Soccer Coach Weekly Issue 136

Happy new year to all of our subscribers!

I hope everyone managed to have a restful break and is coming into 2024 feeling refreshed and looking forward to the year ahead.

To help you stride into 2024 with a positive mindset, we have picked out a couple of pieces that deal with the mental side of coaching.

The first looks at how to banish any nerves you might feel about coaching again after some time off. 

You might be feeling rusty after a short break over Christmas, or it may be that you are returning to coaching in the new year after a longer period out of the game.

Either way, it doesn’t take long for us to feel out of practise. 

The important thing is that you give yourself the mental space to recognise that you will soon be back in the swing of things. Our seven tips on page three will hopefully help you with this.

The second feature we are bringing you this week is about looking after yourself as a coach. 

Hopefully it acts as a reminder, as many of us come into 2024 with renewed focus and fresh ideas and goals, that putting ourselves first is vital. It will help make those ideas and goals a reality.

We’ve also got two sessions – a three-parter from Steve Greenwood, which looks at creating goal-scoring opportunities from wide areas, and a standalone practice focusing specifically on midfield players, encouraging them to use space to make chances.