Teaching Youth Soccer - How To Boost Players’ Confidence
As a soccer coach there’s something you should know… the relationship that you have with your players has a major impact in their self-confidence and performance.
A long time ago, coaches didn’t care too much about players’ feelings.
Their main goal was “to win” at all cost and if some players were lost along the way, that was just “part of the job”. The kind of thinking: “we can’t make a nice omelet without breaking some eggs”.
Well, you’re not a “caveman coach” anymore. You must be open to a new modern way to look at your players, and share with them ownership of the challenge and find ways to boost their performance, motivation and performance.
How Does Your Coaching Style Affect Your Player’s Confidence?
(Girls Vs Boys)
Several studies reveal that you as a youth coach play an important role in female’s attitude and performance to practice and compete. You have a huge impact on your young girls’ confidence.
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On the other hand, if you coach young men, they seem to have a bigger capacity to stay motivated without your positive support, but their confidence will still be severely damaged if you have a negative attitude. It’s very important that you understand that you can help your players acquire positive attitudes and confidence if you teach soccer in a way that is challenging, exciting, fun and motivating. |
Developing Your Own Right Style Of Coaching…
If you’d like to develop your own coaching style that boosts your players’ self-confidence and self-esteem here are some guidelines that you should try to follow:
- Make Learning Soccer Challenging, Exciting And FUN!
You need to embrace and understand the power of humor and take it with you to the soccer practice sessions. Do not underestimate the power this ‘weapon’ has to dramatically improve the confidence of your players.
I know several top youth coaches that use, for example, fun warm-up soccer drills to start the session with great positive energy or end practice sessions with short enjoyable games so the players leave with smiles on their faces and feeling positive about themselves.
- Treat All Players With Respect
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You need to make ALL your players feel like heroes. * For that I recommend you get used to knowing and using each of your players’ names; * Treat each of your players as an unique individual that deserves your special unique attention; * Encourage your players to express their feelings, ask questions freely without being afraid of saying something “silly”, and trust you with their problems and concerns (which you should listen to very carefully); |
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* Give your players some time to breathe and find their own space. Don’t pressure them about getting fast results or put too much emphasis on winning. Sometimes, all they need is just a little time to feel comfortable and adapt themselves to your methods and the team.
- Be Alert, Give Credit And Reward Good Performance
Confidence is measured by achievement. You need to be alert, look for good performance, and be vocal and visual in your praise. You need to make your players feel like achievers, but still point out weaknesses in a positive way so they can improve… here’s an example:
1. Praise: “You did great when you…”
2. Positive Criticism: “…but next time let’s try to improve by…”
3. 2nd Praise: “…and I know you can do it!”
Coaches who focus only on the mistakes will never be successful.
- Always Think And Act Like A True Scientist…
When one of your players do something wrong, look at it like a true scientist. Notice that the mistakes are always gold opportunities to learn and improve.
Success people make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. People that don’t try new things, never improve and simply freeze in time.
Encourage your players to try, even if they feel they can´t do it. Just by taking action and trying to discover the causes of why it didn’t work… like “why that ball went to high…” or “how can I improve?”… this kind of simple thinking will lead to incremental improvement. Small changes made by testing different things can take you and your players to the top.
That’s the truth!
Andre Botelho
Tags: Soccer Confidence, Soccer Motivation, Teaching Youth Soccer
May 7th, 2009 at 7:19 am
YES I DO SIMILAR TO YOUR WAY N NOT LIKE A MILLATARY COMMANDER,MAKE FUN GAME SO THAT THEY ARE MORE COMFORTABLE AND OPEN. IT MAKES SOCCER CONFIDENCE,MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE IS GOOD,I DO AGREE THIS METHOD EVEN WITH GIRLS SAME PROCEDURE AS THEY SEE MALE COACH THEY PAY ATTENTION N CONCERNTRATE.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Thanks
May 7th, 2009 at 9:43 am
this is joseph essuman please sir i need your help
May 8th, 2009 at 9:16 am
sometimes just being yourself as a coach and letting the players trust you . Sharing past time experiences with helps . Them to understand that not everyones perfect and that losing can sometimes be a good thing . It lets them become better at the game and improve their form .
May 8th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Can you recommend a video or a book/books on Soccer Motivation
May 9th, 2009 at 4:02 am
I realy thankyou for that tip.nice time lads.
May 10th, 2009 at 3:00 am
tank you very much
May 10th, 2009 at 5:33 am
thank you it is a good idials
May 11th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Thanks you all teachers i like to help me moor to put my views in the mid of my little players for betterment of them
Thanks you all
May 12th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I like to allow my players to work situations out for themselves by putting them in positions in the training drill that they failed to do in the match the week before. I believe this encourages them to learn from their mistakes and gives them confidence in my ability to help them progress as players.
May 13th, 2009 at 5:07 am
ya its very important key
thankyou.
June 24th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
excellent work, Lots of idea`s for the comming season,Your method`s are very refreshing from:- a player who has played the game for twenty eight years, under all kinds of coaches and as a coach who has trained kids for seven.