Ever wondered how to coach soccer or more specifically youth soccer? The phrase looks quite simple and familiar but if you give it a serious thought, a lot of things will start coming to your head.
One of the soccer skills that’s required for a player and a coach to learn is communication. A coach is required to regularly instruct players, give feedback, appraise them, council them and maintain discipline, so communication skills are a must.
Players, then again need an outlet to discuss performance issues with coach, peers, parents, colleagues, and share tips and tricks with relatively weak players in the team. It is the comprehensive language of soccer by which players and coaches transmit their thoughts and feelings.
Soccer coaching has some fundamental principles of communication that are essential for coaches to learn and then teach them to their players.
1. Use your player’s name to call them. This is both courteous as well as soothing.
2. The instructions that you give to the players should be first clear in your mind before going out to them.
3. Be considerate: Use communication for connecting with players and not to control them. So try to understand their point of view as well.
4. Be careful of your body language: It should be comfortable and easy to allow others to open up with you.
5.Make an eye contact with players when talking to them individually or together. Look into the eyes pf people that you get to talk to.
6.Your style of speaking should influence the person you are talking to. So select a style that best describes you and also suits the other person.
7. Select a subject that requires redressal. Communication leads to answers to questions, how to coach soccer works best when it is brief and direct. Choose a list of items and stick to it.
8.Be objective: Just remember that as a coach, you are interacting with a team or an individual player. So remain in charge of your emotions and talk only about the points of the game.
9.Speak Clearly: It is critical that what you say is understood in the same spirit as you intended.
10.At the time of teaching soccer, keep talking about the important issues. The players should be reminded of the important points by repeating them in different ways.
11.Always aim to keep the conversation light by using funny words and style.
12.Give your players flexibility so that they can seek clarifications from you without any hitch. Give them freedom to ask questions.
A soccer coach who does not exhibit good communication skills required to distribute the information correctly will not be a good coach in the long run.
To conclude, how to coach soccer should help the coach understand the different cultures and make room for them. Enroll for our youth soccer coaching community that has a large volume of resources on youth soccer in the form of articles, newsletters, and videos that help you in imparting required skills to the players.
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 Drills.
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