Steve Dawson

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio —Wittenberg Men's Soccer Head Coach Steve Dawson has taught the "beautiful game" to thousands of young people in his career. Thanks to 21st century technology and the ingenuity of a former Wittenberg player and his business partners, Dawson is reaching more people than ever before.

Dawson, an associate professor of health, fitness and sport and chair of the department at Wittenberg, is featured in a pair of DVDs that give youth soccer coaches instruction on the game's fundamentals and how to run team and individual practice sessions effectively. Also director of the Dublin, Ohio-based youth soccer club Ohio FC, Dawson was approached by Neil Johnston, Wittenberg class of 1999 and a former member of the Tiger men's soccer team, and his two partners at TekHammer LLC of Columbus in 2004.

Dawson wrote text for the films and then led players from his Ohio FC club program through the drills in July 2005. After approximately six months of editing, the results were Coach's Playbook: Multiple Training Sessions For Your Complete Soccer Season and Skills and Drills: The Youth Soccer Player's Personal Guide To Improving Their Game, which have been selling well since hitting the market on March 1.

Coach's Playbook: Multiple Training Sessions For Your Complete Soccer Season features 20-minute chapters on the basics of the game, including dribbling, passing, shooting and goalie skills. Dawson created 90-minute practice schedules that include individual skills exercises and small group and team activities. The DVDs come with note cards as well, which coaches can use as cheat sheets during actual practices.

"The goals of the coaching DVD are to help beginning coaches feel more comfortable when approaching a training session and to educate the public on how to create a learning, fun environment for young players," Dawson said. "Local soccer organizations, clubs and recreation centers will hopefully distribute these DVDs to their coaches and staff – the initial interest is very positive, and I've been contacted by certain groups to run clinics for them."

Skills and Drills: The Youth Soccer Players Personal Guide to Improving Their Game offers drills that expand upon the lessons taught on the coaching DVD. Segments on strength and agility, warm-up routines, sports nutrition and injury prevention are also included on both videos.

"The goals for the player DVD are somewhat different," Dawson said. "We hope to encourage youth players to practice the skills on their own and in small groups – not necessarily with an adult in attendance. The idea here is to motivate players to improve their game and educate them as to the demands of soccer."

TekHammer is selling the DVDs directly to families and soccer associations, primarily through the Web site http://www.acompleteseasonofsoccer.com, and the company is also establishing retail partnerships as a way to expand the business. Several youth soccer organizations in the Columbus area have already committed to purchasing numerous copies.

The entire project is a first for Dawson, a 1978 graduate of Loughborough University in London, England, who has a career record of 229-167-17 in 23 seasons at Wittenberg. He said he has put together videotapes of different summer camps he has been involved with in the past, but this is the next step for him.

While the first two DVDs are fundamental in their focus, Dawson is already thinking ahead. He said future videos could offer more advanced techniques and coaching tactics.

"The DVDs are more 'hands-on' than most training tapes," Dawson said. "I'm sure many other coaches use the type of practices demonstrated in the DVDs, but I can honestly say I make up my own drills – 25 years of coaching helps this process.

"We believe this project was groundbreaking as we took an educational stance on our approach. In other words, teaching methods were paramount in the presentation."

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