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3v3•U7•Confidence & Behaviour

My daughter hates being the one who restarts after conceding

Asked by George46
3648 views 4 replies
She is fine during the game but if they concede she tries to give the ball to somebody else for the restart every time. I think she is worried she will lose it and they will score again. Would you deliberately encourage her to take a few or is that making a small worry bigger than it needs to be?

VERIFIED COACH RESPONSE

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@CoachEmmaS

UEFA C Coach

Sports Psychology Level 3

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I’d encourage her to take some, but without turning it into “you have to be brave now”. You could agree something small before the game: “If you feel okay, take one restart today.” Then when that moment comes, remind her quietly rather than announcing it to everybody. If she loses the ball, the reaction afterwards matters more than the restart itself. Keep it normal. No sympathy, no big coaching speech, just get back into the game. She may also feel safer if she knows she has two choices rather than one: look for a teammate or dribble if there is space. Over time you want the restart to stop feeling like a test. One successful experience might help, but so can one unsuccessful experience where she realises nothing terrible happened.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

Join the football discussion. 4 replies

F

FridayFeeling7

Parent

The reaction after a mistake is probably the key bit. If she loses it and every adult goes 'unlucky!' in a worried voice she can still read that as something bad happened.
K

KellyH

Parent

Yes. Normalising the bad restart helped us more than celebrating the good one like she had climbed Everest.
B

BecksM84

Parent

I would not make the whole team stand waiting for her to be brave. Give her opportunities, but if she says no, move on.
O

OliviaP

Parent

My daughter used to hand every restart to someone else. We agreed she would take one per game. No fuss if it went wrong. After a few weeks she stopped counting them.

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