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. 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 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. Explain this point in coaching youth soccer by telling them the conduct to two parrots sitting on both shoulders.
One parrot is a positive parrot that constantly motivates the players to take every challenge that comes in his way by saying “You can do it.” The other is the negative parrot, constantly warning the player “You can’t do this.” And it’s their choice to select which player to pay attention to.
After they’ve made a choice, train them to take the accountability for their acts. The players may have to make this decision on a daily basis. Prepare a team of successful players full of confidence by directing their attention, energy, and enthusiasm in practice towards their role in past success.
In soccer coaching, players should be made to know that blaming someone or something is a signal of insecurity. Rather they should take responsibility and consider setbacks as a part of the learning curve, not a failure that could shake confidence.
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.
The distress of the miss instantly motivates, hence ensuring no effect on 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 physical readiness in football coaching is relatively easier than judging mental readiness.
Such a judgment needs clear messages. The spoken and unspoken messages of the player should be taken into account to ensure his or her ability to succeed in the game.
Confidence comes from success. Success in Soccer comes with the belief in yourself that you are well equipped and ready for every situation that may build pressure. “If you are not preparing to win, you are preparing to fail” is a phrase often used to motivate players.
Confidence grows up with experience. The reservations, mistakes, losses and denunciation should be taken up calmly by the players so that their underpinning of experience can be built. 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.
Never doubt it. 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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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