In coaching high school soccer, it’s a fact that similar to confidence; self-control too is a choice players need to make. In soccer coaching, it’s the relation between emotions and thoughts that concludes the self control strategies. We are all aware that our feelings influence our emotions and this consequently boosts our performance.
You can aid your players in learning the skill and discipline of self-control with the 12 step strategy that I’m going to share with you. But make sure that your player’s only take these steps when they are sure of its value to them.
What’s more, the players should also be prepared to take full responsibility for the actions they take. The 12 step strategy is explained in the following paragraphs.
1. Awareness: When coaching youth soccer, help players identify their weak points. Let them examine when, where, and why loss of control has occurred previously on field.
2. Understanding: Help the players acknowledge the feeling that changed their thinking and caused them to lose their emotional steadiness.
3. Differences: Allow them to go back in time and recall situations where they did not lose control and where they did. And then they should determine the difference in their emotions, attitudes, and behavior.
4. Problem: Make an attempt to identify the exact problem in coaching high school soccer. For example: The player may be feeling guilty that he let the entire team down due to his actions.
5. Belief: Teach the players to raise their expectations for their own selves with self-control as one of the qualities. Encourage them to change.
6. Reinforcement: Reinforcement has the potential to accelerate a change in behavior. So, as a coach, you must reward improved behavior of players on their way to permanent change.
7. Goals: Start with multiple smaller goals, so that you can take your players along the path to changes. You need to make the players understand the link between actions, thoughts, and feelings.
8. Techniques: Build a series of behavioral techniques for maintaining confidence. For example: Players must know which path to follow in a certain situation.
9. Plan: In football coaching, train the players to systematically and considerably follow their goals.
10. Progress: Help them being patient. 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 by no means the least, make the players understand that they are trying to change for a reason. They must understand the importance of what they are doing. What would the change mean to them for their future?
We all agree that a perfect performance state for a soccer player is that of a relaxed promptness. In other words, the stress-free efficient performance.
This should not be taken lightly. Including relaxation techniques in coaching high school soccer and help players control their thinking so they can generate emotions that remove unnecessary tension and save energy.
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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.
Tags: Coaching high school soccer, coaching youth soccer, football coaching, soccer coaching