Coaching High School Soccer: Learn To Boost Confidence
Sunday, June 27th, 2010
Like any other sport, in coaching high school soccer too, confidence is the prerequisite that each players need to discover and instill in him or herself to get successful. 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. 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. 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 other parrot has the tendency to de-motivate the players saying “You can’t do this.” And clearly they have to choose which parrot to listen to.
Once the players have made up their minds, teach them to become liable for their acts. This decision could also be an everyday task. 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.
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.
One of the keys to managing a successful team is your ability to make quick judgments regarding a player’s ability to survive the demands of competition. Judging mental readiness is often a bit tougher challenge than judging physical readiness in football coaching.
Such a judgment needs clear messages. It is necessary to deeply go through the player’s spoken and unspoken messages about his or her knack to succeed in the game.
Confidence comes from success. 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. To build a strong base of the much needed experience, the players must be trained to cope up with their mistakes, defeats and criticism and fears, calmly. It is the feeling that he or she has the knowledge, has been there before, and knows what to look forward to.
Never doubt 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.
