Let's talk about confidence a moment, seriously.
I realize it is important to give encouragement whenever possible, particularly with a developing player. Find something they do well, like say he is a clearing or GB machine. And generally be much more positive than negative.
But let's say they have a bad habit, like striding when they need to be sprinting from FO wings or snatching at ball rather than receiving the ball with soft hands or hanging their stick and not keeping it tight to body or taking soft sidearm shots. If they just won't improve it, after 1on1 instruction and explanation again and again, what do you do? You can't have drill after drill for entire team to fix the bad habits of a few. Yet there is no question that harping on it hurts their confidence. Yet if those bad habits aren't fixed, they aren't effective on field so it would be false confidence anyway.
I have this problem with a few kids, probably because I coach in a non-hotbed area where we have to take and try to develop some B players with potential in order to have a single-year A team. We've had very good luck turning B players into A players, but some just don't seem to improve and it's mostly a matter of bad habits. | 
