Celebrating the Success of ‘Focused for Soccer’
While in the UK recently during the Olympics, Ted Miller, a Vice President with Human Kinetics, took the opportunity to meet up with Bill.
Human Kinetics are the publishers of Bill’s book ‘Focused for Soccer’ which is proving a very successful title, now in its 2nd Edition with sales of 20,000 and translations into Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and German.
“Bill’s book is widely considered the best mental training guide in the sport,” Miller said. “HK is pleased to be his publisher of choice.”
Focused for Soccer is available from Amazon & other booksellers.
Update for Summer 2012
As many of you know, my work covers a wide range of performance issues – best summed up quite simply as:
Helping coaches and players get the best out of themselves and their teams!
The aim of the website is to distill my 40 (gulp!) years of experience at all levels of sport - and particularly at professional and National Team standards in soccer, rugby and basketball - into a range of resources that can help players and coaches to develop themselves, their teams and their performances.
Of course all the time I’m gaining new knowledge though new assignments, reading, (as widely as time allows!) and sharing experiences with coaches, sport psychologists and players. All this feeds into the new resources and publications that I’ll be continuing to create and make available via billbeswick.com
Like many millions of you I have both enjoyed and learned from London 2012. The Olympic Games are where, every four years, excellence in performance and coaching is re-defined and this year there has been such an atmosphere of energy and enthusiasm that couldn’t fail to bring renewed motivation to those who seek success in sporting achievement.
Image by David-Poultney
In a similar way, my ongoing work with FC Twente, competing in the Dutch Eredivisie (Premier League) and Europe, allows me the opportunity to be involved in a very challenging competitive environment, plus the broader FC Twente Club relationship brings me into contact with the Women’s team and the developing Academy environments.
Another interesting strand of regular work each year are my US visits; with FC Dallas in the MLS, and College soccer at Clemson, USC and SMU, all on the recent agenda. This often gives the opportunity of working with both men’s and women’s teams and can embrace wider Athletics Department coaches – all adding new perspectives and comparative coaching situations.
These experiences, plus training camps this summer with the England Rugby Team and the GB U20 and U18 (men & women) basketball squads, mean it’s been a busy time – the richness of these varied experiences continue to give new dimensions to my thinking and writing. In time these will feed through into additional resource materials in performance excellence to publish and share.
The Euros and the Olympics are over, while the new 2012-2013 season is kicking off in the UK and Europe and pre-season preparation is now underway in US college soccer.
So take a look at the resources we have available and see what could give you a good start to the season.
Good Luck and Success in your sport!
April NVA Conference in Holland
At the end of April I was in Amsterdam presenting to an enthusiastic audience of more than 60 coaches from all over Holland at a day long conference “Sport Psychology in Football” organised by the NVA (the Dutch Football Academy) www.nvacademie.nl as a follow up from their December 2011 2nd National Football Symposium, (where I also contributed).
In the Amsterdam Arena, overlooking the atmospheric Ajax pitch, I led sessions on the power of attitude, building a winning mentality with individual players & teams and the coach as psychologist; plus we did a lot of group work together and shared ideas and experiences.
NVA were delighted with the turn out and have had great feed-back:
“Delegates were very enthusiastic about your course, I received positive reactions the same day. We will definitely organize a follow-up meeting to this course.”
Vincent Van Driel,Operations Director,World Football Academy, Netherlands.
What makes Holland a great football coaching nation is having distinguished former players such as Marco van Basten and Patrick Kluivert in the audience as delegates – having the motivation to make the best transition possible from playing to coaching through attending courses like this in addition to taking formal coaching awards.
I feel privileged to work in Holland, with FC Twente as Consultant Club Psychologist, contributing from time to time to the KNBV (Dutch Football Association) UEFA Pro License coaching award courses and now via invitations such as these from the Dutch Football Academy.
Mid May in Dallas
May 14 -21 sees me in Dallas working with Schellas Hyndman, Head Coach of FC Dallas, his coaching/support team and senior and academy players. The atmosphere in the MLS is exciting and has a vigorous enthusiasm about it. It’s relatively early in the season & FC Dallas has had a mixed start, so it’s a good time to see if I can help their ambitions. In 2010 they made the MLS Final – so there is plenty to live up to.
And, yes! The sunshine is very nice - Thank You!
On Friday & Saturday 18 – 19 May I’m a clinician at Schellas’ Coaches Clinic, held at the FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Texas. This year's theme is "Simple to Complex - Training Ideas That Make Sense" and the clinic includes admission to FC Dallas' May 19 home game matchup against the Philadelphia Union and a social event at a local pub near the stadium so I’m looking forward to meeting up with the hundred’s of coaches from Texas and beyond that have already enrolled. I’m sure there will be a chance to get together with coaches that I’ve met in the past when I’ve been working at SMU.
The Third in The Coaching Handbook Series
You can now buy the third in my series of “starter” Coaching Handbook publications. After the success of ‘Building Winning Attitudes in Young Players’ and ‘Tough-Love Coaching,’ we’ve added ‘Building the Perfect Coaching Environment for Young Players’ in response to feedback from coaches. All the Handbooks are now available as pdf files too, for easy downloading onto laptops or convenient viewing on iPads & iPhones.
In the same easily readable format, this new Handbook gives coaches, teachers and parents a compelling explanation of the ingredients that go to make the ideal supportive surroundings while youngsters are learning the game. Starting with ‘The Big Picture’ - a recognition of the importance of the right direction and purpose through leadership, it then covers how to best engage young players, moves onto building a programme and ends by dealing with game day and its aftermath of success or failure. It’s not text book stuff – it’s real practical experience I’ve gathered from coaching U-8 kids up to working with elite national teams and coaches. There’s hints, tips and stories - and I make no apologies for repeating key messages here and there to reinforce the essentials.
What would you like the subject of the next Handbook to be? If you are a youth coach, a parent helping out at the club or a teacher taking soccer classes on the school field – you can let me know what you would like help with - I’m open to offers on the next title.
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Recent Articles
- Celebrating the Success of ‘Focused for Soccer’
- Update for Summer 2012
- April NVA Conference in Holland
- Mid May in Dallas
- The Third in The Coaching Handbook Series
