Soccer Psychology is understanding the emotional and cognitive needs and capabilities of your players. This understanding is fundamental to your success as a coach. Soccer Classroom considers this the most basic tenet in the pyramid of soccer needs. Ultimately, this comes down to the business principle of “knowing your customer.”

If we strive to understand our players and their capabilities, we are fundamentally in a better position to meet their needs and connect with them as people, so we can motivate and inspire them. One of the biggest mistakes that we make is that we approach the game through our eyes – not our players’ eyes. As a result, we treat kids as “little” adults instead of, well, kids. Learning about the capabilities of individual age groups help us as coaches to set reasonable expectations, inspire composure in our players and set goals that are achievable.