When there is no success in sight

It is assumed that a combination of selected words, prepared speeches or selected exercises are a recipe for success. But what happens when there is no succcess in sight? I do not mean a terrible result, but rather that your individual players are no longer developing further. This is the worst feeling imaginable. Reassuringly, however, is that every coach will experience this feeling at some stage in their career. However, the big question arises: “What can be done to change it”

The good news is, that there is a way. And i will walk you through it step by step. You’ll see, that with small adjustments you will once again be making progress with your players and imrove your own coaching.

7 Tips for continuous development of your players

Start with a game

Players prefer not to start directly in a derived session. Try instead, starting the session by having fun. Of course a smart coach will use good humor throughout the game, as well as having built in a learning effect. So remember, implement less boring exercises at the beginning. Your players will have to stay awake for the whole session.

The exercise should make sense

At first this sounds very logical, but what does it actually mean? Exercises must build on each other. On the one hand players need to realize what is required of them during the session.On the other hand players will experience more and more positive moments in the training session, if they can implement what they have learnt previously into their training. You see, they learn, they know what they are doing it for and then their success is inevitable. If it turns out good, they will start educating themselves.

Even the warm up should include a learning effect

The warm up program can take on countless forms. In my experience there are many partly really obscure warm-ups. One piece of advice to you would be to integrate the main theme of your training into the warm-up. As described in the first point, you should start with playful fun training in the beginning. If by now you have already incorporated some discreet rules, the training process will automatically continue to run smoothly. For example, putting focus on turnover tactics by switching from defensive to offensive. For instance, only counting the goals when a player has taken the shot after having crossed the centerline.

"Players may make mistakes. They should make mistakes."

The focus should always be on quality

Some coaches believe that certain routines for technique etc.., will only be truly attained by players, if they are repeated hundreds of times. I’d be more inclined to recommend processes that start off slow and easy. The players need a sense of achievement. This confidence is then in turn converted to an even better performance, thus the quality as a whole increases.

Mistakes are a part of soccer training

Players may make mistakes. They should make mistakes. They should get to know their own limits. You need to develop a sense of being able to assess their proficiency realistically. A coach is there to encourage players to try again. Confidence in your own players ensures that players trust the coach and vice versa. And so it should be, after all you’re the one who will help them improve.

Every now and then silence is golden

Of course you will inevitably be able to see more errors than the players, as it is an essential part of your job. Sure, you’re standing outside the field and observing. However if you point out every single error, the session will be continually interrupted and players will quickly lose interest. In fact, a necessary part of development is for players to learn to recognise their own mistakes and improve on them by themselves. A very important point relating to good teamwork is mutual coaching in context of constructive criticism. As a coach, it is important to develop a sense of when it is advisable to let players sort out a situation amongst themselves.

Improve yourself

And lastly, the most important point. At the very top of the to do list, to be able to continuously improve the abilities of your players, is:

You must further improve upon yourself!

And only in this way will you be able to bring your players, time and again, to perform at their limits and lead by example. Bear it in mind.