Why Being Cut from a Team Doesn’t Mean You Aren’t Good Enough: Reclaiming Your Confidence

Getting cut deals a hard blow to a player’s confidence. Your team no longer wants you on their roster, so it’s only natural to assume this is because you’re not good enough for their standards. Why else would you get cut? Your team certainly wouldn’t have made this decision if they thought you were talented, right?

As soccer mentors, we’re here to tell you that in today’s youth soccer leagues, players get cut for all sorts of reasons. It does not automatically mean you’re not a good player.

 Understanding the real reasons many players get cut can lighten the blow on your confidence, allowing you to view this inconvenience as a valuable opportunity to build a more complete game.

Why Players Get Cut

You might assume that talent and performance are the main factors behind a decision to release a player. However, this is rarely the case.

Sometimes, players get cut for reasons that have nothing to do with either of these things. For example, a player might get cut solely because the team has been forced to shorten its roster.

Another factor could be the lack of a relationship between the player and their coach. No one makes friends with every single person they meet. Your coach’s personality might not mesh well with yours, and there’s nothing you can do about it. We’ve personally witnessed this happen to several highly talented players.

Relationships with Coaches

Speaking of coaches, getting cut is often rooted in a coach’s decision that they don’t have the capabilities to help you improve. This doesn’t mean you’re the only one on the team who needs improvement, or that you need more improvement than the other players.

It just means this coach’s particular style is not what you need right now. There is most certainly a better coach for you out there, just on another team.

How to Stay Confident After Getting Cut

When you get cut, your coach should be able to tell you which specific aspects of your game need improvement. Remember, everyone on the team needs improvement, your coach’s style just isn’t connecting with you and yielding the results they imagined.

Here’s the thing: If you didn’t get cut, you may never have had access to such specific feedback. You can’t get better if you don’t know what to improve, and high-level athletes are always looking for new ways to elevate their game.

Though it’s normal to feel a little lost after getting cut, you now know exactly what to focus on in training, and which specific physical or technical issues are stopping you from reaching your full potential.  

Getting cut is your opportunity to build a more complete game by addressing your weaknesses like a true professional, rather than letting them go unnoticed and exacerbating them in the process.

Everyone Has Their Own Path

For many young athletes, getting cut is the first time their soccer journey takes an unexpected turn, or veers off the path they envisioned.  

Speaking as former pros, we learned early in our careers that everyone has their own path. Just because you’re not on the same path as your former teammates doesn’t mean you’re any less likely to be successful. As long as you continue to improve your game, you’ll stay on track towards achieving your long-term goal whether that’s playing in college or making it as a professional.

At Beyond Goals Mentoring, we know that getting cut can not only devastate an athlete’s confidence, but also make them question their entire self-worth.

This wouldn’t happen if more players knew that getting cut is an essential part of an athlete’s journey, since it gives them the tools to make critical improvements. That’s why we help young athletes learn to embrace the twists and turns of their journeys, no matter how unique they may be.  

So, if your athlete is struggling emotionally after getting cut, let’s set up a mentoring session and develop a plan to turn this crisis into an opportunity to grow.