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. The coach can build a mentally tough team only when he has devised a plan that supports a positive attitude aimed at winning.
The coach plays an influential and a key authority figure in the player’s career. 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. For this reason, in practice as well as in competition, the starting point should be the coach.
The coach will find that a disciplined post-match routine is helpful in ensuring that he or she does not get either too high or too low. 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.
In football coaching, the coach must show the ability to deal handle emotional setbacks regardless of personal feelings in order to build a mentally strong team.
Only when the coach shows a firm belief in the team’s capability to accomplish in spite of the problems, the team will have an outline for developing the same mind-set and feel motivated.
Coping with failures and mistakes in coaching high school soccer is another 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. There are two option for the coach to choose from.
To give a response to the players in order to improve them, their failures can be used as an opportunity to correct them. The players should be persuaded to recommit themselves to the challenge with improved inspiration.
Second, use failure as evidence of the player’s inadequacy and proof that they cannot meet expectations. This poignant overreaction will 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. During the course of soccer coaching, coaches can help by questioning and listening rather than always tell the players what they did wrong. They should be encouraged to talk about what they could have done better.
This exercise is known as self-reference. Players can be encouraged to practice self reference by the coach for their improvement. Rather than delivering a definition of the situation to the players, the coach can ask the player of his or her view point on the situation. In order to explain, we can take the instance “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.
So, start applying the methods you just learnt, in coaching high school soccer.
If you feel inspired to know more about being a better coach, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that has a lot of relevant information in form of videos, relevant articles, and newsletters.
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