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. Often when you say that the players have to play under pressure in a game, it indicates your player’s lack of confidence to handle any situation. The reason being that confidence alone can ensure success.
Like many choices we make, confidence as an attribute is also chosen by players. Explain this point in coaching youth soccer by telling them the conduct to two parrots sitting on both shoulders.
One is a positive parrot that pushes the player to accept and conquer every challenge coming his way by repeating “You can do it.” Then there is the other parrot who is full of negativity and keeps telling the player “You can’t do this.” And clearly they have to choose which parrot to listen to.
Once the choice has been made, teach them to take responsibility for their actions. This choice may have to made every single day. Develop successful players in your team by helping them build strong inner confidence by focusing on their contribution to success or failure.
Train the players of the fact that in soccer coaching that putting the blame on something or someone else is a mark 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.
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.
Thus, confidence for the next strike is remains unaffected because of 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. In football coaching, there is always a close call between judging physical and mental readiness, but in the end, physical readiness wins the battle.
To make such judgments easy, there is a need of searching clear messages. Look for both verbal and non verbal messages that the player is sure of 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. 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.
Experience is a building block of confidence. The reservations, mistakes, losses and denunciation should be taken up calmly by the players so that their underpinning of experience can be built. 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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Tags: Coaching high school soccer, coaching youth soccer, football coaching, soccer coaching