In coaching high school soccer, the first and the foremost quality that the players need to have or develop is confidence if they wish to become complete players. You tend to spot the player’s weakness in terms of less confidence to cope with a situation whenever you use the term “pressure” in the game. I say this because only confident players expect to win and get successful.
Confidence is a choice and your players have to first choose to become confident. In coaching youth soccer, use the behaviors of two parrots perched on either shoulders to demonstrate this point.
One is a positive parrot that pushes the player to accept and conquer every challenge coming his way by repeating “You can do it.” Then there is the other parrot who is full of negativity and keeps telling the player “You can’t do this.” And it’s their choice to select which player to pay attention to.
Once the choice has been made, teach them to take responsibility for their actions. This choice may have to made every single day. Build confidence in the players by emphasizing their involvement in past successes and ready successful players to make a strong team.
Teach your players during soccer coaching that holding someone or something else responsible is a symbol of insecurity. As a matter of fact, players should be trained on taking every setback as a lesson to become even more confident and not to feel discouraged.
Likewise in coaching high school soccer, it’s imperative to teach the players to repeat the phrase “I’ll get the next one” whenever they miss out on any opportunity.
This instantly ensures that the distress of the miss has not affected the confidence for the next strike.
In a team, caliber, mental strength and judgments regarding a player’s ability to survive the demands of competition, hold the key for its success. While football coaching, it is relatively easier to judge physical readiness than judging mental readiness.
To facilitate this type of judgment, look for clear messages. To check player’s capability to thrive in the game, it is necessary to browse their verbal and non verbal messages.
Confidence comes from success. And success in soccer is more likely when you know you have done everything you could to get ready for situations that might build pressure. The common stimulus used for motivating the players is “If you are not preparing to win, you are preparing to fail.”
Confidence grows up with experience. The players must be accustomed to their doubts, mistakes, defeats and condemnation so as to establish the experience they need. The feeling of he or she having the knowledge, a little more know – how due to experience and thus, the thought process of planning the next step, prevails.
Don’t take it for granted. While coaching high school soccer, building confidence is worked out on an everyday basis so, the players should echo upon the certain key steps to determine what works for them.
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Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Coaching.
Tags: Coaching high school soccer, coaching youth soccer, football coaching, soccer coaching