Because girls quit sports 6x the rate of boys, we wrote a book!
HOW TO COACH GIRLS: On enforcing parent code of conduct
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Did you know that 70% of all kids quit organized sports by the age of 13, with girls quitting at 6x the rate of boys?
Alison Foley, Boston College’s Women’s Head Soccer Coach, and Mia Wenjen, parenting blogger at PragmaticMom.com, help coaches — both parent volunteer and professional — crack the code of how to keep girls in sports.
As a mother of two daughters who played a lot of sports, Mia provides personal accounts to illustrate issues discussed throughout the book. Alison, also a mother of a young female athlete, has hands-on advice from coaching young women professionally for more than two decades.
Volunteer parents and experienced coaches alike will find invaluable advice on creating a successful team that motivates girls to stay in sports beyond the middle school years. Twenty-two chapters cover major issues, including how to pick captains, the importance of growth mindset, issues around body image and puberty, as well as the challenges of coaching your own daughter.
In addition, fifteen professional coaches from a range of sports, including former Olympian athletes, give their advice on what girls need from a coach to allow them to flourish in sports, and most importantly, have fun. This is a hands-on manual to help coaches keep girls in sports!
To help coaches get ready for a new season, we have FREE forms including:
p.s. Want to learn more? Two free chapters here. Three additional chapters are here:
Soccer America: Coaching Girls: How To Deliver Feedback Effectively
Coach and A.D.: How To Coach Girls: Developing Team Chemistry
Soccer America: The Clique Factor — how coaches can mix it up to make a stronger team
How to Coach Girls is available through Audrey Press, Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and IndieBooks.
If anyone wishes to buy books for their town team or club team, Audrey Press offers volume discounts.
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Alison Foley left Boston College as Head Coach of the Women’s Soccer Team at the end of 2018. She launched her own company, Foley Athletic Advising:
At Foley Athletic Advising, we offer comprehensive on-field training, skill evaluation, and recruiting advising. On the field, we work with student athletes to help them achieve their full athletic potential. Off the field, we work with student-athletes and their parents to create a stress-free roadmap to take the confusion out of the recruiting process and help get into their dream schools.
Foley Athletic Advising offers these services:
· Individual Athletic Advising
· Individual & Small Group Soccer Training
· Assessment
· New England Top 100 College Showcase
Thank you to Sean Kenny, a US National Soccer Team Scout, for his kind words about Alison Foley of Foley Athletic Advising and co-author of HOW TO COACH GIRLS.
She has created the NEW ENGLAND TOP 100 COLLEGE SHOWCASE
Where: Boston, MA
When: June 8th and June 9th, 2019
Time: 9am – 6pm
The New England Top 100 College Showcase is an invitation-only event for girls who want to play soccer at the next level. It is an excellent way for players to get exposure without having to endure the expense and travel of other showcase events as we will bring college coaches to Boston.
Our showcase has commitments from top college women’s soccer coaches around the country in all divisions including UCLA, Georgetown University, Cornell University, Barry University, University of Bridgeport, Iona College, Fairfield University, Providence College, Southern Connecticut State University, Brown University, Albany University, Princeton University, and more, as well as scouts for the U.S. Women’s National Team. We will be updating our list of colleges weekly.
This is an opportunity for up to 100 female soccer players to participate by being nominated by their club and high school coaches.
Here is the form for High School and Club coaches to nominate players.
Players who are not nominated can attend Assessment sessions to earn a place at the showcase.
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Thank you to Catie Watson for letting Alison Foley contribute to your article on Qualities to Look For in a Children’s Sports Coach” for HERLIFE magazine. Here’s my quote:
I believe that Coaches represent one of the most powerful positions in our kids’ lives. Over time with good training, they can improve athletic skill and physical development which is very important. However, instantaneously with words, they can impact players minds. They can build up confidence or break it down. They can elevate self-worth or leave kids to question themselves. They can empower young athletes to believe in their dreams or strip these aspirations away. Very few athletes will play in college or go on to a professional level. Developing the physical skill set should be a secondary priority when choosing a coach. Finding a coach that will encourage, speak with motivating words and be kind when needing to be critical is the number one criteria in coach selection for young athletes.
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Dr. Heather Bergeson, Pediatrician, Hockey Mom, and Sports Medicine Physician talks about the dangers of our current youth sports culture.
Our current youth sports culture is putting the emotional and physical health of our children in danger. How did we get here? Why does the culture persist? What can we do to transform youth sports into the positive, inspiring, character-building experience it can be? Heather Bergeson is a Sports Medicine Physician and Pediatrician at TRIA Orthopedic Center, Assistant Adjunct Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Minnesota, and Team Physician for the Gopher Women’s Hockey Team. As a Positive Coaching Alliance – Minnesota Chapter Board Member and an Edina Hockey mom to two kids who also enjoy playing multiple sports, she is passionate about the benefits of youth sports, but also concerned and alarmed by the current trends and culture of youth sports.
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
What are the biggest differences coaching girls versus boys?
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
We just added a free field hockey player evaluation form:
Field Hockey Player Evaluation Downloadable Form
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
We just added a new player evaluation form for hockey:
Hockey Player Evaluation Downloadable Form
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
At our Brooklyn book signing event, a mother asked about how to prevent ACL injury. Here is our five-part series of videos to answer that question.
HOW TO COACH GIRLS Brooklyn Event: ACL Injury Prevention, Part 1/5
Coach Alison Foley talks about ACL injury prevention, Part 2/5
Coach Alison Foley on ACL Injury Prevention Exercises, Part 3/5
Injury Prevention Exercises, Part 4/5
Yoga Tree Pose and Headers for ACL injury prevention, Part 5/5
Coach Alison Foley on ACL.
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Her commencement speech to Barnard College Class of 2018.
“Like all little girls, I was taught to be grateful. I was taught to keep my head down, stay on the path, and get my job done. I was freaking Little Red Riding Hood”.
“If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be this: ‘Abby, you were never Little Red Riding Hood; you were always the wolf.”
“Non-athletes don’t know what to do with the gift of failure. So they hide it, pretend it never happened, reject it outright — and they end up wasting it. Listen: Failure is not something to be ashamed of, it’s something to be POWERED by. Failure is the highest octane fuel your life can run on. You gotta learn to make failure your fuel.”
“Here’s what’s important. You are allowed to be disappointed when it feels like life’s benched you. What you aren’t allowed to do is miss your opportunity to lead from the bench. During that last World Cup, my teammates told me that my presence, my support, my vocal and relentless belief in them from the bench is what gave them the confidence they needed to win us that championship. If you’re not a leader on the bench, don’t call yourself a leader on the field. You’re either a leader everywhere or nowhere.”
“As you go out into the world: Amplify each others’ voices. Demand seats for women, people of color and all marginalized people at every table where decisions are made. Call out each other’s wins just like we do on the field, claim the success of one woman as a collective success for all women. Joy. Success. Power. These are not pies where a bigger slice for her means a smaller slice for you. These are infinite. In any revolution, the way to make something true starts with believing it is. Let’s claim infinite joy, success, and power — together.”
“Women, at this moment in history, leadership is calling us to say: ‘Give me the effing ball. Give me the effing job. Give me the same pay that the guy next to me gets. Give me the promotion. Give me the microphone. Give me the Oval Office. Give me the respect I’ve earned and give it to my wolf pack, too.'”
“Don’t just ask yourself, ‘What do I want to do?’ Ask yourself, ‘Who do I want to be?'”
To examine our print book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. Our ebook version with 3 bonus chapters is here.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.