I received a copy of this book as part of the Early Reviewers group at LibraryThing.

I have been involved in coaching youth soccer for many years. On a few occasions, our club brought in professional indoor soccer players and coaches to help us build consistent training routines. I was always impressed with the way these professionals were able to take a complex skill (dribbling through traffic for instance), break it down into several small components and define a drill for each of the components. In his book, Jim Garland uses this same approach.

His drills are first divided into skill groups. Then each drill in each skill group is broken down into different levels - beginner, intermediate and advanced. From there, the author adds notes about what complementary skills the drill is designed to reinforce. Further, he adds notes on what to coach on and what to do if things begin to go wrong. The way that all of the drills are designed to build on one another is very impressive.

There are likely innumerable books/videos on this topic. In my opinion, Jim Garland's latest offering is a cut above the rest for it's simplicity and thoughtful layout. ( )

I have read throughout the book and the drills seem very skill oriented. I am waiting to try them out with my kids. Many of them take multiple players and would be good for small group practices. Some of the drills I have looked at are similar to drills my kids currently do. I'm not sure if there is anything ground breaking but provides a great source for repletion of movements and thinking inside the game. ( )