Coaching High School Soccer: Secrets Revealed
When it comes to coaching high school soccer, of all the things that influence a player’s performance on field is the conduct and attitude of the coach. In order to have a team that is mentally strong, the coaches should plan a course that strengthens a positive winning mind-set.
The coach is an important and an influential authority figure in player’s lives. It’s the body language, outlook, and expressions of the coach that can outline, add force to, or damage the players self esteem.
When coaching youth soccer, mental strength is required to meet the challenges through a positive willpower. Thus, in both practice and competition, the coach should be the starting point.
The coach can observe that closely controlled post-match schedule helps him or her in not getting either too low or too high. A successful coach will use ideas, stories, and metaphors, videos, and so on to shape the collective mindset of the team and prepare them to be mentally tough in performance.
A coach should display control in football coaching, when dealing with emotional setbacks notwithstanding personal feelings, with a view to create a mentally strong team.
If the coach shows an unwavering belief in the team’s ability to achieve despite the obstacles, then the team has a framework for building the same mind-set and will become increasingly motivated.
Dealing with mistakes and failure is another area in coaching high school soccer, for which the coach is solely responsible. One of the keys to a player’s motivation and the wish to work towards correcting mistakes is the coach’s response to failure. There are two option for the coach to choose from.
One is to use failure as an opportunity to give the players feedback on how to improve. Convince them to recommit themselves to the endeavor with renewed enthusiasm.
Second, use failure as evidence of the player’s inadequacy and proof that they cannot meet expectations. Such a heartbreaking overreaction might de-motivate the players.
By making the players to accept the responsibility for their judgments, outlooks, and dealings and rejecting all possible excuses, players can be made mentally tough. While soccer coaching, the coaches can help the players by questioning and listening them rather than always telling the players of their mistakes. The players can be motivated by having a one-to-one conversation with them and discussing with them about what they could have done better.
Such an exercise is called self-reference. Self reference can be encouraged in the players by the coach to motivate them to perform better. Instead of giving the players a definition of the situation, the coach can ask the player his or her reactions. In order to explain, we can take the instance “How do you feel you played?” or “Why do you feel you behaved that way?”
It is important for the players to think deeply and thoroughly and then account for their reactions which are very critical part of the learning process.
Whatever methods that you’ve just learnt, go ahead and start applying in coaching high school soccer.
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Andre Botelho is the author of “The Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide” and he’s a recognized expert in the subject of youth soccer coaching. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make coaching sessions fun in less than 29 days! Download your free pdf guide at: Kids Soccer Drills.
Coaching High School Soccer: 5 Sure-fire Tips
I don’t know if you know this but communication is the most important element to succeed in coaching high school soccer. The term coaching signifies the art of communication. It explains what you want of people in such a way that allows them to perform it.
Speaking of soccer coaching, almost all the coaches are the former players who decide to take on as coaches. Still, there are several problems that they have to find solutions to. The reason why many of these issues show up is the coach’s inability to communicate. As a coach, you need to work upon certain communication related problems for effective execution of your responsibilities.
These have been described one by one.
When coaches watch their kids playing, they tend to become emotional. They tend to become spectators rather than analytical observers. They tend to overlook some chief points that could help the team improve on certain fronts. As such they lose the focus on directing the team towards a win by way of an effective conversation.
Though the coaches today are complete professionals fully acquainted with the game, they lack communication training. For example; in soccer coaching, many coaches are not aware of the utility of a flip chart or a video. It’s important for the coach to know the game well but if he is unable to communicate his thoughts, the training gets repetitive.
It is even more important in case of coaching high school soccer because the players are not new to the game. They have been working on these drills for some time but the standards are different. By keep on changing training format, coaches can avoid the monotony of repeating the same messages again and again.
You’ll be amazed to know that coaches tend to forget sometimes that it is people who carry out the trainings. Only with a view to execute the training program well, coaches tend to ignore every other aspect of it. When a coach tries to instruct something to the play but does not use that player’s name, it creates confusion and is an apt example of bad communication.
There are certain guiding principles in football coaching which are as follows:
• All messages from the coach are important for players. So it’s necessary that they are deduced correctly.
• Your messages should have a positive impact on the players to put their best foot forward. Let them become better players with every passing day rather than pointing out their weaknesses.
• Pay equal attention to each player in the team. Studies indicate that coaches spend relatively more time with star players in team (up to seven times more!).
• Be proactive in communicating the problem the moment you see it coming.
• Accentuate your player’s self worth by balancing praise with criticism. Tip the balance more towards praise with players in coaching high school soccer.
Believe my words. Your training programs will be immensely benefitted as a result of adopting these simple exercises.
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Andre Botelho is a recognized expert in youth soccer coaching. He influences well over 35,000 youth coaches each year with his unique coaching philosophy, and makes it really easy to explode your players’ skills and make training more fun in record time. To download your free youth soccer coaching guide visit: Coaching high school soccer.