I don’t know if you know this but communication is the most important element to succeed in coaching high school soccer. The actual meaning of coaching kids is the art of communicating with them. It lets you speak to mind in the simplest way and allow the other to do the activity in exactly the same way.
When it comes to soccer coaching, I’ve observed that most of the coaches often are the ex-players. Then also they have to face a number of issues while coaching young players. The reason why many of these issues show up is the coach’s inability to communicate. There are some major communication issues that you must understand as a coach to make your job easy and more effective.
These are described for you one at a time.
In the course of watching the young players on field, coaches often get emotional. Instead of acting as analytical observers, they become more of spectators. They ignore the important facets of the game that could improve the team’s performance significantly. As such they lose the focus on directing the team towards a win by way of an effective conversation.
Although coaches have a complete knowledge of the game, but they have a little training in communication. For example; in soccer coaching, use of a video or a flip chart is not very common since most coaches don’t know about 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.
It is even more important in case of coaching high school soccer because the players are not new to the game. They have been executing soccer drills for a long time at different levels. And one of the ways to avoid the boredom of repeating important messages is to keep varying the format.
You’ll be amazed to know that coaches tend to forget sometimes that it is people who carry out the trainings. They tend to get carried away in the process of coaching and training. For instance; the communication is incomplete when an instruction is given to a player but without his/ her name thus making it difficult for any of them to apply it.
Some guiding principles for coaches in football coaching are given below:
• All messages that come from the coach are very important. So ensure that they are understood completely and correctly.
• Use positive language that encourages players to give their best shot. 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. Research in this filed shows that coaches tend to spend comparatively more time with the best players (up to seven times more!).
• Don’t wait for the problems to arise to sort them out.
• Strengthen the player’s self respect by matching criticism with praise. Tilt the balance a little more towards praise with respect to coaching high school soccer.
Trust me. When you apply these rules to your training sessions, the benefits will be much more that you’ll expect.
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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