Nerves

Bear with me...

Well, today my team plays their biggest rival. I guess this is a huge event here and most of my girls are extremely nervous. I think it's a good thing for them to be nervous. Even though I don't play with them, I get so nervous. I never realized how much pressure is put on a coach, and it comes from everywhere. The girls don't want to be scored on, or lose. The parents want their daughters to continue to win as well as to have 'equal' playing time. (Side note: I have had a parent screaming in my face for not playing her daughter who tends to be hurt when we condition and sick most of the rest of the time.) The head varsity coach always talks about our record, as do the principal and the athletic director. I never knew how much a coach goes through-but I love it. ( :

Sometimes I think that I am too critical of the girls. A few parents complimented us after what I thought was a particularly poor game. I started to ask myself if rather than looking at our progress, I am focusing on the little mistakes we continually make. What does a good coach do? The same thing happened on Saturday. I thought we were playing lazy soccer and one of the other coaches said that we were playing well. How do I see the success while at the same time correct the errors?

We have played fairly well the entire season so far and haven't even been scored on yet. My girls are pretty cocky and tend not to go in to each game with the focus and perspective they should. Is it a bad thing to wish for them to be taken down a notch? Not that I don't want to win as well, but I think our practices and games would be more focused if we knew we had something to work on.