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Coaching High School Soccer: Learn To Achieve Mental Toughness

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Coaching high school soccer

Speaking of coaching high school soccer, the outlook and behavior of the coach are the most important influences affecting a player’s performance. In order to have a team that is mentally strong, the coaches should plan a course that strengthens a positive winning mind-set.

The coach is an important and an influential authority figure in player’s lives. The coach’s body language, mind-set, and expressions can shape, strengthen, or harm the player’s confidence.

In relation to coaching youth soccer, mental strength is about meeting the challenges with a positive attitude. So, it is the coach who should be the starting point in practice and competition both.

The coach can observe that closely controlled post-match schedule helps him or her in not getting either too low or too high. 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

In football coaching, the coach should aim at building a mentally tough team by demonstrating his or her ability to cope with emotional setbacks in spite of personal feelings.

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.

Dealing with mistakes and failure is another area in coaching high school soccer, for which the coach is solely responsible. The coach’s reaction to failure is the key to player’s motivation and desire to work hard to correct mistakes. A coach has got only two choices.

Utilizing failures as an opportunity to give feedback to the players and guiding them towards their improvement can be opted as the first choice. The players should be persuaded to recommit themselves to the challenge with improved inspiration.

The failure can be used as substantiation of the player’s insufficiency and evidence that he cannot meet the prospects. 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. In soccer coaching, players can be questioned and listened by the coaches rather than always being accused of their mistakes. The players can be motivated by having a one-to-one conversation with them and discussing with them about what they could have done better.

This can be referred to as self-reference. The coach can encourage the players by encouraging the players to self reference. Rather than delivering a definition of the situation to the players, the coach can ask the player of his or her view point on the situation. In order to explain, we can take the instance “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.

Hence, apply these methods in coaching high school soccer.

Hence, you must subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community as it information in the form of videos, relevant articles and newsletters in abundance which will help you in being a better coach.

 

 

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.

 

 

Coaching High School Soccer: Discover Self-Control

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

Coaching high school soccer

When it comes to coaching high school soccer, we must accept the fact that self-control is a choice just like confidence that players must make. Self-control strategies in soccer coaching depend upon the relationship between emotions and thoughts. We all know that our state of mind influences our emotions, which in turn strengthens our performance.

With a view to help the players in learning the skill and discipline of self-control, there is a 12 step strategy which I shall discuss with you. However, players should adopt this strategy only when they are certain of its utility for them.

The players should be ready to accept full responsibility for their acts as well. The 12 step strategy is explained in the following paragraphs.

1. Awareness: Assist the players in finding out their weaknesses in coaching youth soccer. Help your players evaluate the reasons how, where and when they lost control on the ground in their past.

2. Understanding: Allow the players to make out the reason that affected their thinking in such a way that they lost their emotional stability.

Coaching Youth Soccer

3. Differences: Allow them to go back in time and recall situations where they did not lose control and where they did. Let them gauge the difference in their attitudes, emotions, and behavior.

4. Problem: Make an attempt to identify the exact problem in coaching high school soccer. For instance: It may be the guilty feeling in a player that he let the whole team down due to his acts.

5. Belief: Help the players raise their own expectations including self-control as one of the character. Support them so they can change.

6. Reinforcement: Behavior change is accelerated by reinforcement. So, as a coach, you must reward improved behavior of players on their way to permanent change.

7. Goals: To improve the skills of the players, you must start with several small goals. Assist the players in identifying the relationship between opinions, outlook, and actions.

8. Techniques: To maintain the confidence level, employ a set of behavioral practices. For example: Course of action must be clear in the minds of players when a certain situation arises.

9. Plan: In football coaching, teach a planned and systematic way of chasing the goals to players.

10. Progress: Teach them how to be patent. Help the players realize the value of ups and downs in the path to improvement.

11. Setbacks: Help the players in accepting the setbacks, as these will continue to happen. Thus, utilize these to learn new things for improvement.

12. Remembrance: Last but an important point is to let the players identify the good reason behind the change. They should always bear in mind why they’re doing this. What would be there in future for them, if they don’t try?

We all now that a soccer player who can act speedily with comfort is in a perfect performance state. It means possessing energy without tension.

This is of utmost importance. To teach the players in channelizing their energy in way that they are able to produce emotions to help them get rid of tension, include relaxation techniques in coaching high school soccer.

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.

 

 

Killer Tips On Coaching High School Soccer

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Coaching high school soccer

When it comes to coaching high school soccer, the first step towards success is the confidence building amongst players who have the potential to become brilliant players. Often when you say that the players have to play under pressure in a game, it indicates your player’s lack of confidence to handle any situation. This is because it is only with confidence that we expect success.

Like many choices we make, confidence as an attribute is also chosen by players. In coaching youth soccer, use the behaviors of two parrots perched on either shoulders to demonstrate this point.

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 second one is a negative parrot that is always cautioning the player “You can’t do this.” That’s why it the player who has to make a choice between which parrot to follow.

Once the players have made up their minds, teach them to become liable for their acts. The players may have to make this decision on a daily basis. Build confidence in the players by emphasizing their involvement in past successes and ready successful players to make a strong team.

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 teach players to take the setbacks as an integral part of the learning curve and not something to deter their confidence levels.

When coaching high school soccer, condition the players to see every lost opportunity as a lesson and they should keep telling themselves “I’ll get the next one.”
Thus, confidence for the next strike is remains unaffected because of the distress of the miss.

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

To facilitate this type of judgment, look for 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.

Success and confidence share a parent- child relationship. When you are completely satisfied with your work that you have done and when you are ready to face a pressure – cooker scenario which is anytime possible, you achieve success in soccer. In order to make the players emotionally power-packed, a phrase “If you are not preparing to win, you are preparing to fail”, is frequently used.

Confidence grows up with experience. The reservations, mistakes, losses and denunciation should be taken up calmly by the players so that their underpinning of experience can be built. 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.

Never doubt it. While coaching high school soccer, building confidence is worked out on an everyday basis so, the players should echo upon the certain key steps to determine what works for them.

It is advisable to subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community as lot more can be determined by the newsletters, videos and articles which keep you updated about the latest developments in 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.

 

 

A Guide To Coaching High School Soccer

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Coaching high school soccer

In coaching high school soccer, you may wish to disagree but it’s true that communication is the most important aspect to get success. The term coaching signifies the art of communication. It explains what you want of people in such a way that allows them to perform it.

In soccer coaching, I’ve come to notice that generally the former players have assumed the responsibility of being coaches. Yet, there are a number of issues that they are forced to handle. Majority of these issues come up due to communication lags. As a coach, you need to work upon certain communication related problems for effective execution of your responsibilities.

I’ll explain them one by one.

Emotions of the coaches take over their minds while they are watching their kids play on field. The coaches become spectators instead of adopting a critical approach to observing the kids. They tend to overlook some chief points that could help the team improve on certain fronts. They therefore lose the opportunity to have an objective conversation aimed at winning the game.

Even though the coaches are well versed with the technicalities of the game, they are not trained specifically on communication. For instance; most coaches don’t use videos or flip charts in soccer coaching because they 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.

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 performing soccer drills on the same lines for quite some time, although at different levels. And one of the ways to avoid the boredom of repeating important messages is to keep varying the format.

The coaches have a tendency to just forget that training sessions are being executed by human beings and not machines. Only with a view to execute the training program well, coaches tend to ignore every other aspect of it. For example; Sending out instructions without taking the player’s name leads to uncertainty and confusion.

Some guiding principles for coaches in football coaching are given below:

• All messages that come from the coach are very important. So it’s necessary that they are deduced correctly.

• Your messages should have a positive impact on the players to put their best foot forward. Help them to improve rather than reprimanding them for not playing well.

• All players should get an equal opportunity to sit with you and learn. Research in this filed shows that coaches tend to spend comparatively more time with the best players (up to seven times more!).

• Be proactive in communicating the problem the moment you see it coming.

• 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 me. Once you start to apply this in your training programs, the benefits will far exceed your expectations.

There’s lot more to know and understand about this aspect of soccer only if you wish to. You can subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community which has tons to videos, and articles to improve your team’s overall performance.

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.

 

 

3 Easy Steps To Coach Youth Soccer Like A Pro

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Coach Youth Soccer

Let me ask you a simple question. To coach youth soccer, what are the 3 things for the coach to do? Before you answer this question, it is important to know that youth soccer is all about letting the kids have fun. The concentration should be on turning the drills into enjoyable exercises so that the players get motivated.

Hence, to teach youth soccer, bear in mind the following conventions. These will instill the ability in the kids to become mature players.

Let the kids have fun: As I said, youth soccer is all about having fun with the game. As a coach, you must plan each session well in advance. For instance, make the kids do some warm-up exercises to prepare them for the main drills. Then move to advanced drills such as passing, dribbling, trapping the ball etc and so on.

To add to that, encourage the players to think creatively. Stimulate the kids to challenge themselves and if they fail, do not be harsh to them. Talk to them about it after the session. It is essential to take the parents into confidence if you wish to make the game enjoyable for the players.

Coaching Youth Soccer

To coach youth soccer, it is critical because the kids stay at home more than they are on the field. Seek the parent’s help in keeping a check on kid’s diet, inspiring the kids, and achieving regularity.

Get familiar with the age of the kids: Teaching soccer to kids is between the age of 7 to 14. At this level, it is very painstaking to find drills that actually make the kids happy. So, you must think proactively to consider drills that are fun for the kids. And, ensure that you keep the age level of the players in mind while communicating with them and remain very casual in your conversation.

It is always a great trick to divide them into teams and also give them individual names. This inculcates a sense of team spirit. Do not test a lot as well. The sign of a productive session is that there are both new and old drills.

Pen down the drills: It makes sense to pen down the exercises and also the objectives related to them. It aids in providing a direction to the team effort. A documented plan goes a long way in measuring the progress of the players. When you have to revisit your plan, it is easy to do so when it is in a written form.

And then, it is super-easy to measure your goals. It is quite normal for some things to go awry and then, you can always check them.

It is safe to say that youth soccer is a dynamic, fun-filled, and yet a responsible job. However, with proper planning and these essential tips handy, you will succeed at it without a doubt.

Analyze these tips straight away. These tips on coach youth soccer are guaranteed to bring you marvelous results. For a treasure of resources, tips, and techniques on soccer, enroll for our youth soccer coaching community.

 

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: Soccer Coaching Drills.

 

 

Coach Youth Soccer: 5 Ways To Make Drills Exciting

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Coach Youth Soccer

Understand this! When it comes to coach youth soccer, every coach runs short of ideas on how to make practice drills interesting and enjoyable for the kids. In teaching soccer, it is a huge stress to keep innovating new tricks to make soccer drills enjoyable for kids.

Here are some exercises that you can teach youth soccer players. These allow them to concentrate on the game, become good at it, and at the same time, have fun with the game.

Employ the players to do dribbling and shooting: This is an easy drill that helps all the players practice at the same time. Instruct the players to stand on a single goal line. Now, scatter a lot of balls all over the field. Once done, tell the kids to play with the balls as if they are moving towards the opponent’s goal. They should also shoot the ball as soon as they have an opportunity.

This exercise does a lot of good to the energy level, and confidence of the players and at the same time perks their dribbling skills. As the kids do not face any opposition while moving forward, it reflects their style of playing soccer.

Coaching Youth Soccer

Passing the Ball: In this game, make the kids stand in a queue at a distant corner of the field. Count till 3 and as soon as you finish, instruct them to run towards you as fast as they can. When they are running towards you, they should also try to take over the ball from the other player who has it. When you say stop, the player who has the ball must pass it to another player.

To coach youth soccer, these drills are the best tools to teach the kids passing and dribbling. This way, the players also learn a very important skill of snatching the ball from other players.

Touch and Go: It’s a very interesting game which kids love to play. In this game, tell them to make two lines at a distance of less than 40 feet from the goal post. Moreover, it’s the goalie who should protect the goalpost. Position yourself anywhere amongst the two lines.

Pass the ball to either of the queue and with only one tap teach them to shoot or pass the ball to another. The purpose must be to convert it into a goal. The goalkeeper must then return the ball and the practice continues.

If you have more than one goalkeeper in the team, keep them alternating between different sessions. This sport encourages team effort and helps improve shooting skills. The game also provides the opportunity to learn the skill of saving the ball from getting to goalpost.

Keeping the control of the ball: This exercise allows the players to learn to advance with the ball while retaining its control. Get two players so that one plays as attacker and second guards the ball. The players should then to told to proceed as per their part and try to get a point every time by leading another player.

These are simple techniques to coach youth soccer. Make your kids practice them and you will help them learn and have fun at the same time. Become a member of our youth soccer coaching community for more knowledge and tips on the same.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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 Drills.

 

 

5 Instant Strategies To Coach Youth Soccer

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Soccer Coaching Drills

Ever wondered how difficult it may seem to coach youth soccer team? Honestly, it’s not that difficult for anyone having a style to handle the kids, right approach, and useful tips.

Starting with the basics is always helpful and practical. This is the stage where they their interest in the game will develop and they’ll start to think and act professionally. Moreover, complete knowledge of the basics of the game will make players not only confident but also more positive about the game.

In an effort to teach youth soccer, don’t do anything to begin with. Yes, be very observant but let the kids be on their own. Do not try to organize things a lot or instruct a lot. This allows kids to have a lot of fun which is vital to the game.

Kids should be given regular feedbacks to enable them to work upon themselves. But remember to provide feedback while closing the session and not during it. Because they are only kids, you must consider it and communicate with them in their language.

Coaching Youth Soccer

Parents are the ones who take much curiosity in kid’s development. That’s why, it’s great to engage them form the beginning. This will also help you in making sure that kids sustain their interest in the game even when they are at home. Make sure that you understand their queries and answer them appropriately.

Bring into play all possible modes of communication. Using different modes like telephone, emails and personal meetings are good enough to interact with the kids. However, a word of caution! Do not instruct the kids or allow parents to do the same on the field. Besides, make it a point not to give negative feedback to any young player in the presence of everyone.

To effectively coach youth soccer, interacting with your fellow coaches is also essential. Every one has unique experiences of their own and sharing them with each other opens new doors to communication and ideas.

Set up and arrange the drills in advance. So it actually calls for all the arrangements to be done in advance. The reason that they are dealing with the kids presses on some coaches to take a relaxed attitude. But it’s wrong. In youth soccer also, proficiency and politeness have the same relevance similar to that in professional soccer.

Kids should be made to do interesting drills that teach them the fundamentals of the game. It is also a good idea to plan pleasure trips and small picnics with them. Give them ample time with each other to share their thoughts and opinions. It helps them gel with each other and promotes unity among them.

When teaching soccer, help the kids understand the value of regulation in soccer. It is extremely important for the kids to learn and practice best practices in football right from the very beginning.

As closing remarks, it is appropriate to say that teach the kids so that they learn to have fun with soccer. Use these tips to train your team and the results will surprise you.

To get additional tips to coach youth soccer, you can take subscription of our youth soccer coaching community. Here you will find several resources on coaching youth soccer as well as a strong and helpful coaching community.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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: Coach youth soccer.

 

 

Things You Can’t Do When Coaching Youth Soccer

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Youth Soccer Drills

If you are Coaching Youth Soccer, there are some things every youth soccer coach needs to consider and be aware. Here’s a list of some of these important guidelines that can help you in many different ways:

1. Don’t make speeches. This may not seem important but kids really get bored and distracted when coaches have the habit of making incredible long speeches and instructions. Whatever you have to say to your player during a training sessions on game, just make sure you keep it simple and short.

2. Don’t complicate things. Strip every drill to its basics and test it with your players making sure they are ready to move forward and perform it well. I can bet your players will lose their interest in the practice sessions if you try to give them over complicated exercises with lots of instructions.

3. Don’t be a ball boy- during a soccer practice ball will be travelling all over the field. Leave them alone! Make your players go run and get the balls that they shoot out of the field. You can even make it a rule that if they score they don’t have to catch it anymore for that day.

4. In case you have some kids to help in getting the balls, make sure they do not participate in the drills. This simply signals a laxity in discipline- ball boys are just there to get the ball. If they ask to be part of the practice session, make them know that they can’t do both.

5. Never, ever criticize the player. One of your players missed a goal? or a decisive pass? Don’t blame them. Point out the flaws in their technique or skill and do that calmly. Screaming at a player for being ’stupid’ is a great way to make them want to leave your team.

6. While Coaching Youth Soccer, explain it clearly and as briefly as possible. Then demonstrate it- your players will pick it up quickly if they see how it’s done. Conversely, don’t try and demonstrate something that you can’t do.

7. Health and safety should always be foremost in a coach’s mind. This means making sure that the ground and the equipment are in good shape before your soccer training session starts. Remember that if a kid sprains his ankle because the ground was slippery, then it’s technically your fault.

8. Don’t leave the parents out in the dark. Meet with parents regularly and always keep them up-to-date when it comes to the team’s problems and challenges. Remember that parents can be a powerful and useful ally for any youth soccer coach.

When Coaching Youth Soccer, these are important aspects that every coach should consider. You can discover how to improve the soccer skills of your players really fast and make training more fun and exciting at SoccerDrillsTips . com.

About The Author:

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching. If you want to learn how to explode your players’ skills and make practice more fun and interesting, get your free Soccer Coaching guide at http://www.soccerdrillstips.com – Coaching Youth Soccer Drills.

 

Coaching Youth Soccer: 8 Mistakes You Can’t Make

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Coaching Youth Soccer Drills

Coaching Youth Soccer can be exciting and fun but there are important aspects every coach needs to take into consideration. You’re probably thinking to yourself that some of these may be common sense, but are you following it?

1. Don’t make speeches. Especially if you’re coaching young kids, making them sit through long lectures is a great way to bore them out of their minds and disinterested in soccer really fast. This as nothing to do with your players age group. When it comes to making speeches and giving instructions, make it short and sweet.

2. Don’t complicate things. When teaching a drill, try to strip it down to its bare run-through and make sure that the players are fluent in it before you modify it. Show your players a complicated diagram with arrows and circles and a five-page instruction manual and they’ll lose interest in a blink of an eye.

3. Don’t be a ball boy- it’s critical that you understand that it’s not your task to run and catch the balls. Doing that can dangerously unbalance the player-coach equation. If a player shoots a ball out of bounds, make them go get it.

4. Do you have kids helping with getting the balls? If that’s the case, don’t let them join the training session. This simply signals a laxity in discipline- ball boys are just there to get the ball. If they want to join in the practice, they have to join the team like everyone else.

5. Never, ever criticize the player. Never blame a player for missing a goal or a shot. Point out the flaws in their technique or skill and do that calmly. Screaming at a player for being ’stupid’ is a great way to make them want to leave your team.

6. While Coaching Youth Soccer, explain it clearly and as briefly as possible. Next it’s time to show it. i’m sure you’ll do well and you’re players will understand perfectly everything you teach. Conversely, don’t try and demonstrate something that you can’t do.

7. Health and safety should always be foremost in a coach’s mind. This means making sure that the ground and the equipment are in good shape before your soccer training session starts. Remember that if a kid sprains his ankle because the ground was slippery, then it’s technically your fault.

8. Don’t leave the parents out in the dark. It’s important that you interact with your player’s parents in a way that they feel integrated and well informed of what it’s happening. Parents are a powerful ally when it comes to keep your coaching activities running smoothly.

When Coaching Youth Soccer, these are important aspects that every coach should consider. If you’re a youth soccer coach and you’d like to learn how to dramatically improve your players’ skills and make training more fun in record time visit us right now at SoccerDrillsTips . com.

About The Author:

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching. If you want to learn how to explode your players’ skills and make practice more fun and interesting, get your free Soccer Coaching guide at http://www.soccerdrillstips.com – Coaching Youth Soccer Drills.