12-14-2025: End of 2025 Blog Post

Communication: Among Teams, Coaches, Parent’s & Individual Players’ Inner Self-Talk

In elite soccer, communication is a fundamental pillar of performance — both on and off the field. It encompasses not only verbal exchanges between teammates and coaches, but also the player’s internal dialogue and ability to process information under pressure.

At the recreational level, where players often train and compete only once per week, communication is typically the first element to break down. Limited time together means teammates have fewer opportunities to understand each other’s tendencies, voices, and timing. As a result, hesitation becomes common — and hesitation, even for half a second, can be the difference between winning and losing a duel.

A prime example occurred during one of this Winter 2025 i9 Season’s Sunday matches: The girls’ team created enough chances to win, but repeatedly lost critical 50/50 balls* because of delayed reactions caused by uncertainty. Moments of indecision such as:

• “Is that ball mine or hers?”

• “Should I go to the ball or wait and see if she is going for it?”

These real-time game examples eventually led to repeated reactive play* instead of proactive play*. Rather than attacking open space and dictating tempo, players found themselves in unnecessary tackles, allowing the opposition to disrupt rhythm and regain possession.

(See email attachment labeled “Parent/Player Educational Information sent out Monday 12-15-25 for more in depth information/definitions of all bolded terms with an asterisk followed for clarification of what each term means).

At higher levels of play, decisive communication eliminates confusion and increases efficiency.

Verbal Communication:

Effective communication includes:

• Calling for the ball when open to receive using a specific teammate’s name (or jersey number),

• Alerting teammates’ to fast-approaching defensive pressure (“MAN ON!”).

• Providing clear, directional, or positional cues (“SQUARE, THROUGH, SUPPORT, IN FRONT, BEHIND ETC.).

• Helping maintain an organized defensive shape throughout each game.

• Most importantly, players must know and use their teammates’ names. Young players often dribble with their heads down, so multiple teammates yelling “PASS” is rarely helpful, sometimes even making things more of a challenge for the player to deliver a successful ball to his/her own teammate,

• Hearing their name along with simple directional information allows the player on the ball to make quicker, easier decisions.

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION:

This includes:

• Body language, eye contact, hand movements, and positioning,

• Creating flow and mutual understanding among teammates and teams as unit.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION:

AKA self-talk. This alone can drastically build a players confidence, focus, and emotional regulation under pressure:

• AS LONG AS IT REMAINS POSITIVE 90% OF THE TIME (AT MINIMUM 90%).

In summary:

Effective communication turns individual players into a connected unit, AKA, an UNSTOPPABLE TEAM-TO-BEAT.

It reduces hesitation, increases trust, and strengthens tactical execution. When athletes learn to communicate clearly with their teammates, coaches parents, and equally as important, themselves, they not only play faster,, individually AND as a team, they even think faster as both.

That id the hallmark of elite soccer intelligence!

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