Product Description

Learn how to meet challenges and excel in soccer competition. Focused for Soccer is the single mental skills training guide to maximize performance on the soccer field.

Bill Beswick, the world’s leading authority on the mental game of soccer, offers his insights and instruction throughout the book. He explains how he has applied the training techniques successfully in his many years as a coach and consultant. Beswick’s approach emphasizes playing “first with the head, then with the heart,” developing players’ decision-making skills and keeping their emotional responses in check.

Focused for Soccer will help you sharpen mental skills and unleash your full potential. Better than general sport psychology text, Focused for Soccer is filled with practical tips and step-by-step techniques that transfer directly to the game. Part of Human Kinetics' popular Focused for Sports series, this book makes the case that physical skills and conditioning must be combined with psychological skills to be a champion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146116 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review

“To win at any level, players and coaches have to develop the attitudes that create competitive performance. Developing such mental toughness is an everyday process, and in this book, Bill Beswick provides invaluable practical advice. For me, this book is not just a worthwhile read, it's also a necessary reference I can consult as my team experiences the highs and lows of competitive soccer.”

Steve McClaren,
England Head Coach

From the Publisher
"To win at any level, players and coaches have to develop the attitudes that create competitive performance. Developing such mental toughness is an everyday process, and in this book, Bill Beswick provides invaluable practical advice. For me, this book is not just a worthwhile read, it’s also a necessary reference I can consult as my team experiences the highs and lows of competitive soccer."

Steve McLaren, Assistant manager of Manchester United Football Club

About the Author
Bill Beswick is a leader in the field of applied sport psychology. With a master’s of education and a background as the head coach of England’s men’s basketball team, Bill became the first sport psychology consultant to operate full time in English professional soccer.

Beswick is currently the Consultant Sports Psychologist to Manchester United. Previously, Beswick helped the Derby County Football Club compete successfully in one of the world’s toughest soccer leagues—the English Premier League. The English Football Association recognized Beswick’s accomplishments there and appointed him as their first-ever sport psychology consultant to advise their national teams.

Beswick is the owner and managing director of SportsMind, a company dedicated to the further development of applied sport psychology in all sports. He is also an active member of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sports Psychology. Bill currently resides in Cheshire, England, and enjoys keeping fit, reading, traveling, and watching his son play rugby.

Customer Reviews

A must-read for serious soccer coaches
Bill Beswick, one of the world's premier sports psychologists (currently employed by England and Manchester United) and an accomplished coach in his own right, has written a book that is destined to take a place on the priority reading list of all aspiring soccer coaches. In it, he describes the mental, emotional, psychological, and lifestyle aspects of a complete player. The book is full of tables, checklists, and charts for self and team assessment, and the book has been beautifully tailored so as to be applicable for both coaches and players. The main strength of this book, though, is its practical recommendations for every topic it addresses (visualization, self-control, team cohesion, confidence, and mental toughness to name a handful). For example, Beswick gives the example of a striker who is not scoring goals in the chapter on confidence. How does the coach, in cooperation with the player, address the situation to help him regain confidence? Beswick asserts that other components of his job description should be brought to his attention (by asking the player), and that he should be encouraged to self-evaluate his performance based on how well he completed all of the aspects of his job description, not just scoring goals. This may sound like a "feel good" tactic at first glance, but Beswick also provides case studies of specific players at the highest levels who were positively affected by this approach (In this case, Dean Sturridge of Derby County). The book encourages a holistic approach to both coaching and playing, and discusses the benefits and potential pitfalls along the way to creating that holistic balance within a team and its players. Indeed, this is the kind of coaching and type of player that must prevail in the future if soccer is to continue to grow and develop, and Bill Beswick has done the sport of soccer and those who love it a distinct service by writing this book.

Excellent book!
Bill Beswick is the world's leading sports psychologist for soccer. He works with leading European clubs. In this book, he not only tells you what you need to know, he shows you how to put it to work! He shares real-world examples from his work with the European clubs to show you how it works. I was at the NSCAA Convention this year and last year and his sessions were standing-room-only.

Impressed
As a thirteen year veteran of coaching high school and club soccer, it is hard for me not to view any book with a bit of skepticism. So upon purchasing this book I was intrigued to see what Beswick had to say and not positive he could teach me anything new. I was dead wrong, he is fantastic and much of what he writes about can be transferred to sports other than soccer. I was especially impressed with his ideas and examples of assessment tools for coaches and for player self-reflection. I have already begun to create my own versions of them in order to use them with my side this fall. A highly recommended read for players and coaches alike.