Coaching High School Soccer: 7 Things You Must Know
† Thursday, July 22nd, 2010In Coaching high school soccer, it’s a fact that similar to confidence; self-control too is a choice players need to make. In soccer coaching, it’s the relation between emotions and thoughts that concludes the self control strategies. We all know that our state of mind influences our emotions, which in turn strengthens our performance.
With a view to help the players in learning the skill and discipline of self-control, there is a 12 step strategy which I shall discuss with you. But make sure that your player’s only take these steps when they are sure of its value to them.
Also, players must be ready to take full accountability for their actions. The 12 step strategy is explained in the following paragraphs.
1. Awareness: Assist the players in finding out their weaknesses in coaching youth soccer. Allow them to investigate when, where and how loss of control happened on field in their past.
2. Understanding: Help the players acknowledge the feeling that changed their thinking and caused them to lose their emotional steadiness.
3. Differences: Let the players recall situations in the past when they did and did not lost control. And then they should determine the difference in their emotions, attitudes, and behavior.
4. Problem: When it comes to coaching high school soccer, try to point out the real problem. For example: A players may be feeling responsible of letting the entire team down because of his actions.
5. Belief: Help the players raise their own expectations including self-control as one of the character. Persuade them that they can change.
6. Reinforcement: A change in behavior is promoted by reinforcement. Therefore, you must not forget your duty as a coach to recognize and honor the improvements of players so that they stick to these.
7. Goals: To improve the skills of the players, you must start with several small goals. Guide the players in understanding the correlation between way of thinking, thought process, and actions.
8. Techniques: Set up multiple performance based methods to boost the confidence level. For example: If a certain situation happens, this is the course that players must follow.
9. Plan: In football coaching, help the players in learning an organized and efficient way to pursue their goals.
10. Progress: Tell them to be patient. Let them know that improvement always comes in a series of ups and downs.
11. Setbacks: Let the players understand that setbacks are there to stay. So, the better is to use these to learn new ways to tackle these.
12. Remembrance: Finally another important point is making the players understand the importance of the reason for they are trying to change. They should always be clear about what are they doing and why. How important the change is for their future?
For a soccer player to achieve a perfect performance state, the player must be trained for relaxed swiftness. In other words, the stress-free efficient performance.
Make no mistake about it. You must include relaxation techniques in coaching high school soccer and train the players on how to control the thought process so that they can keep themselves stress-free.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Soccer Coaching