Kids Soccer Drills

I don’t know if you know this but communication is the most important element to succeed in coaching high school soccer. 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.

Speaking of soccer coaching, almost all the coaches are the former players who decide to take on as coaches. Still, there are several problems that they have to find solutions to. Most of these issues are a result of lack of communication. Your role as a coach would become far easier if you just pay attention to some most important communication issues.

Let me explain them to you one at a time.

Coaches generally allow their emotions to become involved while watching their kids play. They tend to become spectators rather than analytical observers. They fail to notice the important points that could better their team’s performance. They therefore lose the opportunity to have an objective conversation aimed at winning the game.

Although coaches have a complete knowledge of the game, but they have a little training in communication. For example; in soccer coaching, many coaches are not aware of the utility of a flip chart or a video. It’s important for the coach to know the game well but if he is unable to communicate his thoughts, the training gets repetitive.

Coaching Youth Soccer

This occupies greater importance in coaching high school soccer as the players are young but also know the various facets of the game. They have been executing soccer drills for a long time at different levels. By keep on changing training format, coaches can avoid the monotony of repeating the same messages again and again.

The coaches have a tendency to just forget that training sessions are being executed by human beings and not machines. The objective of training is lost because the coaches get so much occupied in just conducting the sessions well. An example of ineffective communication by a coach is when he fails to use a player’s name while giving instructions which produces uncertainty.

There are certain guiding principles in football coaching which are as follows:

• Every message from the coach is equally important. So make sure that they are interpreted correctly.

• Your messages should have a positive impact on the players to put their best foot forward. Challenge them to be better rather than punishing them for being poor.

• Spend equal time with all players. Research indicates that coaches spend a lot more time (up to seven times more!) with star players.

• Communicate the potential issues that could arise and have a solution ready.

• Strengthen the player’s self respect by matching criticism with praise. When it comes to coaching high school soccer, tilt the balance slightly more towards praise.

Believe my words. Your training programs will be immensely benefitted as a result of adopting these simple exercises.

There’s lot more to know and understand about this aspect of soccer only if you wish to. You just have to subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community to get all the latest and relevant information pertaining to the game.

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.

In coaching high school soccer, it’s a fact that similar to confidence; self-control too is a choice players need to make. In soccer coaching, the connection between emotions and thoughts establishes the self-control strategies. We are all aware that our feelings influence our emotions and this consequently boosts our performance.

I’ll explain to you a 12 step strategy that’ll allow you to assist your players in learning the discipline of self-control. Still, it is better that players take up these steps only when they feel that it is going to be of value to them.

Also, players must be ready to take full accountability for their actions. The 12 steps are explained below.

1. Awareness: Help the players figure out their weak points during the course of coaching youth soccer. Let them examine when, where, and why loss of control has occurred previously on field.

2. Understanding: Make the players realize why their thinking changed and how it caused them to lose their emotional balance.

Coaching Youth Soccer

3. Differences: Give them time to recollect situations when they did lose control and when they did not. Let them gauge the difference in their attitudes, emotions, and behavior.

4. Problem: When coaching high school soccer, attempt to pinpoint the problem. For example: Is it the guilt of letting the whole team down because of their performance?

5. Belief: The players should manage to raise their expectations from them including self-control as one of the behaviors. Support them so they can change.

6. Reinforcement: A change in behavior is promoted by reinforcement. To make the improved skills of players as their permanent skills, you, being a coach, must reward them.

7. Goals: To improve the skills of the players, you must start with several small goals. You need to make the players understand the link between actions, thoughts, and feelings.

8. Techniques: Build a series of behavioral techniques for maintaining confidence. For example: Players must know which path to follow in a certain situation.

9. Plan: In football coaching, train the players to systematically and considerably follow their goals.

10. Progress: Tell them to be patient. Help the players realize the value of ups and downs in the path to improvement.

11. Setbacks: Train the players to accept that setbacks are bound to happen from time to time. So, the best way is learn from them and become even stronger.

12. Remembrance: Last but by no means the least, make the players understand that they are trying to change for a reason. They should always be clear about what are they doing and why. What would be there in future for them, if they don’t try?

For a soccer player to achieve a perfect performance state, the player must be trained for relaxed swiftness. It signifies the ability to use energy without any fear.

This is of utmost importance. You must include relaxation techniques in coaching high school soccer and train the players on how to control the thought process so that they can keep themselves stress-free.

You should not wait to subscribe our youth soccer coaching community as by doing this you will be able to know lot more about soccer and soccer coaching skills with the help of various articles, newsletters, and videos available with us.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn  how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Soccer Practice Drills.

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.

In a player’s career, the coach is an important and a prominent authority figure. It’s the body language, outlook, and expressions of the coach that can outline, add force to, or damage the players self esteem.

When coaching youth soccer, mental strength is required to meet the challenges through a positive willpower. Therefore, the coach must be the starting point in both practice and competition.

After the match, the coach should follow a disciplined routine to help him or her staying away from getting too high or too low. A competent coach will draw on ideas, narrative, and symbols, videos, and like that to shape the collective outlook of the team and ready them to be mentally strong on the playing field.

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.

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. The coach has two choices.

One is to use failure as an opportunity to give the players feedback on how to improve. Convince them to recommit themselves to the endeavor with renewed enthusiasm.

The failure can be used as substantiation of the player’s insufficiency and evidence that he cannot meet the prospects. 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. In soccer coaching, players can be questioned and listened by the coaches rather than always being accused of their mistakes. By discussing about their better performance which they could’ve delivered, the players can be encouraged.

This exercise is known as self-reference. Self reference can be encouraged in the players by the coach to motivate them to perform better. 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?”

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.

So go ahead and apply these methods in coaching high school soccer that you’ve just learnt.

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.

In coaching high school soccer, the first and the foremost quality that the players need to have or develop is confidence if they wish to become complete players. 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.

The players must promise themselves and accept confidence as an attribute to develop. Explain this point in coaching youth soccer by telling them the conduct to two parrots sitting on both shoulders.

One of them is the positive parrot, always urging the player to face up to the challenge saying “You can do it.” The other parrot has the tendency to de-motivate the players saying “You can’t do this.” Without a doubt, it’s the player who has to choose which parrot to take note of.

Once the choice has been made, teach them to take responsibility for their actions. And this may be an everyday decision. Develop successful players in your team by helping them build strong inner confidence by focusing on their contribution to success or failure.

Coaching Youth Soccer

When it comes to soccer coaching, let it be known that blaming somebody or something else is a symptom of insecurity. Rather they should take responsibility and consider setbacks as a part of the learning curve, not a failure that could shake confidence.

Similarly in coaching high school soccer, the most important self-conversation for any player missing an opportunity to score is the phrase “I’ll get the next one.”
Automatically, the confidence for the next strike overshadows the distress of the miss.

Accurate and quick judgments regarding a player’s caliber and talent is a key to manage a successful team. While football coaching, it is relatively easier to judge physical readiness than judging mental readiness.

Understandable and apparent messages are required to make such judgments possible. It is necessary to deeply go through the player’s spoken and unspoken messages about his or her knack to succeed in the game.

Success gives rise to confidence. 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. The common stimulus used for motivating the players is “If you are not preparing to win, you are preparing to fail.”

Experience is a building block of confidence. Players must be conditioned to take in their stride all fears, mistakes, defeats, and criticism to build the foundation of experience they need. The feeling of he or she having the knowledge, a little more know – how due to experience and thus, the thought process of planning the next step, prevails.

Make no mistake about it. Building of confidence in coaching high school soccer is an everyday task, so players should reflect on certain key steps to discover what works for them.

There is lot more for you to discover and for that subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community that as tons of articles, videos, and newsletters that keep you updated with the latest and the best on soccer.

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.