Chapter 14: SLIPPERY SLOPE – ROOKIE: Surviving Your Freshman Year of College Soccer

As you ponder the type of relationship you want to have with your coach, please heed this bit of warning: Don’t base your relationship on playing time.

Remember when we said that you want your coach to see you as more than just a player? Well, that won’t be possible if you base your relationship on how many minutes you get on the field. If you are going to be friendly when you play and antisocial when you don’t, you’ll never win your coach’s respect. For your coach to value you as more than just a player, you’ll have to value him as more than just a coach. That means you can’t base your entire relationship on his game-day decisions about who plays where and for how long. If playing time is going to be the foundation for how you judge your coach, he is going to distance himself from you in a hurry. To have a positive relationship with your coach, you need to keep playing time in its own compartment.

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