I was prompted to write of giving players your confidence as I watched player confidence eroded by negativity stemming from a coaching staff. I had long thought that no one could steal your confidence unless you allowed them to, but it has become clear that if the majority of the feedback a player receives from his coaches is negative - being substituted for after a mistake instead of having the opportunity to correct it or being constantly yelled at instead of encouraged - a players confidence can and will erode.
Today I read a Carl Lewis quote while taking a break from breaking down high school soccer film.
If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win.
A lot of pieces to a puzzle fell into place upon reading this. The film I was reviewing saw Team A absolutely dominate their opponents for the first 15 minutes of a match. No less than 8 quality scoring opportunities for Team A in those first 15 minutes but not a single goal to be had. One player could have and perhaps should have had a hat trick in the first 4 minutes of the game. For all intents and purposes this game should have been over at the 10 minute mark. Instead, Team A lost this match by a 0 - 3 score.
Why?
While the opportunities being generated were of very good quality it is obvious in watching the film that the attempts at finishing are not executed with confidence. I can state his with a fair degree of certainty because I know most of the players on both teams involved. I have seen them play with confidence, with swagger as the kids say... and this was missing from many on Team A during this game. The difference in finishing, and the game in general, was confidence. Team B played with great confidence even as Team A pounded them in the first half.
Team A played well but with hesitancy and restraint, as if they feared making a mistake. Team A looked to be trying to play perfectly, to fit a certain pattern or vision of play that they were not permitted to stray from without repercussions from their own coaching staff. The coach of Team A abandoned his normal rotations and inserted a little used player who proceeded to play a lot of minutes despite not playing particularly well. The message sent.... lack of trust, lack of confidence the coaching staff had in the players that had gotten them to this point. It was a demoralizing decision by the head coach at a point when his team needed to know he had confidence in them.
Team B just played. They made mistakes but adjusted, adapted and overcame them. They went with a 14 man rotation until the game was secured and then played everyone on their roster. Such is a luxury often afforded to a confident team.
There is another quote that comes to mind when pondering all this.
Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it
My own personal experience tells me there is truth in this quote, but it also tells me the quote does not hold true in every instance. I have been in situations where I knew the prescribed method or way of doing something simply did not make sense given the facts encountered. I also knew that if I deviated from the prescribed methodology I was risking reprimand for doing so including the possibility of losing my position. I followed orders despite my better judgment. I did not execute the orders with much enthusiasm or confidence. Perhaps that made the less than desirable results a self-fulfilling prophecy or simply the inevitable failure it was destined to be.
This is where the coach has to realize that if the team does not have confidence in what they are being asked to do, he risks losing the confidence of the team. When this happens, teams under perform or underachieve. They lose games they should win. The sum of the parts represents something less than the whole. No one is satisfied. Many feel under appreciated.
Negativity is contagious. Once it establishes a toe hold it can be difficult to root it out. Players who are constantly admonished more than they are praised become resentful and disenfranchised.
Positive Energy is also contagious. Sometimes a coaching staff, in its own frustration can lose sight of the fact Appreciation is the Currency of Success. Players tend to know when they have made mistakes, when they are not playing well. What they don't need is a coach yelling at them about the mistake they just made or being substituted for having made a mistake. No, what they need is to have their confidence built back up, to know that teammates and coaches have their back.
As I type this my thoughts are on a team that played a 1-4-3-3- formation despite a large contingent of team members believing they were better suited to playing 1-4-4-2. Of course, the players played the 1-4-3-3 prescribed by the coaches, but I wanted so to ask the coaches if they truly believed the players put all their hearts into playing 1-4-3-3 when they so obviously preferred 1-4-4-2. Was coaching stubbornness eroding team morale?
A significant part of coaching is the coach / player relationship. It is important that players listen to their coaches but wise coaches know it is of equal value for coaches to listen to their players. It should not be a one sided relationship. If it becomes one sided, chances are high that people will be disgruntled, unsatisfied and generally unhappy. That is not a recipe for success.
Bill Cosby once said,
In order to succeed,
your desire for success
should be greater than
your fear of failure.
I believe there is truth in this statement but it doesn't go far enough as it does not address the role confidence plays in success. A confident player plays freely and with great enthusiasm... with a pure joy for playing. They possess a passion for the game. A coach who gives his confidence to his players adds fuel to that fire making it burn brighter... making the player play harder, with more enthusiasm and more ....
Confidence
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