SOCCER

Mike Voight, Ph.D. ICA Mental Skills Director Sport Psychology-Team Consultant (Private Practice), Assistant Professor, CCSU

Physical education teachers and youth sport coaches should not only look for “teachable moments” and error-correction opportunities, but also observe and listen for particular verbal and nonverbal statements and behaviors among the players. They could be conveying important information—namely levels of competence, self-confidence, and persistence.
 

            Coaches must be cognizant of player statements such as “I can't do this,” “I don't know what to do most of the time,” or “I am so stupid.” Players may be making these statements out of their frustration about not being competent enough to play on this team. Players must be told that learning their skills will take a lot of time and practice. Players must not be admonished for making mistakes at this level of play. Players should be able to use trial and continuous error correction without penalty (laps, getting yelled at). Getting on players will only have an adverse effect on their confidence and competence, and possibly drive them away from a game they once loved. In a similar vain, talk like “I stink,” or “I am the worst player on this field” could denote players who are really struggling with their confidence. Upon hearing these statements, coaches should attempt to get players to think about improving upon their last performance rather than comparing themselves with others, since they have no control over how their teammates or opponents play. 

            In terms of going too far with boosting player confidence, coaches should be cautioned about only praising worthy performances. You must be careful not to praise easy tasks that the player does in him sleep or it will leave him with the perception that you think he is not very skillful (i.e., accomplishing an easy task is challenging for him). Players at all competition and age levels are very perceptive and are always looking for real or mixed messages
from adults and coaches. A player’s sense of competence and confidence is greatly enhanced when they accomplish challenging tasks. Coaches should continue to set high, yet realistic standards that their players
could accomplish if they put forth their best effort. 

            Another issue for coaches to be aware of is when they notice that a player’s effort is dropping off, which could be due to something going on at home or school. This player is probably having trouble “letting go” or “moving on” from the issue. Having rapport with your players will help them to open up when they do have problems. A decrease in work rate could also signal some dissatisfaction with you, your coaching, or their teammates. The sooner these issues can be discussed the better. The player could easily be getting some “bad” information or “misperceptions” from their parents, so both parties should be addressed so that no miscommunication takes place. Players may begin to miss practices and games (with faulty excuses) as a way of avoiding a threatening situation, such as a problem with a teammate or coach, or a fear of making mistakes or letting their parents down. Getting them to talk about how things are going is very important. Players who avoid playing could also be close to being on their way out. They may not be getting what they most prefer out of the experience, such as a relationship with his coach and teammates, improved play, or challenging play. Find out why your players play, so you can be in a better position to help them meet their expectations and preferences. 

Feedback and Reinforcement 

To improve the use of contingent praise, it is important to offer the type of praise that gives players a standard to achieve, while also providing skill-relevant feedback. General feedback, like “nice job,” is not even close to providing important information. Feedback such as, “You passed the ball right where it needed to be for that particular play. Let’s try that again,” is much better and much more informative. The following list includes tips that coaches can use to improve upon the use of productive feedback:

• Use “I” messages instead of “you” messages. This technique helps to reduce a defensive stance from the player.
• For example, “I see you not getting into a supportive defensive position quickly enough.”
  
  
• Always avoid using sarcasm in a learning environment.
  
  
• Reward what you want, not what you do not want. Sometimes, ignoring a negative will take care of the problem, especially if the player is not getting the attention he is looking for. If you can’t ignore it, try to step in without making a big deal and devote as little time as possible to the situation. Attention is what athletes want most of the time, so if they see you giving your attention and positive feedback to players who are doing the right things, and not to players doing the wrong things, they may actually get the message.
  
  
• Be mindful of how you offer coaching points, such as pointing your finger at a player with a demanding tone
  or using a facial expression or body language that emits a negative connotation. The message may be great, but the player may not be listening because he is too distracted by the nonverbals (“Why is he so mad at me?”). What coaches do and how they do it speaks volumes, more so than what they actually say.
  
  

The best way to motivate players is to keep them working to improve their game every day, as well as by doing the following:

• Get to know your players and give them some time outside of soccer (ask them about school, family, interests, etc.).
  
  
• Plan ways to improve team cohesion and increase motivation (it will not just happen).
  
  
• Have training sessions that are organized, competitive, and full of reps.
  
  
• Establish a standard of practice behaviors and hold players accountable to it. Players need to be held accountable for their roles and responsibilities, day in and day out. Once every player feels like a contributing member of the team, good things will happen.
  
  
• If the situation dictates, showing players your frustration and disappointment can be beneficial (it will show them you care), but coaches should never attack player’s personality or character.

The following list details how coaches should not attempt to motivate their players. By using these methods, coaches may see an immediate behavior change based upon fear and resentment from the players, but these techniques will wreak havoc on the coach’s character, credibility, and future leadership ability. Chapter 12 addresses some of these points in the “10 commandments of team communication.”

• Intimidation (“If you don’t go out and play hard I will cut you.”)
• Threats (“If you make the same mistake again you won’t play for a long time.”)
• Criticism and sarcasm ("That’s the worst soccer I have ever seen.” “My five year old knows this game better than all of you combined.”)
• Guilt (“All the time I've put into training you and this is what I get in return?”)
• Physical abuse (“We’ll run the entire next practice if…”)
• Fear (“I want them to fear me because they work harder.”)
• Arrogance (“I am the coach. What can one of my players tell me that I don’t already know?”)
• Negativity (“I'm doing my players a big favor by treating them like this. It is preparing them for the real world.”)
• Favoritism (“Every good coach treats his better players differently from the rest.”). It is important for coaches to tell their players that everyone will be treated fairly. It is very difficult to treat each player equally, so coaches should focus on developing a relationship and rapport with each team member and try to be as fair as possible with them.
  
  

Postgame Evaluations 

A valuable teachable moment, which often goes by without notice or is not used effectively enough, is the post-game/post-practice evaluation. Both players and coaches can utilize this time to do the following:

• Take note of what they are feeling and thinking about the performance
• Realize what got them to the outcome (good, neutral, or poor)
• Think about how was their play compared with play in the past (improvement, neutral, or “back a few steps”)
• List what aspects of the “team” game were good, neutral, or poor
• List specific aspects that will need to be targeted in training
  
  How these points are addressed, attributed, and emphasized to players can have a profound effect (good or bad) on an athlete’s interpretation of the outcome, which then strongly influences his mindset, attitude, and motivation for future performance (practice and game play). For example, a loss can still be a desirable outcome if the team gave all it had and improved in certain areas of emphasis; the opposite applies to a “sloppy” win, when the team simply went through the motions and did not work hard or improve their team game, yet still got the win. Coaches set this tone with their post-game feedback. Sport psychologist Mark Anshel (1990) wrote that, “Coaches are responsible for making an honest and accurate evaluation of good and poor performance so that the causes of the end result can be objectively determined.” Some common examples of how coaches assess the causes of the outcome (win, loss) could include the following (Anshel, 1990):
  
  

• Ability attributes

ü      “We played well today.”

ü      “We’ve been keeping possession great recently.”

ü      “We did not play well at this tournament.”

ü      “We are mentally tougher than most teams.” 

• Task difficulty attributes

ü      “We really battled against their bigger defenders today, but they won most of the challenges.”

ü      “Their attack was just the best I have seen in a long time.”

ü      “We played well despite facing players two years older.”

ü      “We just beat one of the best teams at this tournament.” 

• Effort attributes

ü      “We were outworked this game.”

ü      “When we play the ball to the flanks we are tough to beat.”

ü      “We have to be aggressive to win this championship.”

ü      “We didn’t put the effort in during practice this week to adequately prepare.” 

• Luck attributes

ü      “Luck was not on our side today.”

ü      “The officials were making all the wrong calls today.”

ü      “That team pulled off some ‘career’ goals today.”

ü      “We just didn’t have it today.” 

The research that has been conducted on success and failure attributions has revealed much about how students and athletes perceive what they are being told and how these perceptions relate to their future actions.
For example, younger athletes who attribute losses-failure-undesirable outcomes to low ability tend to have higher levels of anxiety, lower levels of confidence, and are more at risk to drop out of sport. Also, athletes who continually attribute, or are told by their coaches, that losses are due to their lack of ability, tend to lose motivation and drive to continue striving to practice and perform. It is wiser to attribute undesirable outcomes (losses, poor performances with a win) to low effort, since players can always change this attribute, or to luck and the opponents’ ability. 

Helping players realize that unsuccessful performances should also be attributed to inadequate training, a lack of continual effort throughout the match, inappropriate strategy, or an inadequate focus in critical times is crucial, since these internal attributes can all be changed. Coaches who continually attribute losses to low ability will de-motivate their players and create more inconsistent, poor play. Most athletes perform better in future contests when they attribute the outcome to effort rather than ability. Attributing failure to ability again leads to lower confidence and a decreased motivation to continue putting in effort. Effort should always be mentioned as the most important factor in skill improvement. If skill is emphasized too much, those athletes who are not as skilled as the others will assume that they “don’t have it” and never will. 

Coaches must be careful about getting too involved in blaming others for losses and failures, such as officiating or a superior opponent. Although it was stated earlier that attributing losses to outside factors can protect younger players’ sense of competence and confidence, if outside factors are always mentioned as a cause of a loss it can de-motivate athletes in the long run. Players may feel good at the time to get past the loss, but if they keep hearing about this “impossible opponent” they will begin to question their ability. Again, external factors like luck and a tough opponent can be used sparingly to save a team’s ego and confidence as needed, such as after a great effort when the team battled tremendous adversity to keep the game close. If coaches elect to use external factors like luck and task difficulty, they should try to state it in positive terms, such as, “We played okay today, but the opponents just pulled out some lucky shots” (luck) or “Hold your heads high. You were beaten by a very good team today” (task difficulty). 

As mentioned in Figure 16-1, coaches should be aware of the developmental considerations of their players, especially when comparing one player to another (social comparison). Only a few athletes actually can handle being compared to other players (“Why can't you dribble like Torie?”). Most athletes will question their own ability instead of getting motivated to work harder to play like Torie. It should not be a problem to tell an athlete that she is not starting and Torie is starting due to some objective performance criteria, because this statement helps the athlete understand the specific areas in which she is deficient. It is the subjective statements that hurt players personally, which then adversely affect their confidence and motivation to continue to play. 

Finally, coaches must be honest and real with their time-out/game-break/post-game comments. If players failed to execute the skills, let them know rather than blaming luck or citing a good opponent all the time. The important point is that coaches need to think about what to say and what message they want to get across. When coaches let their emotions run the show, and say what will make them feel better (cathartic coaching), they may lose several players when all is said and done. Remember, coaching today’s athlete is very different from the Bob Knight days of yelling, pushing, and cajoling. Players want to be treated with respect and be given responsibility. Especially during time-outs and post-game evaluations, coaches’ attributions should be phrased in terms that educate—“We need to do a better job of getting to every second ball.”—rather than in terms that attack and destroy, such as “This is the worst soccer that has ever been played.” 

Portions of this article are from Mike’s book: Mental Toughness Training for Soccer (Coaches Choice Publishers).

Go to www.drmikevoight.com to order and for more information on his consulting and workshops.