Soccer Field Diagram

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.

In a player’s career, the coach is an important and a prominent authority figure. 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. So, it is the coach who should be the starting point in practice and competition both.

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. 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.

Coaching Youth Soccer

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.

Dealing with mistakes and failure is another area in coaching high school soccer, for which the coach is solely responsible. How coaches react to failure decides the player’s motivation and his desire to towards correcting the mistakes. There are two choices available to the coach.

One of the choices can be employing the failure as a prospect to provide advice and guiding the players towards their improvement. The players should be persuaded to recommit themselves to the challenge with improved inspiration.

The player’s dearth and attestation that he cannot meet the expectations can be used as an evidence of failure. This poignant overreaction will de-motivate the players.

Players can be made psychologically strong by accommodating the accountability for their judgment, stances, and actions and rejecting all probable excuses. In soccer coaching, players can be questioned and listened by the coaches rather than always being accused of their mistakes. They should be encouraged to talk about what they could have done better.

This exercise is known as 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. “How do you feel you played?” or “Why do you feel you behaved that way?” can be taken as references.

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.

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.

Like any other sport, in coaching high school soccer too, confidence is the prerequisite that each players need to discover and instill in him or herself to get successful. You tend to spot the player’s weakness in terms of less confidence to cope with a situation whenever you use the term “pressure” in the game. The reason being that confidence alone can ensure success.

Confidence again is a matter of choice and only a player can make this choice. In the course of coaching youth soccer, this point can be made clear to them by describing the behavior of two parrots that sit on either shoulder.

Out of the two, one has a positive behavior and he keeps telling the player to face the challenges head on by saying “You can do it.” The other is the negative parrot, constantly warning the player “You can’t do this.” And clearly they have to choose which parrot to listen to.

Once the choice has been made, teach them to take responsibility for their actions. And this may be an everyday decision. Build confidence in the players by emphasizing their involvement in past successes and ready successful players to make a strong team.

Coaching Youth Soccer

Teach your players during soccer coaching that holding someone or something else responsible is a symbol of insecurity. In fact they should be taught to see setbacks as a part of the learning curve and not let it shake their confidence.

Also, in coaching high school soccer, the players should learn by heart the phrase “I’ll get the next one” to keep them going whenever they lose any opportunity.
Thus, confidence for the next strike is remains unaffected because of the distress of the miss.

In a team, caliber, mental strength and judgments regarding a player’s ability to survive the demands of competition, hold the key for its success. Judging mental readiness is often a bit tougher challenge than judging physical readiness in football coaching.

To make such judgments easy, there is a need of searching clear messages. It is necessary to deeply go through the player’s spoken and unspoken messages about his or her knack to succeed in the game.

Confidence comes from success. And success in soccer is more likely when you know you have done everything you could to get ready for situations that might build pressure. “If you are not preparing to win, you are preparing to fail” is a phrase often used to motivate players.

Experience is a building block of confidence. The players must be accustomed to their doubts, mistakes, defeats and condemnation so as to establish the experience they need. It is always felt that he or she has the knowledge, has practiced it before and knows what to do next.

Know this. In coaching high school soccer, constructing confidence is a daily task and hence, players should intimate on the key steps to find out their positives.

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Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Coaching.