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Summary: Fantastic Book about soccer and teenage girls
Review: I am not a sports fan, but I really loved reading Jon's book about teenage girls playing soccer. Perhaps that's becuase this is a book about more than just soccer. Littman starts with a fairly simple story: the merger of two club soccer teams under a new coach. The competing desires of the team to "have fun" and the coach to train the girls into soccer machines and win the game at all costs. But it's more. it's also about about what it is like to be a 14-year-old girl in American society. It's about the competing demands on a girl's time, and the fear that many girls face when asked to "give their all." This book is about the psychology of how to make 14-year-old girls excel, and the terrible sexism that still pervades our society. As I said, I really enjoyed this book. I'm not a jock, I don't watch spectator sports, but I couldn't put it down. It was really fab.
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Summary: I was there.
Review: I am the mom of one of the players and have just recently re-read this book about my daughter's team. Looking back on our Thunder experience, I know that it was a unique, almost surreal experience. At the time, we knew it was special but of course, you can't fully appreciate it until it is over. After winning State Cup, Thunder continued to grow and develop as a team, winning several major tournaments and getting back to the State Cup finals in 2000 only to lose to the Placer Sharks. I still see many of the girls and most agree that Thunder was an experience that shaped their life. It wasn't just the soccer or the incredible success the team had, it was more than that. It was the relationships, the experience, and the unique bond that is formed when a group comes together with a unifying goal. It is that undefinable, special something that takes just a talented team and makes it into a great team. So, for those readers that wonder, did it work out okay? I think, for the families that I am close, that yes, yes it did. We are better for the experience.
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Summary: An accurate capture of competitive youth soccer
Review: I came across this book by accident in our middle school library, and I was amazed to discover it was a gem of an accounting, an accurate depiction of the fragilities and controversies of competitive youth club sports and Northern California soccer. I've been immersed in CYSA soccer for the past 7 years, including managing 2 of my children's teams, and to be honest, I originally took this book home because I wanted to learn how a new team could win State Cup in its first year. What could my daughter's team learn from this example? And indeed there are some lessons and techniques to take away from this book. But because the author interviewed the parents, players and coaches to understand their motivations and thoughts, the book is more than just a chronology of a team's trials and methods. It is also a character study of how each of those participants and their individual outcomes contributed to or detracted from the process of getting to a championship. This makes the book a compelling read, as you continuously wonder how all the pieces will come together. For example, every step of the way, the parents have to decide if they are making the right choices for their children, or if they are allowing the coaching style to destroy self-esteem. In the end, this book is a success story about the power and fruition of teamwork, where the team is not just the players, but also the parents and coaches behind them. The only thing I found missing from the book was that it only covered one year of the team, and I am curious what happened to the players -- did they keep playing, make it into college soccer, or did they burn out? In a future edition, that would make a useful appendix.
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Summary: Heartwarming true story of a girl's soccer team
Review: I felt like I was watching Hoosiers -- but the star wasn't Gene Hackman. The coach in this endearing tale is an All American woman, the players a compelling group of 14 year old girls who've never won anything. At least when men coached them.
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Summary: This book is a winner!
Review: I had a ball reading The Beautiful Game. It evoked memories of gorgeous New England Autumn days playing soccer for a girls team -- the sweat and the glory. Even better: I loved reading about the girls. They are valiant, petty, powerful, tired, gorgeous, vain, independent, rebellious, funny, sweet, fervent, passionate for play...and more eager for training than anyone had given them credit for. This is a true snapshot of teenage girls. Thank God for Coach Emiria Salzmann, who hardens these girls into powerful and collaborative competitors. Thank God for Jon Littman, who chronicles this brilliant, critical and all too rare evolution. Jon writes about what so many of us forget or never knew: girls need *serious* challenges if they are to grow up and be strong women. If you are a parent or friend of a teenage girl, read this book and let it coach you. Otherwise, cavort through this Tracy Kidder-style chronicle of a winning team playing outstanding soccer and I promise you will not put it down until you have exhausted every play.
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Summary: Readers, like players must work to get full benefit
Review: I have coached girls soccer for years, and am a mom to two high level players. What I love about this book is the demands it places on the reader. Like the training the girls undertook, the rewards are not obvious, the results not simple. Emiria is not likeable. Her training methods are controversial, to say the least. Her adversaries are not one dimensional political hacks, but parents looking out for their kids, and the players are not all natural, gifted athletes. Littman does not ask us to love or hate any of these people, but lets us work through the story to learn the unwritten lesson -which is that the girls, despite or because of (reader decides) their parents and coach learned the real lessons of the game -- how to be a team and how to value themselves. The technical descriptions of the games leave something to be desired, and soccer junkies will want to hear more about what exactly wasdone to make the transformation from kick and chase to possession WORK. But the real stories are the girls, and like others, I turned to the back cover over and over again to connect with them. At the end of the book and the season, Emiria tells the girls that their loss humiliated and upset HER. Littman does not indulge in the requisite adult analysis of this egocentric, immature position, but lets us hear the girls make their judgements. My only wish is that we could see the next season to its end and learn whether the girls finally realized who their coach was -- one another!
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Summary: Great Book About Girls' Travel Soccer
Review: I loved this book! If you're a travel soccer player or the parent of a travel soccer player (as I am) you're sure to be able to relate to the real life story of the 1997-1998 U-14 girls Santa Rosa Thunder.
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Summary: Incredible and motivational
Review: I loved this book. As a 12 year old girls travel soccer player, I understood a lot of what the girls were thinking. At the same time, it motivated me to push harder in my practices. The camadrie that this team forms is outstanding, and Jon Littman did an incredible job writing this book in an easy to relate to style. I have now renewed this book from the library 3 times, and am going to buy it.
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Summary: A must read for parents and coaches!!
Review: If you parent or coach a young girl playing competitive soccer, you must read this book. The author opens the door to the environment that creates champions both as individuals and a team. He also made me a fan of THUNDER SOCCER. I will continue follow their exploits.
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Summary: The Beautiful Game captures the essence of youth soccer
Review: Jonathan Littman's The Beautiful Game is a wonderful book about a season inside a high-level girls' soccer team. His time spent with the team allows him to give the reader a very well-rounded view of the players, what motivates them (or doesn't) and how they react to and deal with the pressure involved in dedicating themselves to their team and, ultimately, each other. This book is a must-read for not just fans of youth sports and soccer, but anyone who's ever had any interest in getting some insight into today's youth. I couldn't reccomend it any more strongly!
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