Everything is on the line…

You place the ball on the spot… retreat… take a deep breath.

If you miss this penalty kick, it’s over. Your team loses the championship game.

No pressure at all, right?

Every player at the highest level has the technical ability and skill to score on a PK.

But not nearly as many have the mental ability to do it over and over in the most crucial, pressurized moments in the biggest matches.

So how do you get that kind of soccer confidence?

Great question! I wish there was a simple, short answer but there isn’t. That’s why I’m currently writing a book on the topic!.

But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t soccer confidence tips I can share with you right now and that’s what you’ll get below.

I think the most important tip I can give you when it comes to how to gain confidence in soccer is simply this…

You MUST prepare!

Nothing builds confidence like preparation!

The more prepared you are, the more confident you are going to feel.

Look at it this way…

When you go into school to take a test, your confidence level is going to mirror how prepared you are for the material, right?

If you didn’t study, your confidence level isn’t going to be very high.

Spidey loves my soccer conditioning program, Dominate Game Day (on Amazon)

If you know the material forwards and backwards, because you did all the homework and assignments as you went along, you’ll be overflowing with confidence!

The same is true with your technical skills.

If you’re using something like Impact Total Touch Training and getting touches every day, you’ll be more confident, automatically.

This preparation is one of the biggest things missing from youth soccer. Players don’t get enough ball work if they only attend team training.

Players don’t practice moves until they can do them in their sleep without thinking. They try a move until they sort of get it and that’s it.

There just isn’t enough time at team training. Your coach is focused on bigger picture “team” stuff like positions, playing out of the back and things like that.

But you can’t practice it until you get it right. You need to practice it until you can’t get it wrong.

That’s when you’re prepared! That’s when you’ll feel confident about your ability. We’ll cover more of this below.

Right now I want to give you a simple exercise you can do that will only take you about 5 minutes… and it WILL help your confidence!

I did a podcast episode on this and it’s the second most listened to episode of all time.

This simple and quick confidence building idea came about because I have some players that are really tough on themselves to the point that nothing is good enough. They only focus on the negative.

And that’s okay to a point. That’s the competitor in them and it’s what drives them to keep getting better.

Maybe you’re nodding along right now because you know exactly what I mean.

But it’s also important to recognize what you’ve accomplished and to pump yourself up. Give yourself some credit!

So we’re going to do that right now. Set a timer for 3- 5 minutes.

During that time I want you to write down nothing but positive accomplishments. It’s a brain dump. Anything positive.

Things you’ve accomplished, obstacles you’ve over come, things you’re proud of, any ‘wins’ big or small.

Write it all down!

It could be:

• scoring your first goal
• making varsity as as sophomore
• a particularly good pass you made
• a move you pulled off
• digging deep in a game when you were hurt or tired
• your first shut out or PK stop as a keeper

It can be things that aren’t even about soccer, although that’s obviously the focus.

But if you have a brain freeze it can be an “A” on a test you thought you’d mess up, a juggling number, whatever.

Anything and everything, don’t think, write it all down.

Now read it. Let it sink in.

Now answer these questions:

How do you feel?

Are you surprised at how many things you’ve accomplished?

Are you inspired? Motivated? Proud?

You can be both proud of what you’ve accomplished AND have a burning desire to improve!

If you struggle with the mental game, I highly recommend you listen to the expanded podcast episode on this topic.

And don’t just do it once. Do it any time you’re feeling doubt about your game.

You got this!

Build Soccer Confidence By Supporting Your Teammates

Yes, really.

If you’re struggling with your soccer confidence, go out of your way to support and build the confidence of your teammates.

Give them encouragement. Go say a kind word when they make a mistake and you know they are feeling down about it.

This seems too simple, I know, but if you can do this for awhile (and you really should be doing it as a good teammate anyway), you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what it does for you own confidence.

Yes, if you want to know how to gain confidence in soccer you can start by giving your teammates some soccer confidence, too!

Don’t dismiss it because it seems too easy.

Too often, we allow things that are out of our control to determine our mindset.

We get frustrated, angry, disappointed, or annoyed, allowing our confidence to take a nosedive, too, because of things we can’t change.

You CAN control whether or not you do 15 focused minutes of foot skill work every day.

You can’t control how many goals you score in a season.

You CAN control showing up to every practice, or doing an extra session every week.

You CAN control whether or not you train on your own every week. Are you doing Impact Total Touch Training? Dominate Game Day? Impact Soccer Performance?

YOU control whether you do all of that, some of it, or nothing at all.

You can’t even control your passing percentage. Not completely anyway.

You can obviously influence it with your decision making and technical skills.

You can play a perfect pass, a pass that was the correct decision, but if your teammate didn’t make the run or stopped their run, you won’t connect on it.

A lot of fans may even see it as a bad pass because they aren’t paying attention to what should be happening off the ball.

In reality, it may have been the wrong run, or a lack of a run completely.

You CAN control your attitude, intensity and effort.

You can’t control the calls made by the referee.

You can’t control that bad bounce on a choppy field that led to the other team scoring.

You CAN control how you react to it.

Focus on the things you CAN control and the bigger things will come.

This is even MORE true for soccer!

I’ve always told my young players, you don’t have to win. However, you have to want to win and you have to play to win.

Obviously, the ultimate goal is to win the game. But the focus is not on winning the game. The focus is on doing all the things you can control, that give you the best chance of winning the game. Does that make sense?

If you focus on controlling the things you can control that influence your chances of winning, like:

• being in the correct position
• your effort
• communication with teammates
• tracking back in transition when your team turns the ball over
• getting compact as a defense
• making good decisions…

…you will give yourself the best chance of winning the game.

A laser like focus on controlling what you can control will do wonders for your development. As for the rest of it, let it go.

One of the best things you can do for development is to stop focusing on outcomes and start focusing on behaviors.

This is easily seen in the more general fitness field.

Stop focusing on losing 50 pounds and instead focus on behaviors like lifting weights three times per week, preparing healthy meals for the week on Sundays, get at least 7 hours of sleep per night and so on.

It’s behaviors that drive outcomes.

Don’t focus on a more powerful shot (the outcome) focus on the things that get you a more powerful shot…

• plant foot in the correct place
• locked ankle
• contact on the correct part of the ball with the correct part of the foot
• timing
• landing on the shooting foot
• getting stronger

And of course, actually practicing your powerful shot technique on a regular basis.

When working with players looking for more power I’ll even have them shoot from five or six yards away.

I don’t want them focused on the outcome of the shot by shooting from distance.

They mess up the behaviors by swinging too hard and thinking about the distance, instead of being focused on the behaviors, or proper technique.

Focus on behaviors. The outcomes will happen.

One of the simplest ways to become a much better player (yet one of the most difficult to master) is to focus on NOW and the next 5 to 10 seconds.

You must FOCUS on the present and what’s about to happen. The past can’t be changed.

A minute from now is irrelevant and can’t be predicted or controlled (but can be influenced by what you do now).

Worrying about what already happened or worrying about anything further out than the immediate future (for the purposes of anticipation) will only take your focus away from where it needs to be in order to be a great player.

You must have a short memory. That bad pass, that missed breakaway, they are over and finished.

Are you winning? Don’t be thinking about the game ending. The game will end when it ends. You can’t focus on and hope for that whistle.

In order to be great, you must be present!

When you’re present, you are confident. Your mind isn’t wandering to mistakes you made or might make, because you are in the moment, doing what you need to do.

Did you know strength training builds confidence?

Getting into the gym and working on your strength and athleticism will skyrocket your confidence levels on the pitch.

I know it sounds crazy but I experienced it firsthand in my playing days.

When you’ve been working hard on your strength and conditioning for soccer, it’s going to have a positive impact on your confidence.

You KNOW the effort you’re putting in to become a better athlete.

When you see your 10 yard sprint time improving, or your broad jump numbers going up, or you’re simply adding more weight to the bar for your squats, you WILL feel more confident. It’s really that simple.

Individual skills with the ball are the foundation of success in soccer.

Master the ball, master the game.

By mastering the ball at your feet, everything else about the game becomes easier. No longer do you get rid of it quickly and blindly in a panic, you play more confidently, and you make better decisions.

You give yourself more time and space by having good ball control.

Defenders become afraid to rush in at you because they know you have the ability to simply take a touch away and go by them.

You MUST get comfortable with the ball at your feet.

Here are some soccer confidence building tips for developing great ball control.

First, you need to have a little patience.

Get it right first. Don’t rush speed.

It’s not about faster, faster, faster.

It’s about developing good technique EVERY TIME Over time, you can increase your speed.

When you start messing up a lot, slow it back down. Over time (not one session), you’ll do it correctly at a faster speed.

This way you’ll get increased speed combined with flawless technique that doesn’t crumble under pressure.

The reason we do this is muscle memory. If you try and go faster than you are able, your body is going to learn to do it incorrectly.

But if you never challenge yourself to get faster, you’ll never get faster. It’s a balance.

I actually got this idea from a guitar teacher. If you’re new to the guitar you are not going to jump in and learn some early Metallica song that’s played at 200 beats per minute and play it at the correct speed.

If you try, all you’ll be doing is teaching your muscles bad technique.

Get the notes right. Get the technique right. Speed up as you get comfortable. Keep going until you mess up again.

Slow it down and do it right.

This is true for ball mastery as well. Get it right. Good technique. Speed it up slowly.

When you’re making mistakes again, slow it down. Over time, your speed while doing it correctly will increase.

You’ll become better and more comfortable with the ball at your feet. This will help build your confidence as a soccer player.

I highly recommend you check out Impact Total Touch Training. This is a complete 60 day ball control program designed to help you master the ball at your feet so you can become a much better player.

Let’s dive into some details!

We’ll use a simple foundation drill as an example. This is where a player moves the ball back and forth from the inside of one foot to the inside of the other.

Some call this drill foundations, or side to sides, or even bells. This is one of the first ball control patterns most young players learn.

The problem, most players learn them but then never really spend time to master the pattern because they think they’ve got it.

Yet, look at the difference between the simple bells of a 12 year old and a professional player.

Players, do you really think you’ve mastered it and there is no room for improvement? Come on, man!

Pick a foundational move and focus on it this next week or month. Work on it on your own.

Throw it in training every time you get a chance (even if no defender is anywhere near you).

It could be the scissor, the step over, the Cruyff or the Matthews.

The Matthews is one of my favorites (as many of you know!) and is rarely used. Maybe give that one a shot.

Here’s a video on how to do it. There’s also the Matthews with scissors (also in the video).

Here’s a video of the Scissors move.

Little wins pave the way for bigger wins down the road. Do what you can do NOW!

If you struggle to do any training away from the team, create a challenge for yourself.

For 10 days straight, the first thing you do when you get up is grab a ball and do 100 bells (inside to inside). Or 25 Matthews. Or 200 Brazilian Toe Taps.

It will take a minute, give or take. Can you do this?

Once you do that, create another challenge and add to it a little bit.

Maybe it’s five moves, like Bells, Push Pulls (Left and then Right), Brazilian Toe Taps and Outside / Inside to Outside / Inside, and you do each one for one minute.

Maybe you do this every day for 10 days.

The more you do things like this (or follow a complete, progressive training program like Impact Total Touch Training), the more prepared you’ll be.

The more prepared you are, the more confident you’ll be as a soccer player.

But wait! There’s more!

If you want to dive deeper into how to gain confidence in soccer, check out this two part episode of The Soccer Specialist Podcast!

14 Confidence Boosting Tips Part I

14 Confidence Boosting Tips Part II

I hope you got something out of “How To Gain Confidence In Soccer”

If you want to dramatically improve your ball control, I highly recommend Impact Total Touch Training.

If you’re interested in becoming a better athlete – improving your speed, developing unbeatable quickness and explosiveness – check out Impact Soccer Performance right now!