Ezine Article 2

 1. Good Role Model

Every soccer team needs a coach that is a good role model. You have to understand that they need someone worth imitating. Check yourself if you are willing to be your soccer team's role model. Put in mind that you are going to be their servant-leader and they are relying their success on you. You would be teaching them positive attitudes to win a game. It would be a shame if you teach something you don't actually apply to yourself.

2. Admirable Appearance

Being a good soccer coach, you must never overlook the importance of appearance. Make sure you look neat and tidy. Cleanliness could add up to your professional look and this will help you gain trust and respect of the team. Remember that you will be the players' role model, their soccer coach.

3. Be Punctual

Always be early to arrive in the soccer training. This way, you can manage the training set-up before the players arrive. It will also help you to not waste your time and can focus on the training objectives by starting on time during the sessions. If you will be late, there will be big chances that the soccer players will get bored easily, or even be impatient because you are not being professional.

4. Good teacher

An effective soccer coach is a good teacher. Part of your duty is to teach them everything about soccer especially the basics like passing, dribbling, shooting and tackling. You have to make it sure that your soccer team is learning and growing their skills. Always remember to give clear and correct instructions during the training sessions. You can't coach the soccer players who don't have any knowledge about the do's and don'ts in soccer. In teaching soccer skills, demonstrating the drills is better than oral instructions.

5. Friendly

Establish a good player-coach relationship with your soccer team by being friendly to them. You must understand their personalities by knowing their personal lifestyles and interests. This way, you could analyze their varied emotional and mental characteristics and develop strategies that could motivate them more accordingly. But be reminded, you can get personal but stay professional.

6. Good Listener

It is important to constantly seek the soccer team's involvement, and one way of this is by asking their views after every game. As the soccer coach, you must be a good listener because every person has his own brilliant ideas to share. Always encourage them to speak out and take what they say into consideration. Make notes if necessary, and include some recommendations in your soccer session plan.

7. Good Communicator

It is important that a soccer coach knows the importance of communication. This includes recognizing the players' performances and achievements. Encourage them to do better and praise them for a game well done. Be conscious with using your words because a coach's words are powerful and will bring a big impact to the team

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            This arricle does a great job explaining what it means to be an effective coach. This is a great problem today because a lot of people think that being a coach means yelling at a group of kids for two hours and thinking that that was an effective way to make them learn abuot the game. Coaching is so much more than just showing up to yell your lungs out for two hours at a time and players learn a lot more when a coach is patient and explains things to their players rather than get angry all the time. I have had experiences with both kinds of coaching and I can say that the best coaches are the ones who pocess the characteristics listed above. 

First and foremost, coaches are there to serve as a good role model like the author states and I think that this is the most important part of being a coach. The players need someone to be able to look up to in the sport and in life as well and the coaches should be that person for them. As a coach you want to be able to teach them the game as well as teach them valuable life lessons that they can carry on with them for the rest of their lives. 

The author also talks about the importance of looking the part and I would agree with this statement for the most part (but not completley). Just because you aren't dressed in a suite and tie does not mean that you are not a great coach and I know some people like to confuse that at times. However, I do feel like a respectable coach should at least try to look decent for certain events because coaches usually do this. A good appreance makes a good impression with your players as well as opposing teams. 

Being friendly is in my opinion almost as important as being a good role model for the players. Players will be able to form a bond and build that chemistry and trust with their coaches if they are friendly to them and open to having conversations that range from soccer to any sort of life problems. A friendly coach is going to be much more effective than a coach who doesn't care about their players off the pitch. Players need to build that trust with their coaches to perform at the highest level so remember that the next time you take that coaching position. 

Being a good communicator means effectivley obtaining information that is given to you and recipricating equal amounts of efforts in response to it. Communication is very important in any sport between coaches and players. If a player has any kind of problem or a coach has a problem, there should be clear and effective communication efforts between them to solve whatever the problem may be. 

Overall, coaching a group of kids/young adults is so much more work than showing up and telling people what to do for a couple of hours and then going home. The players need the coach to be there friend, role model and guide them through the obstacles that come with the sport and life. It takes a special kind of person to be able to successfully pull this off so when you come across a coach that does all these things for his/her players, be sure to thank them! 

I would love to hear what you think in the comments below so feel free to add to the discussion!