Coaching Sports to Build Confidence

The most challenging part of coaching a youth sport team is to correct your athletes without loosing confidence in themselves? The best coaches have mastered knowing how to preserve your athletes' confidence when you need to correct them. Here is a list of ten suggestions for challenging your athletes while still maintaining their self confidence.

1) Make it a "we achievement with high objectives

The best challenge you can say to your athletes when they made a mistake is "I know your better than that." This one liner bolsters their belief that you have confidence in their talent and that you know they are capable of performing at much higher level than what they are currently demonstrating. Then turn the challenge into a "we" goal that lets the athlete know that together you will attack the problem. Making it a "we" challenge shows your athletes that you are willing to partner with them to help them get better.

2) Understand mistakes are not deliberate

Most errors players make are not deliberate. Athletes want to play well, not only for themselves, but also for their coaches and teammates. Appreciating your players mistakes are not intentional can be challenging at times, but initially the best course of action is to encourage and support them to correct it.

3) Permit players to play through mistakes

Although it is not always possible, a great way to demonstrate your confidence in an athlete is to allow them to keep playing through their mistakes. Give them a chance to self correct themselves within the game situation rather than pulling them out and immediately offering your feedback. Allowing athletes to self correct and learn from mistakes provides them with an opportunity to learn resiliency.

4) Excuse making should not be allowed

An athlete must take responsibility for their success, they must also take responsibility for the shortcomings and own the corrective process. Taking responsibility for their success develops a player's self-esteem and self-confidence. Taking ownership for their mistakes demonstrates a high level of maturity and, after correction, boosts a player's confidence. By encouraging players to accept responsibility, you are encouraging them to take ownership of their failures and success.

5) Keep your comments fact based and focused on the solution

Like the players, many times coaches can get caught up in the emotions of the moment. In these types of moments, the feedback is emotionally charged and can lead to statements the coaches wish they never said. Instead of focusing on the problem, help athletes focus on the solution.

6) Target the critique on the behavior, not the individual

When giving constructive feedback, make sure the focus of it is the athlete's behavior and not the athlete themselves. Criticizing the behavior allows a person to keep their confidence intact because their behavior can be changed and corrected. If you focus on the person themself, they take it personally and feel humilated.

7) Sandwich the constructive criticism with positive facts

What happens when a player's coach always find fault in what they are doing before mentioning anything good? The player become defensive right away and tunes the coach out. By sandwiching the constructive feedback between positive statements, the player's defensives stay down and they are more objective in listening to the feedback.

8) Provide feedback in a one-on-one environment

Praising the athlete publically and offering construstive criticism in private, it does a lot to build their confidence. Conversely, when you criticize athletes in public, you embarrass them in front of their peers and raise their defensive mechanism. An athlete's pride in their performance is what get them through the tough moments

9) Remind them of their past achievements and strengths

Athletes can build their own confidence by focusing on their strengths and past accomplishments. One of the best things you can do is to remind them of how successful they are and provide specific examples of this success. Refocus your athletes on their strengths.

10) Never give up

When it comes to your players, you must adopt a never give up mind set. The last thing you would ever want them to do is to give up. If they ever sense you have given up on them, they will either give up on themselves or lose all respect for you and give up on you as a coach. A major factor in a player's confidence level comes from their belief that the coach has confidence in their athletic ability.

Youth-Athlete provides resources for parents, coaches, and young athletes including suggestions and tips for coaches that enable a successful season and a community for open questions.