Motivating players in 7 a-side

[David J A]

David J A

I have been coaching my team for 3 years, we are about to start the under 10's league in September. Some of the players have good skills but when playing in a match do not get involved enough, standing about ball watching even when we are winning. How can I motivate them to take part more.

[Jerzy]

Welcome to the forums, David. Post early and often...

Tell us a bit more about your team. Do they seem to like playing soccer? Are there games that you play that they'll keep asking for? Are they more aggressive in practise sessions than gameday? What is your response to losing vs winning, or do you even keep score? How are your parents -- aggressive or do they just want their kids to have fun?

[ian.curry]

Make sure the warm up is good.
Vary it from week to week, make sure it is understandalbe but also wakes them up a little bit - ie turn left kicking your right leg, then the opposite.
Ensure there are little fun things added in, I used to do 'reach for the stars'(S Club song) and wiggle your hips dancing. I even used to do a little Lennox Lewis, bounce side to side and throw punches, maybe even do an Ali shuffle.

This should wake them up, get them thinking and more than just warm their muscles, but also their brains.
Kids love to be competitive, so ask if they'd like to win, tell them you'd like them to win also, and that you know that they are capable of winning.

[mcolwell1959]

I am at the same stage as you but have a successful team who have wong 3 trophie sin 2 seasons from scratch. It is important to make training and warm up interesting and fun, so do play a few games. Ask them to show you trciks if they know any, or goal celebrations, or do odd things such as a bit of dancing in the warm up. Try to get them up for the match by getting them to believe that they weill win if they work very hard in the match and keep running and playing as you have coached them. If you can do this and they win games it will come but you have to keep it up otherwise they will drift off. Try to relate to successful managers and what they do and give them goals.

[lanesra]

I'll echo Jersy's question because it sounds, from your brief description, that they are more tentative on game day, and that might come from the heightened expectations from their parents.

Games have a higher level of risk, and therefore more pressure, so you should do whatever it takes to minimize that pressure: pizza after the game, rotating the starters. Do you have one keeper who stands out? I typically rotate my keepers at the U10 age, but if you have one who give the kids confidence, you might want to play him more.

[David J A]

David J A

I agree it is the pressure of playing league matches.
They really enjoy matches in training but during league matches if play is to hard some give up.
I allways explain it is about enjoying playing rather than winning so have decided to make match days more fun as well.

Thanks

[mcolwell1959]

I think that wanting to achieve is a good motivation so everyone should be going out to try to win the match. I think the pressure of league and cup matches can motivate them as there is something at stake unlike if friendlies. Warm ups should be active and fun and varied.

[74offsuit]

There can many fears the players have on match day. As already mentioned it may be pressure from parents. Other common fears are:-

Losing
Opponents
Making mistakes
lack/loss of confidence.

and many others.

Pro coaches call this 'Performance anxiety' and it affects all levels of football/soccer/sport.

It is a subject in itself and there are lots of good books and info around on this.

I would recommend Willy Railo, who has worked closely with Sven Goran Errickson on sports psychology.

While you are looking around one exercise to try is 'Visualisations'.

Get the player to visualise a situation and attempt to correct the problem.

I tried this with my keeper who's kicking was not as good as it should be. Before kicking, I got him to visualise the ball sailing away with distance and height. Then actually take the kick. The results have been successful, he now routinely achieves greater distance.

Like all aspects of football it's a work in progress, but I am amazed at what can be achieved.

[mcolwell1959]

It is always good to ge your players to ask them to go away and think about what they did well and what they could improve upon, i.e. the goalie and his kicks or composure and good technique when having the chance to shoot at goal. No doubt befor ethe next game they will be day dreaming somewhere and it will come racing in to their brain. What you need to do is ask them to do something in particular, i.e track back when defending or maintain concentration rather than criticise them.

[scooge]

My u10 girls had the same problem last week. I asked them flat out what was the issue. They responded that they were "afraid of the other team." The size of the other girls intimadated our group into standing around watching. They were afraid to move to the ball.