It seems like every time you turn your head, everyone is busy looking for effective and time-tested tips on how to coach soccer? After all, youth soccer coaching is a dynamic and a difficult job and it is not easy to keep the players motivated to deliver under extreme pressure.
Let me tell you 5 simple tips that’ll help you improve your team’s performance significantly, when followed religiously.
1. Your plans should be comprehensive: Make complete and methodical plans if you wish to get the desired results in coaching. Have a heart to heart discussion with the players when you sit down to discuss and decide the team’s objectives and the timelines to reach them. Results not achieved within the decided timelines can disrupt your progress.
Once decided, stick to the plan but leave some flexibility for minor changes as needed. No matter how well made the plans may be they need changes due to sudden events.
2. Practice sessions should be a whole lot of fun: Boring and repetitive training drills are bound to bring down the enthusiasm of young players when performed regularly. You can practice this rule in lot many ways. For example: keep a few extra minutes for players after practice and have them perform a fun activity of a game that is fun and helps develop a bonding between them.
3. Freedom and Discipline should be exercised together: For a coach, discipline in the team should always be a priority. Nonetheless, the fact that it is freedom form unnecessary control that motivates the kids to religiously follow the rules. You should never undermine the importance of freedom and relaxation in teaching soccer.
Between the drills, leave some time for the players to relax, share time with each other or simply unwind. Talking about how to coach soccer, it is also a good idea to take them out for camping or a pleasure trip for a day.
4. Maintain tolerance and support: Motivate your team to do new things and when these new things do not work out as expected, be cool about it. Keep scrutinizing their activities. If a situation is serious enough to require your action, jump in and correct it but without punishing the kids.
Remember that punishment inculcates in players, a feeling of rejection while being compassionate and encouraging generates great ideas and performances.
5. Maintain balance: A practice session is where the kids get to know their talent and soccer skills. When we talk of a team, it is sensible to acknowledge that there is a mix of good, the bad, and the worst performers. It becomes your obligation as a coach to use your best players to improve the poor ones.
Make the best and bad players pals so that they share tips and techniques while in a session and also after it. It is also important that there are no comparisons drawn out amongst players at any point in time.
Your objective now is to make sure that you use these tips to improve your approach about how to coach soccer.
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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: Youth Soccer Training.