To order visit:
www.coach-soccer.com/funsoccergames/index.asp

Editors

About Green Star Media

To request a sample copy for review or for further information, please contact Kevin Barrow, Publisher, on +44 (0) 1483 891074, email kevin.barrow@greenstarmedia.net

Green Star Media, based in Surrey, England, aims to improve grassroots soccer by publishing easy to use, instructional advice to benefit coaches, players and the game. Through free content newsletters Better Rugby Coaching and Better Soccer Coaching, the company reaches an audience of 135,000 sports coaches worldwide every week.

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