Coaching High School Soccer: Tips On Mental Toughness
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. The coach’s body language, mind-set, and expressions can shape, strengthen, or harm the player’s confidence.
When coaching youth soccer, mental strength is required to meet the challenges through a positive willpower. For this reason, in practice as well as in competition, the starting point should be the coach.
In order to make sure that the coach does not get either too high or too low, he or she should pursue a disciplined post match routine. A successful coach will exploit ideas, anecdotes, and images, videos, and all that to shape the collective attitude of the team and train them to be mentally tough in practice.
In football coaching, the coach who wants a mentally tough team must demonstrate a controlled way to deal with emotional setbacks despite personal feelings.
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.
In coaching high school soccer, handling mistakes and failure is another important area of responsibility for the coach. The coach’s reaction to failure is the key to player’s motivation and desire to work hard to correct mistakes. A coach has got only two choices.
One of the choices can be employing the failure as a prospect to provide advice and guiding the players towards their improvement. Persuade them to recommit themselves to the effort with renewed motivation.
Making use of the failure as an evidence of the player’s inadequacy and proof that he cannot meet the expectations, can be the second choice. 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. The coaches can help the players by being quizzical and lending ears to them rather than pointing at their mistakes while soccer coaching. The players should be encouraged to talk about their better performance which they could deliver.
We call it self-reference. The coach can encourage the players by 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. For example; “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.
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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.