In coaching high school soccer, it’s a fact that similar to confidence; self-control too is a choice players need to make. Self-control strategies in soccer coaching depend upon the relationship between emotions and thoughts. All of us know our mental state influences our passions that accordingly enhance our performance.
I’ll share with you a 12 step strategy to help players learn the ability and discipline of self-control. However, players should adopt this strategy only when they are certain of its utility for them.
Besides this, they must also assume total responsibility for their actions. The 12 step strategy is explained in the following paragraphs.
1. Awareness: In coaching youth soccer, lend a helping hand to players in identifying their weak points. Have them analyze where, when, and how they lost control on field during the past.
2. Understanding: Help the players acknowledge the feeling that changed their thinking and caused them to lose their emotional steadiness.
3. Differences: Let the players recall situations in the past when they did and did not lost control. Let them judge the distinction between their behavior, attitudes, and emotions then.
4. Problem: Make an attempt to identify the exact problem in coaching high school soccer. For instance: It may be the guilty feeling in a player that he let the whole team down due to his acts.
5. Belief: Help the players raise their own expectations including self-control as one of the character. Encourage them to change.
6. Reinforcement: Behavior change is accelerated by reinforcement. Being a coach, you need to appreciate the good changes in the players to ensure that these remain forever.
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: To maintain the confidence level, employ a set of behavioral practices. For example: Course of action must be clear in the minds of players when a certain situation arises.
9. Plan: In football coaching, teach the players to pursue their goals in a planned and systematic way.
10. Progress: Tell them to be patient. Help the players realize the value of ups and downs in the path to improvement.
11. Setbacks: Train the players to accept that setbacks are bound to happen from time to time. Therefore, try to learn something new from every setback.
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 now that a soccer player who can act speedily with comfort is in a perfect performance state. It means possessing energy without tension.
You must not make any mistake about it. To teach the players in channelizing their energy in way that they are able to produce emotions to help them get rid of tension, include relaxation techniques in coaching high school soccer.
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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.