How to Get Motivated for a New Soccer Season After Winter Break

The holidays are officially over. Winter break has given you some much-needed R&R, but now it’s time to get ready for your upcoming season. However, you may find it hard to get back into the swing of the soccer season routine after the long holiday break.

Here are a few tips to help motivate players for the upcoming season:

Impress college recruiters

The spring semester is more than just the start of soccer season. For many seniors and even juniors, it’s the time when you start thinking about what college you want to go to in the fall and of course what team you want to play for. However, soccer coaches have their eyes on athletes of all grade levels of high school soccer.

According to Athnet, soccer coaches are evaluating athletes in the eighth and ninth grades, and the top recruits are making their verbal commitments to programs during their sophomore year.

Since soccer coaches aren’t allowed to actively begin contacting athletes and offering them soccer scholarships until near the end of their junior year, athletes from freshmen to seniors should be prepared to give their all during the start of the season!

Up your health and fitness levels

Sometimes staying away from the amazing holiday desserts and skipping out on your second or third plate of Christmas dinner can be hard. Don’t sweat it!

Use your upcoming soccer practices and workouts to counteract any bad eating choices you may have made during the holidays.

Improve your skills

Take it a step further and use the new season to improve your soccer stats from the previous season. Shave minutes off of your running time to be able to handle the field easily.

For goalies, have your best striker kick as many balls as they can and see if you can stop more than you could last year. Practice new dribbling and kicking techniques. Perfect your craft this season!

Beat your rivals

This can be especially important to seniors who won’t have another opportunity to do so. Regardless of whether or not you’ve beaten them before and want to keep up the winning streak or if you want to finally defeat your school’s rival, it’s important to visualize the win. Allow that to motivate you following winter break!

Impress your coach

Having the right attitude and going the extra mile at the start of the season can win you brownie points with your coach. Imagine being the person who manages to pull the entire team out of a winter break slump. Taking initiative and assisting the coach can possibly earn you the spot as captain. You never know!

If you use these tips during the upcoming season, then feel free to let us know how it worked out for you in the comments section. Enjoy your upcoming season, socceristas!

Featured Image via Adobe Stock @DANLIN Media GmbH

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