Killer Tips On Coaching High School Soccer
I don’t know if you know this but communication is the most important element to succeed in coaching high school soccer. The actual meaning of coaching kids is the art of communicating with them. 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. Still, there are several problems that they have to find solutions to. The reason why many of these issues show up is the coach’s inability to communicate. Your role as a coach would become far easier if you just pay attention to some most important communication issues.
These are described for you one at a time.
Emotions of the coaches take over their minds while they are watching their kids play on field. Instead of acting as analytical observers, they become more of spectators. 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 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.
This is especially important in coaching high school soccer since the players have been into the sport for quite some time. They have been performing soccer drills on the same lines for quite some time, although at different levels. You can do away with the monotony of repetitive messages by frequently changing the layout of training.
It may come as a surprise to you that coaches often forget that their training sessions are carried out by people. They tend to get carried away in the process of coaching and training. For instance; the communication is incomplete when an instruction is given to a player but without his/ her name thus making it difficult for any of them to apply it.
There are certain guiding principles in football coaching which are as follows:
• All messages from the coach are important for players. 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.
• Pay equal attention to each player in the team. 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.
• Accentuate your player’s self worth by balancing praise with criticism. Tilt the balance a little more towards praise with respect to coaching high school soccer.
Believe my words. Your training programs will be immensely benefitted as a result of adopting these simple exercises.
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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.
