Women's coaches give players more than direction, building strength, confidence, motivation

Competition in college soccer demands a complete effort from players and coaches. For the IU women's team, its drive this season is founded on confidence and a strong work ethic.\nThe Hoosiers are in mid-season form and have developed a fitness level that keeps them strong throughout the entire game, coach Mick Lyon said.\nLyon credits the intensity and pace of practices to the condition of his players. Lyon said he uses tactics like increasing the tempo, reducing the number of touches and reducing the size of the playing field to make his team play faster and react more quickly to tough situations.\nSenior co-captain forward Kristen Sprunger said keeping focused while working in the weight room has helped the team as well.\n"We call it neck up training, that when you're physically tired and you know that you can't move, you still have to be mentally strong," Sprunger said. \nLyon said mental mistakes start to happen when players get tired, therefore the team must maintain a high level of awareness to succeed. \n"We just concentrate on keeping our heads in the game and paying attention and not letting our fatigue take over our minds too," Sprunger said. "On the field, it gets intense but we know that we have to capture that and not let it get out of control. If you get too intense on the field when you're down then you start telling people to do things they shouldn't."\nDealing with pressure has become a bigger issue as the team faces more ranked opponents in its Big Ten schedule. Lyon said he tries to build self-confidence in his players so they feel able to combat the harsh realities of Big Ten play. \nLyon said players have commented to him that they feel like the coaching staff provides them with a wealth of information not only on the opposition but also on what they personally need to work on and how to improve. Lyon said he thinks that by providing solutions to each individual's problem, players leave practice with a greater confidence in the fact that they can get better.\nThe coaching staff uses varied motivational techniques before games and in practice.\n"We get them excited to play. We get them up for games and they know that we're on their side and we're living every moment with them," Lyon said. "We want them to know that we're working really hard for them."\nSometimes they need to take different approaches to account for the players' dispositions.\n"You gauge the mood of the players on the day, sometimes you make an emotional appeal, sometimes you just fire them up, sometimes you get them angry, sometimes you use reason, there's a ton of different things," assistant coach Ian Rickerby said.\nRickerby also noted that by forcing the players to compete against each other in practice, they develop an attitude that mirrors game conditions. He said that in some cases that has been a problem however.\n"If you and I are teammates and roommates, I'm probably not going to smack you hard in practice because we have to live together," Rickerby said. "When it comes down where we're keeping score and making everything competitive, that's when you really see the extra edge."\nSprunger agreed that competition has improved the level of intensity during practices.\n"One thing he does is makes everything a competition. And that's huge, that really gets us motivated," Sprunger said.\nWhile the congenial atmosphere of the team during practice can annoy the coaches at times when they want to see effort, Rickerby noted that games is where it really counts.\n"It's amazing how nice they can be to each other in practice and how evil they can be to people they're playing against," Rickerby said. "As long as that's happening, then we can live with it"