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MindLab

The mental wellbeing of your players is critical in ensuring that they have success both on and off the pitch. For many, soccer is an important way of socialising and maintaining a healthy mind, to be able to enjoy playing the game alongside teammates is a top priority for a coach. To be able to achieve this and find ways of communicating with and motivating those that learn differently will also see your side go from strength to strength. 

Soccer Mental Training

Use the MindLab section on Cupello to help you find tips on motivating your players and using the mind as a tool to your advantage. At Cupello we have teamed up with top psychologists and training experts to help give you the best advice on using mind skills. Help your players create and reach their goals. 

Soccer Coaching Tips

Motivate your players with goal setting, rewarding positive outcomes and involving players in the learning process

Allowing and encouraging players to take responsibility for their own behaviour and performance outcomes has a big impact

Involve players in what the training session looks like to increase loyalty, commitment and ownership of the session

The Role of Leadership in Soccer: What Makes a Great Leader?
  • MindLab

The Role of Leadership in Soccer: What Makes ...

Leadership is defined as the capacity to lead, or the ability to positively infl...

The Mindset of Learning a New Position in Soccer
  • MindLab

The Mindset of Learning a New Position in Soc...

Keeping a dynamic and constantly changing game like soccer at peak performance i...

The Right Way to Handle A Big Loss or Failure
  • MindLab

The Right Way to Handle A Big Loss or Failure

As a soccer player and a human being, you’ll face challenges and tough situati...

Improve Your Confidence When Playing Soccer
  • MindLab

10 Ways to Improve Your Confidence When Playi...

Getting confident in your abilities as a soccer player can be challenging. As wi...

Mental Trauma of Soccer Injuries
  • MindLab

The Mental Trauma of Soccer Injuries

Serious soccer injuries are a risk for players of any age. Considering the high-...

Tips for Playing Soccer When You're Dealing with Tough Personal Issues
  • MindLab

Tips for Playing Soccer When You're Dealing w...

When you’re facing a difficult time in your life, it can be easy to withdraw f...

Mental Toughness Techniques to Enhance Your Soccer Game
  • MindLab

Mental Toughness Techniques to Enhance Your S...

Mental toughness is the ability to respond effectively and appropriately to chal...

Building a Winning Mindset on the Soccer Field
  • MindLab

Building a Winning Mindset on the Soccer Fiel...

Success in any field requires mental toughness, drive, and determination. From t...

Mental Health in Soccer: It’s Not a Game
  • MindLab

Mental Health in Soccer: It’s Not a Game

Mental health and sports can seem like two separate worlds that don’t overlap.

Conversations with your players
  • MindLab

Five Tips for Difficult Player Conversations

It's not always easy to talk to players about their performance or an aspect of ...

Support players in transition
  • MindLab

Top Five Tips to Support Player Transitions

Transitions can affect players performance with distractions OFF the pitch. Here...

Shadow of mental health
  • MindLab

What are mental skills and how do we coach th...

The mental side of the game is often not included in our session planning as coa...

Free

Mental preparation
  • MindLab

Mental Skills Certification Programme

A tailored programme for soccer coaches and performance coaches, Gazing's Red2Bl...

Free

Goal Setting
  • MindLab

Individual Player Goal Setting

Goal setting is a powerful tool for enhancing performance both in individuals an...

Players and learning styles
  • MindLab

Five Top Tips for Learning Styles

All players learn differently, and most of the time younger players aren’t awa...

Key to mental health
  • MindLab

Mindset – the Hidden Element: A Case for Me...

Gazing’s strong view is that it is time to embrace mindset as a skill and inte...

Free

Coach and player mindset
  • MindLab

Soccer is Ready for Red2Blue

If we acknowledge that mentality plays an important part in the development of s...

Free

Mental Health/Mindset FAQs

Check out some of our most frequently asked questions by coaches, players, and even parents around mental well-being.

What is the best way to motivate a losing team?

Three top tips for motivating a losing team

1. Body language and use of voice

What you are saying must reflect your body language. You cannot be positive with a face that shows your disappointment. You need to be upbeat and full of energy to inspire young players and pick them up when they are down. Hands and face are important.

2. Highlight the positives

You can always find positives in games that you have lost. Explain to your players what went right and what you were pleased about during the game. Save any negatives for training night once they have got over the defeat.

3. Rephrase what you say

Think about what you are about to say and if it is negative find a way to rephrase it so the positives come out. If you cannot do that then don't say it. Don't shout "never pass the ball across the goal" it means nothing and puts doubts into your players minds about where to pass the ball. Work on that in training. Also use positives like "Win the ball" rather than negatives like "Don't lose the ball"

4. Help player confidence at training

When players are hiding in games use small sided games in training where everyone has to do everything which brings players out of their shells and makes them more confident on match day.

My players are great in training but don't compete in matches. How do I change that?

It may sound controversial but I think your players need to be less competitive in matches to take the pressure off them – at least in the next couple of weeks. This is not probably what you were expecting me to say but from what I can gather the pressure of playing in front of a crowd of parents is too much pressure for them expecting to win.

In training they are much more relaxed and will be more likely to play their natural game. What they need is for you to set them realistic targets they have more chance of meeting. I'm sure you've heard everyone saying "win the second half" when they are losing badly at half time. 

Or try relaxing the competitive talk completely and talk about holding onto the ball for 20 seconds during the game as a win that week or 5 passes by the team. Something they can achieve.

Make sure the players realise this is not a Cup Final and that the win is not the most important thing. They will learn far more from losing a game.

Playing more matches at training between teams is also a good way to get the players used to the pressure they face in match play. Warm them up with a couple of 4v1s or 2s depending on the size of your squad to get them in the mood.

 

I react badly to criticism by a manager or linesman from the opposition

A coach uses skills to understand tactics and manage players and that comes from the front part of your brain, the intelligent part. This part of the brain will switch off in times of stress and emotion. Passion is a good motivator for coaches but without the intelligent part of your brain it cannot cope under pressure. A coach needs goals to help he/her to cope with this.

Start with thinking about what it is you want to achieve with a youth team. Adult teams need to win, youth teams need to develop players to be the best they can be above everything else. To do that coaches need to be calm. If you stay calm and get your players to play the best they can you have much more chance of winning so focus on that.

Try to react to the signs that you are getting wound up. Negative thoughts must be stopped and you need something in your brain that says STOP. Remove the negative thoughts and move on with the match. Staying calm comes with practice and thoughts of what you want to achieve with the match go way beyond "I want to win". It helps nobody least of all your players.

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