Building Confidence in Young Players
I’ve been emailed recently about confidence in young players and how a coach can build that up. My first thoughts always go back to my roots growing up and being coached by a different array of personalities. I found the best way to work with young kids is to find the way that best motivates that kid. Here’s an example:
I’m the type of player that thrives on negative feedback or being told that I’m not good enough at something. I take that as a challenge to be better. If a coach is telling me something that I need to work on then I’m going to do whatever I can to get better at it. They can call me names, call my mom names and whatever and I’ll try to prove them wrong.
Other players thrive under positive situations and need to be told constantly all the things they are doing right. Players like this absolutely shrink when they are hammered over and over about negative things. These players tend to quit and 10 years later say lines like “I would’ve played in high school but the coach hated me”. The coach doesn’t hate people, the coach just didn’t know that this player didn’t respond to negative feedback.
I counsel all coaches to take the time to interview each kid and find out what motivates them and how they like to be talked to and then have an open team discussion about it so the team knows that some kids want to be pushed by negatives and others with positives and that you aren’t showing favorites.
As a player that needs confidence building, this will only come from practice and being successful. If you are deficient at something then get better at it. Simply watching and wishing doesn’t make anyone a better player.
