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. This is simply because success is the outcome of being confident of achieving it.
Confidence is a choice and your players have to first choose to become confident. 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.” Then there is the other parrot who is full of negativity and keeps telling the player “You can’t do this.” Without a doubt, it’s the player who has to choose which parrot to take note of.
Once the players have made up their minds, teach them to become liable for their acts. And this may be an everyday decision. Prepare a team of successful players full of confidence by directing their attention, energy, and enthusiasm in practice towards their role in past success.
In soccer coaching, players should be made to know that blaming someone or something is a signal of insecurity. Rather they should take responsibility and consider setbacks as a part of the learning curve, not a failure that could shake confidence.
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.”
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. Judging physical readiness in football coaching is relatively easier than judging mental readiness.
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 is the fruit of 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 is built on experience. Players must be conditioned to take in their stride all fears, mistakes, defeats, and criticism to build the foundation of 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.
Know this. Building of confidence is an everyday task in coaching high school soccer, so players ought to reflect on positive and main steps for their realization.
It is advisable to subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community as lot more can be determined by the newsletters, videos and articles which keep you updated about the latest developments in soccer.
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