Essential Soccer Skills progresses from beginner basics to advanced techniques, featuring illustrated sequences on how to learn and master key skills, and tips on how to improve your overall form. Essential Soccer Skills covers everything from the basics and rules of the game to the types of players--goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, attackers--to skills and team tactics like stepovers, heading, and volleying. Essential Soccer Skills is the go-to guide for anyone interested in learning more about soccer and becoming a better player.
'Passion, positivity and precision ... and always be willing to learn something new.' Athlete Andrew Henderson was just sixteen years old when a horrific rugby injury put paid to his career in the game. So he turned his attention to football - more specifically, freestyling football skills - and never looked back. Now a five-time World Freestyling Champion and the UK Freestyle football champion for eight years running, in this unique manual Andrew brings together all his expertise and advice to help make you a better footballer. Packed with step-by-step skill tutorials, tricks, tips and guidance, Andrew also reveals how hard work, dedication and flair allowed him to become a master on the football pitch and beyond. Having worked with Cristiano Ronaldo, impressed the likes of David Beckham and Neymar, to performing at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and various World Cups around the world, he is now sharing all his secrets and famous freestyling skills to help you improve your football techniques and take them onto the pitch. Interspersed with the jaw-dropping tricks, guidance on tackling, fundamental skills and tips on advancing your expertise, Andrew's passionate advice about following a dream and overcoming adversity prove that both enthusiasm and patience play a major part in any sporting arena. This isn't only about teaching the physical elements but learning from a master about how to focus your mentality to bring flair, passion and precision to your game.
Acclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority. The athlete is a noble figure with a proud lineage. The jock is America at its worst. When Mark Edmundson’s son began to play organized football, and proved to be very good at it, Edmundson had to come to terms with just what he thought about the game. Doing so took him back to his own childhood, when as a shy, soft boy growing up in a blue-collar Boston suburb in the sixties, he went out for the high school football team. Why Football Matters is the story of what happened to Edmundson when he tried to make himself into a football player. What does it mean to be a football player? At first Edmundson was hapless on the field. He was an inept player and a bad teammate. But over time, he got over his fears and he got tougher. He learned to be a better player and came to feel a part of the team, during games but also on all sorts of escapades, not all of them savory. By playing football, Edmundson became what he and his father hoped he’d be, a tougher, stronger young man, better prepared for life. But is football-instilled toughness always a good thing? Do the character, courage, and loyalty football instills have a dark side? Football, Edmundson found, can be full of bounties. But it can also lead you into brutality and thoughtlessness. So how do you get what’s best from the game and leave the worst behind? Why Football Matters is moving, funny, vivid, and filled with the authentic anxiety and exhilaration of youth. Edmundson doesn’t regret playing football for a minute, and cherishes the experience. His triumph is to be able to see it in full, as something to celebrate, but also something to handle with care. For anyone who has ever played on a football team, is the parent of a player, or simply is reflective about its outsized influence on America, Why Football Matters is both a mirror and a lamp.
From the bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success overturns conventional wisdom about genius to show us what makes an ordinary person an extreme overachiever. Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary? In this provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and far more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined. He reveals that it's as much about where we're from and what we do, as who we are - and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone. Outliers will change the way you think about your own life story, and about what makes us all unique. 'Gladwell is not only a brilliant storyteller; he can see what those stories tell us, the lessons they contain' Guardian 'Malcolm Gladwell is a global phenomenon ... he has a genius for making everything he writes seem like an impossible adventure' Observer 'He is the best kind of writer - the kind who makes you feel like you're a genius, rather than he's a genius' The Times
Want to control the ball like Kylian Mbappé, dribble like Lionel Messi and pull off stunning saves like David de Gea? Football Superstar Skillsis guaranteed to help you emulate the feats of some of the most iconic players in world football! The book features 20 modern greats, from headline-grabbing young stars to world-beating legends, offering key facts about their signature skills and what it takes to be a great footballer. Then follow the simple step-by-steps to master essential footballing skills, from the basics such as controlling the ball and passing, to more advanced techniques such as finding space and bending a free-kick. What's more, you will learn about the game's greatest managers, formations and tactics and even relive the greatest goals in World Cup football history.
Playgrounds and sports fields are filled with children and teenagers trying to impress their friends and team mates with their football freestyle juggling skills, attempting to copy their professional football heroes like Ronaldo or Ronaldinho. Sean D'Arcy, a world renowned football juggler, takes you step by step through the most popular and impressive football tricks. Includes: how to juggle; juggling drills to help you improve; impressive catches; the most popular juggling tricks. Freestyle Football Tricks is illustrated with hundreds of colour photos of Sean demonstrating the skills. From youngsters kicking a ball for the first time to keen amateurs looking for a competitive edge (or just wanting to show off)Freestyle Football Tricksshows you how to perform the skills and tricks that every keen footballer wants to master. If you've ever wondered how to do 'Around the World' or how Pele managed the Fantastic Five, this is the book for you! Aimed at children from 8-16 years.
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.