May 16th, 2010 8:26 am
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. This is because it is only with confidence that we expect success.
Confidence again is a matter of choice and only a player can make this choice. When coaching youth soccer, illustrate this point by telling them the behaviors of two parrots sitting on either shoulder.
One of them is the positive parrot, always urging the player to face up to the challenge saying “You can do it.” The second one is a negative parrot that is always cautioning the player “You can’t do this.” That’s why it the player who has to make a choice between which parrot to follow.
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.
In soccer coaching, players should be made to know that blaming someone or something is a signal 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.
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. Judging mental readiness is often a bit tougher challenge than judging physical readiness in football coaching.
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 and confidence share a parent- child relationship. When you are completely satisfied with your work that you have done and when you are ready to face a pressure – cooker scenario which is anytime possible, you achieve success in soccer. The phrase “If you are not preparing to win, you are preparing to fail”, is used over and over again to trigger off the players.
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.
Know this. Building of confidence is an everyday task in coaching high school soccer, so players ought to reflect on positive and main steps for their realization.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
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 training fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Practice
Tags: Coaching high school soccer, coaching youth soccer, football coaching, soccer academy, soccer coaching