If you are like me, you probably know that in coaching high school soccer, the journey to becoming a complete player begins by building confidence. When you declare that the players are under immense pressure, you as a coach are hinting to the fact that your players lack confidence to face a situation. This is simply because success is the outcome of being confident of achieving it.
Confidence again is a matter of choice and only a player can make this choice. In the course of coaching youth soccer, this point can be made clear to them by describing the behavior of two parrots that sit on either shoulder.
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.” That’s why it the player who has to make a choice between which parrot to follow.
Also teach them to take full responsibility of the consequences that follow their choice. This choice may have to made every single day. Prepare a team of successful players full of confidence by directing their attention, energy, and enthusiasm in practice towards their role in past success.
Teach your players during soccer coaching that holding someone or something else responsible is a symbol of insecurity. In fact they should be taught to see setbacks as a part of the learning curve and not let it shake their confidence.
Also, in coaching high school soccer, the players should learn by heart the phrase “I’ll get the next one” to keep them going whenever they lose any opportunity.
This instantly ensures that the distress of the miss has not affected the confidence for the next strike.
Accurate and quick judgments regarding a player’s caliber and talent is a key to manage a successful team. In football coaching, there is always a close call between judging physical and mental readiness, but in the end, physical readiness wins the battle.
Understandable and apparent messages are required to make such judgments possible. To check player’s capability to thrive in the game, it is necessary to browse their verbal and non verbal messages.
Success gives rise to confidence. Self-belief, hard work done and the mental preparation to face tough situations, hold the key to success in soccer. In order to make the players emotionally power-packed, a phrase “If you are not preparing to win, you are preparing to fail”, is frequently used.
Experience is a building block of confidence. The players must be accustomed to their doubts, mistakes, defeats and condemnation so as to establish the experience they need. It is always felt that he or she has the knowledge, has practiced it before and knows what to do next.
Make no mistake about it. Building of confidence in coaching high school soccer is an everyday task, so players should reflect on certain key steps to discover 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