Soccer Psychological Coaching - Techniques and Strategies

With the individual and team goals set, the actual training begins. Physical training is not to be undermined but the important cognitive skills to be emphasized include relaxation techniques and task concentration. Handing down specific relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation is more effective than just telling them to relax. Equipping them with applicable means to follow your instructions instead of just expecting them to comply on every command is more effective.

Relaxation technique is crucial to performance because stress and anxiety is inevitable in every competition so the individual members should learn to handle this. Many distractions also arise in actual games so the members should learn how to block out unnecessary factors including negative feelings from inside and just stay focused on the actual task. They have to learn not to try controlling the uncontrollable factors during the game and not to put too much emphasis on winning or losing as this is the root cause of most of the players? stress. These require paramount mental effort and so, an adaptation of appropriate mind set is necessary. Staying positive about one?s abilities and having faith in his teammates is one. Teaching the ?here and now? rule is another which basically means anything that is not part of the task should be set aside. Learning the connection between stress and level of performance would probably be helpful too. The higher your stress is, the lower your performance goes.

A good coach should also be able to help the players understand that there is nothing to lose by trying instead of opting to be paralyzed with anxiety. And last but not the least, conditioning the athlete?s minds to view adversity in a positive way, however difficult, will ease the transition from being a novice player to a more professional and successful athlete.

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