Player Development

Player Development: The Holistic Method provides the first holistic, evidence-based performance development method in sport. Focusing on the world’s largest sport, soccer, this book weaves together the interconnected layers driving player performance development to define a novel training method.

In performance sport, narratives defining success or failure are steeped with stories of chance. The reality is that player performance and athlete development leading to career success is the byproduct of optimizing interconnected experiences toward maximizing the likelihood of individual success. It is the application of a holistic method that reduces the influence of luck and increases the likelihood of individual and team success. This book is the pathway to understanding and facilitating individual player development leading to elite performance success. This book reveals not only a holistic method, but also a universal method breaking down perceived and real barriers to provide a method transcending domains and specializations – a unified approach.

The book introduces an evidence-based method toward performance development in soccer. It is key reading for students of coaching, talent development, sport performance and ancillary specializations, and practicing professionals in the field of player and performance development and coaching.

Dr. John Cone is a sports scientist working with the United States Soccer Federation and professional, collegiate, and youth teams. He was a director of sports science in Major League Soccer and an assistant coach in the MLS and in colleges across the United States. John has developed and taught the sports science curriculum for the USSF pro, A, B and C, and goalkeeping licenses since 2015, and performance development for return to play in Athletic Training Education Programs at UNC-Greensboro and High Point University.

Dr. Gareth Smith has coaching experience at youth, collegiate, and senior national team levels. He serves as a coach educator and coach educator developer with the United States Soccer Federation and in similar roles in other federations in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Gareth has a Ph.D. in educational leadership with research areas including sport psychology, methodology, and curriculum design and has over two decades’ experience in leadership as a technical director of national, regional, and state sport systems within the United States.