How To Become a Great Soccer Coach

If you are thinking that becoming a star soccer player is a difficult thing then becoming a great soccer coach would seem impossible to you. This is because when a soccer player is aiming to become the top athlete, he/she only need to work on themselves.

However, it is a quite difficult for any person to even become a professional soccer coach let alone become a great soccer coach.

According to Avram Grant, an expert in soccer, the art of soccer coaching is unique and it has to be done very carefully. As per him, the coaching involves not just a single person but an entire team of 20 to 23 players.

Coaching is a difficult thing because as a coach, your job is to find the flaws, difficulties, issues, and other problems being faced by your players to help them improve against their weakness.

It is something that you must do being their coach and the entire responsibility falls upon your shoulders. With his experience as an expert coach, Avram Grant has put together a few things that you need to be mindful when coaching.

If you follow these, you will become a phenomenal coach and your coaching will reflect through the top-class performance demonstrated by your players.

Be Professional

If you want to become a coach who is respected by his players, assistants, and even by the executives, then you must always remain as professional as possible. If you remain professional, your players will pick the same attribute from you.

As per Avram Grant’s expert soccer opinion, you must always practice punctuality. If you want your team to be punctual and always be present on time, then it is important you grow punctuality in yourself. If you show up early for training and practice, then you must become a punctual coach.

If your assistants and other people who would become part of the training sessions would also become punctual. Arriving before time on the field allows you to prep for the training sessions without wasting precious time.

It not only makes you a prominent coach in the eyes of the executives but also helps the team learn a lot from you.

Try Hard to be a Good Teacher

Avram Grant states that another major attribute when coaching a team of soccer players is to become a good teacher. The most important thing you must know is to know about the weaknesses and strengths of each member in your soccer team.

You have to identify which player is weaker than the rest and which player has leadership skills. This is how you can pinpoint exactly what the other person want and how they can be fixed for good.

Use the players that are quick learners and more skilled than others to help the weaker players. Pay attention on their tackling, shooting, dribbling, sprinting, and passing skills.

Keep working on to improve the skills of the players and do the same for their learnings. Make sure that the instructions you give are clear and straightforward, and make sure each player picks them up completely. You have to ensure that each team is clear on what they are supposed to achieve during the training sessions.

Use visuals when it is time to explain the drills that have proven to be more efficient than the oral instructions.

Try to Stay Friendly but Know When it is Time to be demanding and Stern

If you want to get to know your players on a different level, then you have to form a strong bond with them. It is important that instead of bossing them around, you become friendly with them. This way, the players find the confidence to be frank and open up to you more than other coaches who are strict at any given time.

You being friendly with your soccer players helps you form a strong relationship with them and they become more loyal to you. They even come up to you to share their weakness and difficulties they may be facing on the field.

They would trust you in solving their problems and coming up with a better solution. Treating your players with a friendly behavior helps build strong mental characteristics among your players. Most importantly, you can work out on different kinds of strategies to motivate them on an entirely different level.

However, you must also keep in mind that the players get the message that you will be angered if they lack in training or performance. You must ensure that a certain level of respected is maintained so the players do not end up crossing that line and become extremely non-serious.

The players must now what are the things that may make you angry so they know that they need to avoid doing such things.

Always be Open to What Your Players have to Say

As per Avram Grant, it is very important that every player in your team knows they can share their ideas with you. Never put too much pressure on the players and think about each player’s potential individual. This would allow you to know about each player’s playing power as well as their stamina and strength while on the field.

Remember, that you must never shut down your players from opening up and sharing what is on their mind. Sometimes, they may have a very effective strategy and tactic in mind that they may want to share with you.

If your behavior is negative and tends to shut down other players, then they may not open up to you. You must keep in mind that they spend more time on the field than you do so they may have a better understanding of the players they are up against.

They may even come up to you during half times to discuss a different strategy and tactics than you do. You can listen to the strategy and share it with the rest of the players to see if they are okay with it, and apply the strategy.

This not only helps the players, gain more confidence but they also feel that they are playing with the best coach.

Final Thoughts

If you want to become a soccer coach, then it is highly likely that you have your own strategy and way of working that you would want to implement. However, applying the above into your coaching practices may make things even better for yourself.