When it comes to coaching high school soccer, communication is the most vital part to consider on way to achieve success. The art of communicating to the team is what coaching truly is. It enables you to let people understand exactly what you wish them to do and in what sense.
Majority of coaches in soccer coaching are the players who used to play the game in their younger days. Then also they have to face a number of issues while coaching young players. Majority of these issues come up due to communication lags. There are some major communication issues that you must understand as a coach to make your job easy and more effective.
These have been described one by one.
Coaches generally allow their emotions to become involved while watching their kids play. They tend to become spectators rather than analytical observers. They tend to overlook some chief points that could help the team improve on certain fronts. Here, they miss out on the important part of having a professional conversation aimed at getting a win.
The coaches are generally not trained to communicate effectively although they have all the knowledge of the game. For example; in soccer coaching, use of a video or a flip chart is not very common since most coaches don’t know about them. When the coach finds it difficult to communicate his messages clearly, it brings monotony to the game even if he has a complete knowledge of the game.
In coaching high school soccer, communication becomes all the more important because the kids start to understand the game quite well. They have been doing these soccer drills for some time but at different levels. You can do away with the monotony of repetitive messages by frequently changing the layout of training.
The coaches have a tendency to just forget that training sessions are being executed by human beings and not machines. They tend to get carried away in the process of coaching and training. An example of ineffective communication by a coach is when he fails to use a player’s name while giving instructions which produces uncertainty.
Some guidelines meant for coaches in football coaching include the following:
• Every message from the coach is equally important. They should therefore be taken and read correctly.
• Your language should be positive enough to push the players to try hard to perform well. Let them become better players with every passing day rather than pointing out their weaknesses.
• Pay equal attention to each player in the team. Studies indicate that coaches spend relatively more time with star players in team (up to seven times more!).
• Communicate the potential issues that could arise and have a solution ready.
• Strengthen the player’s self respect by matching criticism with praise. In coaching high school soccer, the balance should be a bit more towards the praise.
Believe my words. Your training programs will be immensely benefitted as a result of adopting these simple exercises.
There’s not limit to the amount of information that you can lay your hands on. Subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and get tips, and tricks in form of articles, newsletters, as well as videos.
Andre Botelho is a recognized expert in youth soccer coaching. He influences well over 35,000 youth coaches each year with his unique coaching philosophy, and makes it really easy to explode your players’ skills and make training more fun in record time. To download your free youth soccer coaching guide visit: Coaching high school soccer.