When coaching high school soccer, it is the behavior and approach of the coach that has a major impact on the performance of the players. The coach can build a mentally tough team only when he has devised a plan that supports a positive attitude aimed at winning.
The most important and a prominent authority figure in a player’s career is his or her coach. The body language, experiences, and attitude of the coach are key attributes that can shape, reinforce, or damage the player’s sense of worth and confidence.
With respect to coaching youth soccer, mental toughness is all about meeting challenges with a positive outlook. 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. An experienced coach will apply ideas, chronicle, and descriptions, videos, etc to shape the collective approach of the team and prepare them to be mentally tough in their game.
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.
When the coach exhibits a strong belief in team’s capacity to achieve the goals notwithstanding the hindrances, the team will get an agenda for developing a similar attitude.
Coping with failures and mistakes in coaching high school soccer is another area of responsibility for the coach. How coaches react to failure decides the player’s motivation and his desire to towards correcting the mistakes. A coach has got only two choices.
Utilizing failures as an opportunity to give feedback to the players and guiding them towards their improvement can be opted as the first choice. Persuade them to recommit themselves to the effort with renewed motivation.
The player’s dearth and attestation that he cannot meet the expectations can be used as an evidence of failure. Players will get de-motivated because of this emotional overreaction.
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. By discussing about their better performance which they could’ve delivered, the players can be encouraged.
We call it self-reference. The coach can take part in this by always encouraging the players to self reference. The coach can discuss the situation by asking the players their reaction rather than giving them a definition of the situation. Take an example: “How do you feel you played?” or “Why do you feel you behaved that way?”
In this way, players must think through and account for his or her view points which are an important part of the learning process.
Hence, apply these methods 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.
Tags: Coaching high school soccer, coaching youth soccer, football coaching, soccer coaching