I don’t know if you know this but communication is the most important element to succeed in coaching high school soccer. The art of communicating to the team is what coaching truly is. This has the effect of expressing yourself to people with a view to perform them things in precisely the same manner.
When it comes to soccer coaching, I’ve observed that most of the coaches often are the ex-players. Yet, there are a number of issues that they are forced to handle. Most of these issues are a result of lack of communication. Your role as a coach would become far easier if you just pay attention to some most important communication issues.
Let me explain them to you one at a time.
In the course of watching the young players on field, coaches often get emotional. They tend to become spectators rather than analytical observers. They fail to notice the important points that could better their team’s performance. The coaches fail to have an effective conversation that could help the players get to the winning post.
The coaches are generally not trained to communicate effectively although they have all the knowledge of the game. For example; use of flip charts and videos in soccer coaching is not applied by many coaches as they aren’t aware of them. It’s important for the coach to know the game well but if he is unable to communicate his thoughts, the training gets repetitive.
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 working on these drills for some time but the standards are different. One effective method is to continuously vary the format of training in order to avoid the repetition of boring messages.
You’ll be amazed to know that coaches tend to forget sometimes that it is people who carry out the trainings. Only with a view to execute the training program well, coaches tend to ignore every other aspect of it. An example of ineffective communication by a coach is when he fails to use a player’s name while giving instructions which produces uncertainty.
In football coaching, there are some points that need special attention and they are as follows:
• All messages from the coach are important for players. So it’s necessary that they are deduced 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.
• Make sure you spend quality time with all your players. Research in this filed shows that coaches tend to spend comparatively more time with the best players (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 me. Once you start to apply this in your training programs, the benefits will far exceed your expectations.
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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.
Tags: Coaching high school soccer, coaching youth soccer, football coaching, soccer coaching
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