Response to overcoming fear on the field.

To summarize the question, “How do I build up my confidence and not feel afraid on the field?”

A wise man once said that “Good judgement comes from experience…and experience comes from – bad judgement.”

You have to play the game.  It is important to try and even to fail.  We ask ourselves a lot more questions when we fail.  When we succeed, if we ask ourselves at all, sometimes we misdiagnose the reasons for our success.  Losing hurts, but winning can sometimes be very misleading.

I recommend playing small-sided games.  4vs4, 3vs3, 2vs2, etc.  The smaller the numbers, the more involvement is required from each player and the puzzle is simpler to solve.  Once a player understands the game’s principles, the numbers can be expanded closer to actual match conditions without a drop in quality.

I see a lot of players who panic when they get the ball.  Because of their discomfort, many avoid the ball and try to hide.  A soccer team has no room for passengers.  While the object of any game is to win, the whole point of playing games is to have fun.  This is true for everything from soccer to Monopoly to hopscotch.  If you play in a competitive environment without training, it’s like choosing not to study for a big test in school.  You will naturally feel stressed because you are not properly prepared.  The trouble is that this leads to bad habits on the soccer field.  Players who play at a competitive level that far exceeds their ability level adopt a very low-risk style of play.  They kick the ball as far as possible up the field out of desperation rather than learning to control the ball and pass.  Habits like this shape the very personality of the player and it takes work to reverse them.  So there are mental as well as technical consequences.  This problem has reached epidemic proportions in youth soccer in the US and far beyond.
For a true learning environment, you must be able to play without the fear of failure.  Fear is a negative emotion that paralyzes the player.  You can never play your best when overcome with fear.
You have to know that this cannot be solved in 3 hours and probably not even 3 days.  But you could begin to feel a difference in 3 weeks.  If you enjoy playing the game you have all the time in the world.