My son was the recipient of a half-time rant on the sideline from his football coach the other week. The team were playing badly against lower opposition. The coach swore in every sentence. ‘F***’ was used as a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb.*
I turned to a fellow parent and said, ‘Would that motivate you?’
‘Nope,’ he said.
‘Me neither.’
My son hung his head while the two assistant coaches then chipped in with their comments. The team trudged back onto the pitch and eventually lost 0-1 (note that none of the players were given the opportunity to speak).
* The coach had the decency to message me later that evening to apologise and said, ‘The words weren’t aimed at Jack.’
Why do football coaches think that a rant will help improve performance?
Part of it is mythology. ‘My gaffer shouted at me, so I’m doing it to you.’ Part of it may be shoddy journalism and lazy movie-making of the ‘Coach as autocrat’ variety.
Part of it is them thinking it works (when really the players’ peformance is a regression to the mean):
Part of it is frustration on the coach’s part and not having the emotional intelligence to realise that they have lost control (see hints below).
The rant never worked for me (in karate and weightlifting): it’s done the opposite. I need to feel like I’m a world beater when I step onto the mat/platform, not like a worthless human being.
I’m not alone.
“Mundane, repetitive, and forgettable.” The headline thoughts were from a qualitative investigation of elite Gaelic football players' perceptions of half-time team talks.
The study came up with three headline findings:
a) Most half-time talks fail players on a basic level. 13 of 14 participants were dissatisfied. Common complaints: too little time to physically recover before the coach starts talking (some studies show players get as little as 2 minutes alone before the coach enters a 10-minute break); too much information; recycled clichés; talks blurring into “a monotonous haze.” One player compared it to “a podcast I didn’t subscribe to.”
b) Harsh feedback causes real harm, not just discomfort. Players described being humiliated in front of teammates, and some recalled childhood incidents (one player was 11 years old, 31 years before the interview, and still remembered a coach mocking his request to be substituted). Only a minority found criticism motivating (“prove the coach wrong”); most just mentally “shut down” to cope. This directly matters for your youth-coaching audience — this is about long-term psychological impact on young athletes, not just performance on the day.
c) What players actually want: trust in the coach as a precondition for anything else landing; more praise (three of the 14 said they’d never received positive feedback at half-time); concise, forward-looking, solution-focused instruction rather than a re-run of the first half; visual aids (tactics boards, video clips — “one freeze-frame can explain what seven minutes of talking can’t”); and, when the moment calls for it, storytelling rather than data.
The single most memorable talk described in the whole study was a coach admitting vulnerability at 9 points down: “I got it wrong. The gameplan wasn’t right. But you can put it right.”
A coach admitting vulnerability!
What can be done instead?
I recently hosted a seminar presented by Dr Barry Davis (author of the excellent ‘Old Dog, New Tricks’). Barry described a three-point framework to help with coach/player reflection. I thought it might transfer well to half-time talks.
Well Better How?
Well? Start with a positive. Something went well. Some player must have tried hard, or done a decent skill. Heck, I even once told players that at least the pitch was nice and the sun was shining!
Better? What needs to improve? Passing, communication, effort, tackling? This applies whether the side is winning or losing.
How? The key point. What can they do to make a difference? Be specific and keep it limited. They won’t remember a dozen points, they may not remember three. But if each player does one thing better, the whole team performance will elevate.
I know when I am performing badly. I don’t need that reinforced. If the red mist has descended and I’m struggling with emotions in the cauldron of competition, I need a clear, calm voice, giving me specific guidance.
My son is the same. I expect your players are, too.
Why not try using: Well? Better ? How?
at your next half-time talk. And why not ask your players these questions too (or at least the senior players)?
Can you even remember a half-time talk you were given?
I usually try using the good ol' sandwich method... positive, negative, positive, regardless of winning or losing.
Yet there are times in which it's hard to find two positives and I'd rather not stretch out some BS, so if that's the case it's usually an open faced upsidedown sandwich two negatives and a good, while keeping it short and getting them back out to warmup.
They were on the court, they can read the scoreboard, they know what's going on, why bury them even more.
One thing I try to encourage is a player lead program. So having them, at halftime, before the coaching staff comes in, is take ownership for the first half. We have a markerbaord in the locker room and it is divided into 3 good and 3 "need improvement" areas for the second half. Lets me come in and now I as the coach have to take a second to read it before speaking. It gives me an idea of where the players are at and then maybe I don't have to overload with information for a big second half turnaround.