How to Deal with Teammates You Don’t Get Along With

Great soccer players consistently put their own emotions aside to prioritize the success of their team. Well, it can be difficult to do this when you don’t get along with all of your teammates.

As retired pros, we can tell you that meeting teammates you don’t get along with is an inevitability. No one meshes well with every single person they meet. Yes, a team has to work together to be successful, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to be the best of friends.

Athletes also tend to have extreme personalities. They are passionate, confident, and determined. The kind of behavior that helps one athlete stay focused and relaxed might drive another athlete off the wall.

Since you’re going to run into teammates you don’t like sooner or later, it’s advantageous to learn how to deal with these people early in your athletic career.

Why Teammates Don’t Have to be Friends 

Though it is more fun to play soccer with people you like, this isn’t always going to happen. Eventually, you will meet teammates who rub you the wrong way. The good news is you don’t have to be friends with someone in order to work together towards a common goal. The relationship can be purely professional, and professionals put the team first.

In other words, it’s okay if you don’t get along with a teammate, as long as it’s not hurting the team. For example, let’s say you have such a distaste for one of your teammates that it’s making you less inclined to pass them the ball. That’s not putting the team first.

How to Solve Conflicts Between Teammates

To prevent their conflict from hurting the team even further, the two players involved should come to an agreement. This begins with both teammates learning how to communicate with each other so they can work together.

They don’t have to solve the root of the conflict, they just have to learn how to put their differences aside for the benefit of the team. When they do, no longer will this personal conflict affect either player’s behavior on the pitch.

Every Great Player Has Teammates They Don’t Like

At first, the idea of two players with opposing personalities coming to a civil agreement might sound farfetched, but this happens all the time at the professional level. Every professional soccer player has played with teammates they don’t like. Great players don’t let internal conflicts affect their team’s success, and that’s part of what makes them great. So, if you want to be great, the ability to play with teammates you don’t like should most definitely be included in your mental skill set.

If your athlete is having trouble getting along with their teammates, Beyond Goals Mentoring is here to help. As retired pros, we’ve dealt with this situation many times, so we can show your athlete how to behave like a professional and prevent the conflict from inhibiting their performance with the specific problems they are facing. Contact us today and let’s set up a mentoring session to get your athlete’s focus back on track.