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"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."
George Graham, pro soccer player and manager.

Confidence is an extremely important part of soccer. If you don't have confidence no matter how skilled you are you will not play to your full potential. Many soccer players even at the pro level have trouble with confidence which is why the have sports physiologists. Unfortunately you don't so here are some tips to give you better confidence on the field.

Many people who are not confident feel nervous in a soccer game or when a coach is watching them in practice. If thoughts ever go into your head while you are playing that are negative like "i can't do this" and what if i mess up" then you need to improve your confidence. Unfortunately it is a hard thing do do. Another reason players don't have confidence is if there parents or coach are telling them negative things about their play. This is usually motivation are trying to help but if it is told in a mean way then it can low kids confidence a lot causing them to play worse. If that happens the parents and coaches get even more mad and the player thinks about quiting. If this happens try to ignore what they say. Trust me its happened to everyone. I once had a coach who called me short,wimpy,and slow. Not a good combination. After that i was more motivated to play good and though i actually wasn't slow i did work on speed and strength. I know this is unrelated to soccer but Micheal Phelps got told that he could never beat the seven gold medals. He pinned the paper to his door and looked at it every day. Negative thoughts should not get you down but should motivate you to try harder.

Dealing with being Nervous

Everyone is nervous at some time. Maybe in a final game or chance to break a record. However, being nervous every game or even paractices and it affecting your play is not good. Lets look at what being nervous is. You get nervous when you care about something and are afraid something might happen. You get nervous when you think you will mess up,let the team down, get yelled at your coach etc. You get nervous because you either care about soccer deeply,are scared of your coaches,parents, or teammates reactions, think you need to be perfect. No matter what it is make sure to just think about it logically. Whats the worst that can happen? Professional athletes are nervous before every game but when they step out on the field they aren't nervous anymore, their fired up. They know how to turn the nervousness into energy. If you are nervous then you probably have adrenaline pumped up. So if you can just get pumped up by telling yourself positive thoughts you can turn that nervousness into energy. Here are some tips:

Take slow deep breaths, this will calm yourself.

Be positive not negative.

If you have a bad game just say that you will make the other one good.

Train, if you are very good at soccer then your confidence will improve. This is definitely the site to do that.

Sometimes its just best to block out what your parents and coaches have to say and play your game. Coaches are very ridiculous sometimes. Once time due to coach issue i found my self playing on a weak team. Last season i had played on one of the top teams in the state and scored 5 goals and 6 assists which was pretty good. On the team the coach said not to use my weak foot,to not take players on and to not play through balls to me. Last season in much better competition i scored three goals from through balls and the rest i dribbled through up to 5 people and scored. Coaches don't always no whats best remember that. Sometimes you have to do what you think is right. That season i did almost every drill with my left foot, dribbled when i had the chance and easily beat my man. I think now he isn't going to insult anymore short kids.

Confidence is hard but you can do it if you really try. You will find that your game improves a lot and you have higher success in anything you do. Good luck and i hope you enjoyed this guide.