Coaching High School Soccer: 5 Things You Must Know

Coaching high school soccer

In coaching high school soccer, you may wish to disagree but it’s true that communication is the most important aspect to get success. The art of communicating to the team is what coaching truly is. It lets you speak to mind in the simplest way and allow the other to do the activity in exactly the same way.

Speaking of soccer coaching, almost all the coaches are the former players who decide to take on as coaches. Still, there are several problems that they have to find solutions to. These issues come up due to the inability to communicate properly. You must recognize that there are certain issues related to communication that need special attention if your job is to be made easier.

Let me explain them to you one at a time.

When coaches watch their kids playing, they tend to become emotional. They tend to become spectators rather than analytical observers. As such they are not able to see the key points that could make all the difference in their team’s performance. Here, they miss out on the important part of having a professional conversation aimed at getting a win.

Though the coaches today are complete professionals fully acquainted with the game, they lack communication training. 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.

Coaching Youth Soccer

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. You can do away with the monotony of repetitive messages by frequently changing the layout of training.

It may come as a surprise to you that coaches often forget that their training sessions are carried out by people. Only with a view to execute the training program well, coaches tend to ignore every other aspect of it. When a coach tries to instruct something to the play but does not use that player’s name, it creates confusion and is an apt example of bad communication.

There are certain guiding principles in football coaching which are as follows:

• Every message coming from the coach carries equal importance. They should therefore be taken and read correctly.

• Use positive language that encourages players to give their best shot. Allow them to grow and become better players instead of highlighting their flaws.

• Spend equal time with all players. 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.

• Add force to the player’s confidence by harmonizing criticism with praise. In coaching high school soccer, the balance should be a bit more towards the praise.

Believe my words. Your training programs will be immensely benefitted as a result of adopting these simple exercises.

There’s not limit to the amount of information that you can lay your hands on. You just have to subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community to get all the latest and relevant information pertaining to the game.

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.