Coaching High School Soccer: Winning Tactics
In Coaching high school soccer, you may wish to disagree but it’s true that communication is the most important aspect to get success. Coaching is an art of communication. This has the effect of expressing yourself to people with a view to perform them things in precisely the same manner.
Majority of coaches in soccer coaching are the players who used to play the game in their younger days. Yet, there are a number of issues that they are forced to handle. Majority of these issues come up due to communication lags. There are some major communication issues that you must understand as a coach to make your job easy and more effective.
These have been described one by one.
Coaches generally allow their emotions to become involved while watching their kids play. They forget that they have the duty to observe the players analytically rather than merely watching them play. 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.
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. The coach may be technically talented but if he not able to communicate properly, regular practice sessions get really boring for the kids.
It is even more important in case of coaching high school soccer because the players are not new to the game. They have been doing these soccer drills for some time but at different levels. By keep on changing training format, coaches can avoid the monotony of repeating the same messages again and again.
It may come as a surprise to you that coaches often forget that their training sessions are carried out by people. They get so absorbed in the training and coaching as a process that they lose their ground. For example; Sending out instructions without taking the player’s name leads to uncertainty and confusion.
Some guidelines meant for coaches in football coaching include the following:
• All messages that come from the coach are very important. They should therefore be taken and read correctly.
• Convey your messages in a positive language to encourage players to play their best game. Challenge them to be better rather than punishing them for being poor.
• All players should get an equal opportunity to sit with you and learn. Studies indicate that coaches spend relatively more time with star players in team (up to seven times more!).
• Adopt a proactive approach to identify the impending problems and solve them.
• Reinforce the player’s self esteem by balancing praise with criticism. Tip the balance more towards praise with players in 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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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: Soccer Training Drills