July 7th, 2010 
admin Coaching high school soccer
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. It’s the body language, outlook, and expressions of the coach that can outline, add force to, or damage the players self esteem.
In coaching youth soccer, mental toughness is about meeting challenges with positive self control. 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.
Coaching Youth Soccer
A coach should display control in football coaching, when dealing with emotional setbacks notwithstanding personal feelings, with a view to create a mentally strong team.
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.
Coping with failures and mistakes in coaching high school soccer is another area of responsibility for the coach. How coaches react to failure decides the player’s motivation and his desire to towards correcting the mistakes. A coach has got only two choices.
One is to use failure as an opportunity to give the players feedback on how to improve. 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 emotional overreaction will de-motivate the players.
One way that players become mentally tough is by accepting responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions and rejecting all possible excuses. During the course of soccer coaching, coaches can help by questioning and listening rather than always tell the players what they did wrong. The players should be encouraged to talk about their better performance which they could deliver.
We call it self-reference. Self reference can be encouraged in the players by the coach to motivate them to perform better. 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. “How do you feel you played?” or “Why do you feel you behaved that way?” can be taken as references.
It is important for the players to think deeply and thoroughly and then account for their reactions which are very critical 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 "Expert Youth Soccer Coaching Guide", and he recognized expert in the subject of coaching youth football. Learn how to explode the skills of your players and make fun coaching sessions less than 29 days! Download free PDF guide at: Kids Soccer Drills.
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