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. As a coach, when you declare that your players are under pressure, you are really identifying in them a lack of confidence to deal with a situation. I say this because only confident players expect to win and get successful.
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 of them is the positive parrot, always urging the player to face up to the challenge saying “You can do it.” The other is the negative parrot, constantly warning the player “You can’t do this.” That’s why it the player who has to make a choice between which parrot to follow.
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. Build confidence in the players by emphasizing their involvement in past successes and ready successful players to make a strong team.
Teach your players during soccer coaching that holding someone or something else responsible is a symbol of insecurity. Rather teach players to take the setbacks as an integral part of the learning curve and not something to deter their confidence levels.
When coaching high school soccer, condition the players to see every lost opportunity as a lesson and they should keep telling themselves “I’ll get the next one.”
Automatically, the confidence for the next strike overshadows the distress of the miss.
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.
To make such judgments easy, there is a need of searching clear messages. To check player’s capability to thrive in the game, it is necessary to browse their verbal and non verbal messages.
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. 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.
Confidence grows up with experience. The players must be accustomed to their doubts, mistakes, defeats and condemnation so as to establish the experience they need. 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. While coaching high school soccer, building confidence is worked out on an everyday basis so, the players should echo upon the certain key steps to determine 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