Have you ever guessed how the deficiency of soccer coaching and playing experience relate to the proficiency and confidence of a coach? Allow me to present different angles of a coach’s persona that can aptly be called the traits of a soccer coach.
Personality: Experience is an effective tool but it’s not nearly as important as personality. How successful a coach is, is determined by his/her personality, whether the end-result is a fun game without any physical and mental pressures or the creation of a consistently strong team.
Knowledge of the game: A soccer coach must always, be ready to adapt to new tips and strategies. Understanding of the game’s rules, strategies, and tactics is a basic prerequisite for gaining player’s respect.
Enthusiasm and Interest: During a soccer training program, take the role of a salesperson. Once the kids are interested in the session, inspiring them becomes easy. It’s also important to be open to a player’s needs with respect to team objectives, irrespective of their age. Being open to questions from players will guarantee their interest in the game.
Persistence and Patience: It is bad to ignore the inability of the player to perform soccer drills. A player does not want to learn anything new when he or she does not perform well. Setting unrealistic objectives leads to frustration in players. So, show patience and be persistent in developing player’s motivation from one practice session to another.
Ability to manage priorities: Develop a step-by-step technique of learning using which the players can learn and move forward. Throughout soccer coaching, players must have the means and opportunities to work on the lessons they have learnt during the sessions. Only after the old skills have been mastered, should you move to the new skill.
Single-mindedness: A coach must show special interest in the skills and social and moral behavior of every player. If you show sensitivity to their needs and are honest with them, you will win their hearts. In order to be a great player, strength of character in victory as well as in defeat builds the foundation for a player’s success.
Understand the learning process: A clear understanding of the learning process will help in better player and team development. Give confidence to the players to be enthusiastic in exercises that help them change their thinking and acting.
Inspire the players to learn soccer skills through participation, demonstration, and guidance. The learning process in complete only when the players are able to utilize what’s been taught and shown to them. Learning needs experience and not just teaching.
Imagination: Develop situations that challenge the player’s imaginations, bring them pleasure in performing tasks, and serve important game drills. Motivate and stimulate players to make their practice sessions enjoyable and rewarding.
For your own sake, take these soccer coaching attributes and you will find yourself rated as a first class coach. You can lay your hands on loads of relevant information pertaining to coaching young players in form of newsletters, articles, and videos by subscribing to our youth soccer coaching community.
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: Youth Soccer Practice.