How to Build Your Player's Confidence in Soccer

Every parent wants their child to be confident. But in high-level sports, confidence isn’t just helpful. It’s downright mandatory, especially in a sport like soccer, where every single player on the field has to make decisions and navigate uncertain situations.  

The key to building your athlete’s confidence is recognizing what a confident player actually looks like. This will help you understand the kind of behavior deserves the most praise, both on and off the field.  

So, before we get into tips for building confidence, let’s go over what makes a confident player in the first place:

What Does a Confident Player Look Like? 

A common misconception about sports is that scoring goals automatically denotes confidence. Under this mentality, the players who score the most goals are the most confident athletes on the field.  

But what happens when the other team starts putting points on the board, too? What happens when the top scorer encounters a new tactic from defenders they can’t seem to penetrate?

As soccer mentors, we’ve met plenty of athletes who can capitalize when their team has the momentum. It’s much rarer to meet an athlete who performs just as well when the other team has the momentum. This is the mark of true confidence: The ability to stay focused and relaxed in the face of adversity.

A confident player doesn’t get overly upset when they make a mistake or the other team scores, because they sincerely believe their team can turn the game around and win.

How to Boost Confidence: Praise Effort and Attitude Over Results

Since confidence stems from overcoming adversity, pay attention to how your athlete reacts when the team loses momentum, or someone makes a mistake. Is your athlete using positive body language to support their team? Are they communicating more often to tighten up the team’s coordination? Are they pushing themself harder to win back the momentum?

This is the behavior of a confident player, and praising it tells your athlete they are doing something right. So, don’t just reward your athlete when they score, or when the team wins. Praise them when they continue displaying a positive attitude throughout the whole game, or when they’re clearly trying their best even though the team is losing.  

Let’s say your athlete makes a mistake, and then finds themself in the same scenario later on. Only this time, they are focused enough to remember their mistake and take a different approach. This requires serious mental strength, so it’s most certainly worthy of the utmost praise.

Praise Consistent Smart Risk-Taking During Play

Another sign of a confident player is continuously taking risks during play. Confident players believe in their physical abilities enough to put them to the test and trust that they will come out on top or recover the ball quickly if they lose it.

For example: taking smart, calculated risks is the most important part of the game. When a player is dribbling upfield, they’ll draw defenders like flies to a light. Smart risk-taking isn’t thinking they can take on 3 defenders at once, but it is dribbling to draw them in so that they can make a pass to a teammate now in open space.

Praising consistent smart risk-taking builds confidence because it shows your athlete the importance of not being afraid of an unfavorable outcome. Even if the risk doesn’t pay off, your athlete was still confident enough in themself to take it.

Don’t Just Reward Your Athlete When They Win

Now that you know what a confident player looks like, you can build your athlete’s confidence by rewarding the specific behaviors that exude this quality:

displaying a positive attitude, staying focused after setbacks, and taking risks. If your athlete does these things, they deserve to be recognized for their performance, even if the team loses. Every player makes mistakes, but very few are confident enough to recover from them and keep pushing forward.

At Beyond Goals Mentoring, we know how difficult it is to stay confident when you’re facing a new level of competition. That’s why we’re dedicated to helping soccer players develop the same winning mindsets as the iconic athletes they admire. Our mentees learn to embrace setbacks as opportunities for growth while getting plenty of joy and fulfillment out of their sport, since a happy player is a confident player.

So, if your athlete could use some help with confidence, let’s set up a mentoring session today.