Spanking Goals & Toe Pokes (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9789888228270)

Tommy Martin was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1956. At twelve years old he started playing for Walker Boys' Youth Scheme and then for the well-respected Wallsend Boys' Youth Football Club, which developed such world-class players as Peter Beardsley and the great Alan Shearer. Graduating through their youth schemes, Tommy Martin went on to play top class football in the northern leagues of Newcastle. But in 1980 he decided he wanted to travel the world and moved on to Jersey, Israel, Australia, and the USA. From 1986 to 1994, he played in the California Southern League for the Los Angeles Exiles Football Club, before being recruited by the former Liverpool and England player and coach Jimmy Melia, to join him as a player and skills coach for the Dallas Inter Football Club, where Tommy achieved considerable success with the Club's youth teams. Tommy's reputation as a skills coach led him, in 1995, to be hired by the USA Olympic Youth Development Program representing the State of Texas, and in 1996, he was voted one of the top skills coaches for the under-thirteen age group by the Southern Youth Coaches Committee of the USA. In 1999/2000 he worked as a skills coach for the Hawaii Youth Soccer Federation in Honolulu and in 2001 he started his own football academy in Palm Beach, Florida, USA, which he ran until 2003. He is now a Physical Education Teacher and Football Coach in Asia, where he also runs his own football skills academies in various schools and is involved with the local professional team where he lives. Tommy Martin is a fully qualified coach with certified licenses from the English Football Association and FIFA. He holds the American Soccer Federation A licence and also has a certificate in sports management and sports injuries. In 1998 he acquired his teacher's degree in Physical Education from Hartford University, Minnesota, USA. A top skills coach, he has consistently developed young players from recreation league standard to classic league standard. Many have gone on to win soccer scholarships. Tommy is the author of the successful football skills book, Soccer the Right Technique (USA, 1994).