Introducing a breakthrough approach to creating team excellence

In Coaching Women's Soccer, Ian Stokell, an expert with 35 years of experience playing and coaching soccer, presents a revolutionary coaching paradigm that is sure to find mass appeal among the thousands of new and established women's soccer coaches throughout North America.

The "freegame" approach Stokell advocates is based on the belief that drill-based coaching methods, adapted from other U.S. team sports, have no place in soccer, where ideally the game is the teacher, and players mainly learn from one another. According to Stokell, players dominated by an autocratic coach and forced to spend most of their time drilling never develop the on-field decision-making skills, sense of teamwork, or spontaneity needed to excel.

Stokell provides a tested-in-the-trenches strategy to bring the game back into practice. In place of traditional drills, he teaches freegame restrictions and small-sided games--exercises that allow players to freely work on specific aspects of the game.