The Double-Goal Coach: Positive Coaching Tools for Honoring the Game and Developing Winners in Sports and Life (Harperresource Book)

This is an excellent book for someone drawn to coaching youth in any sport, especially the volunteer coach. I first read it from my local library and loved the elements of it so well that I bought a copy to keep and mark-up. This books orient a youth coach to what they need to be teaching and expecting of their players. You won't find drills and activities for any specific sport in this book but rather foundational principles of coaching, that is teaching youth how to honor the sport and the game, how to honor the rules and officials, and honoring your opponents and teammates. It shows you how to promote effort risk-taking and mistakes in the learning process, promote striving and improvement and mastery versus promoting outcomes. The first goal is coaching players to be winners, but the second goal, ultimately more important for the vast majority of our youth athletes, is coaching life lessons. If you are a youth coach, director of coaching in a volunteer organization, or the interested parent of a youth athlete, i would encourage you to buy it and read it.

Many books on the subject of improving youth sports are written to create awareness of the importance of the subject, but say little of practical value on the way of doing this.Other books treat the 'how' comprehensively but are as dry as fossilized bones.The DGC avoids these two pitfalls admirably. It does a great job of describing and explaining the problems that youth sports programs have in the US (and in many other parts of the World), with such feeling, sensitivity and clarity that one cannot avoid being moved by the arguments.Jim Thompson goes further, though, the DGC translates ideals into practical measures to build exemplary youth sports programs.My organization is currently using the DGC as a blueprint to develop a soccer program in Mexico, and its lessons and arguments are as useful, relevant and potent here as they seem to be in the US, judging by the growth of The Positive Coaching Alliance.

This book covers some of the same topics as Thompson's classic, Positive Coaching. However, it has some new ideas in it, and also has some lessons learned since Positive Coaching was written. It also has a handbook-type approach - it gives you example talks, helps you plan a practice and also shows you ways to help you acquire Positive Coaching skills. I have found all of Jim Thompson's books enjoyable and enlightening.

I would put this in my top for coaches. It doesn't go over drills, defense, or offense. It goes over the most important things a coach should know like Honoring the game. Great book for getting the most out of the kids you coach and it will help you to enjoy coaching more too.I coach AAU basketball for the #1 ranked AAU program in America.

Absolutely the best book for any coach of any sport. I searched for this book while I was coaching with someone who was a very negative coach. This encouraged me to counteract her, and it was incredibly successful. Even if you are a veteran coach, you can learn tools and tips for dealing with difficult situations, or fix things that aren't working well for you.

I can personally attest to at least 5 goals in one season of U8 soccer that were a DIRECT result of these techniques.This book is not theoretical gopplygook, it is real-life usuable techniques.Get the book!

If every parent, coach, and youth sports administrator read and applied half of the principles in this book, youth sports would be transformed into something that builds sport-specific skills, character, and good fun.

Book goes into more detail about the PCA philosophy. Great for coaches.