Speaking of coaching high school soccer, the outlook and behavior of the coach are the most important influences affecting a player’s performance. A coach should prepare a course that stresses the development of a positive winning attitude with a view to have a mentally tough team.
The coach is an important and an influential authority figure in player’s lives. 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.
In coaching youth soccer, mental toughness is about meeting challenges with positive self control. Therefore, the coach must be the starting point in both practice and competition.
After the match, the coach should follow a disciplined routine to help him or her staying away from getting too high or too low. A competent coach will draw on ideas, narrative, and symbols, videos, and like that to shape the collective outlook of the team and ready them to be mentally strong on the playing field.
In football coaching, the coach who wants a mentally tough team must demonstrate a controlled way to deal with emotional setbacks despite personal feelings.
As a result of the coach’s total belief in the ability of the team to reach their goals regardless of the barriers, the team gets a structure to build a mind-set on the same lines.
In coaching high school soccer, another critical area for which the coach is responsible is handling mistakes and failure. 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 choices available to the coach.
One is to use failure as an opportunity to give the players feedback on how to improve. Influence them to recommit themselves to the attempt with transformed motivation.
Second, use failure as evidence of the player’s inadequacy and proof that they cannot meet expectations. Players will get de-motivated because of this emotional overreaction.
Players can be made psychologically strong by accommodating the accountability for their judgment, stances, and actions and rejecting all probable excuses. During the course of soccer coaching, coaches can help by questioning and listening rather than always tell the players what they did wrong. By discussing about their better performance which they could’ve delivered, the players can be encouraged.
We call it self-reference. The coach can encourage the players by encouraging the players to self reference. Asking the players of their reaction for the situation is a better option for a coach than giving his own view points or definition on it. In order to explain, we can take the instance “How do you feel you played?” or “Why do you feel you behaved that way?”
The players should think all the way through and account for his or her version of reactions which are a fundamental part of the learning process.
Hence, apply these methods in coaching high school soccer.
The information in the form of videos, relevant articles and newsletters, that are posted on our youth soccer coaching community can help you in brushing yourself as a good coach, hence, subscribing it is advisable.
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.
