Watch a bunch of sports related movies and sooner or later you will come across a scene with a powerful pregame speech that has everyone ( including you the viewer ) ready to ran out onto the playing surface ready to run over everyone and everything in order to win. Whether your preferred scene is Knute Rockne's "Win one for the Gipper " or Al Pacino's pregame speech from Any Given Sunday ( or any of the many in between and since. truth is that more often than not, pregame speeches do not have the inspirational effect the make movies memorable but expectation in real life sports hard to live up to.
So, for all you coaches out there, I want you to think about your own pregame speeches. In my experience, they are often repetitive, with coaches saying things like “we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do”, “stick to the plan”, “treat this like it’s life or death”, and so on. There are probably thirty standard cliché versions that coaches often use. However, my goal for you is to think about your own pregame speech and how you can make it most effective for its intended purpose. From my own experience, the purpose of a pregame speech has two primary purposes, summarize important strategic points and motivate/inspire the athletes to perform well. However, is this actually the goal? No, seriously, is this the reason why you usually give a speech? Do you even know why you give a pregame speech? Some coaches do it just because they feel that they “have” to, because it is what is done before a game. Just imagine the scene, there are a bunch of faces starting at you. You and your team are gathered on the grass next to the field, in the locker room ready to head out onto the field, ice, court or whatever is your playing surface. The game is about to start and it’s time for the pregame speech. Whether you coach Little Leaguers, high schoolers, or even an elite team, the pregame speech is a much anticipated way to get every game started on the right foot. The pregame speech is your last chance to remind players of the end goal and get them psyched to put their practice into play. Recognize that many coaches give a fired-up motivational speech before a game because they are nervous or because they are excited for the game. However, some of your players might not need to get fired up and would prefer to just relax or spend time alone. As a coach, part of your responsibility is understanding the needs of your players. Try to understand what their desired physical and mental states are prior to the game. Your goal should be to help them get into those states. I, myself, never considered myself specifically great at giving that memorable pregame speech. I tried to focus on very specific bullet type points that brought together all the preparation we might have put in for the upcoming game and added some form of inspirational anecdote or story. Over the course of 27 years, my pregame speeches evolved and changed and one of the most important things I learned was that what might work with one group, one season, didn't always work again the following year even if most of the team might remain the same. It was about finding that "it" that worked to get the players ready to play and understanding that a 10 minute pregame speech wasn't going to suddenly make the players that much better or more prepared. So, as you think about your own next pregame speech, whether it is tomorrow or in six months, think about what your players actually need to hear. Don’t throw just more information at them that they can’t handle at that time. Know what you’re going to say before game day. If you are a volunteer coach for your child’s youth team, you may not need to spend all week preparing the perfect speech, but a little preparation can go a long way. Spend some time after each practice writing down a couple things that the team can focus on and summarize your list before the next game. For elite level or university type coaches, you may even go as far as having an assistant give you feedback before delivering the speech at game time. Keep it short and simple. If your goal is to help your athletes perform well, give them a few points to remember and that’s it. At that point, right before a game, many of your athletes want to be doing their own thing and may not even be listening to you. Don’t take that time away from them. Also, it is very unlikely that you are going to be able to motivate your athletes any more than they already are. Trust that your days and weeks of practice have prepared them; don’t try to do it in 5 minutes before the game. Give them one to two final pieces of information – strategic, instructional information. Give your team a couple strategic points they know and have been working on. You don’t want to distract them with information that should be saved for practice. Any reminders belong at the beginning of the speech, then an emotional message, and consider wrapping it up with a routine unique to the team to mark the end of the speech, such as a team handshake. Don’t introduce any new information. This is a time when you want to be able to reinforce prior messages, not introduce new ones. You want your athletes to be getting more focused on what they need to do to perform their best, so you don’t want to add more information to that, potentially causing information overload or overthinking their performance. Players should already be motivated from days and weeks of practice. The speech should be about purpose. The goal is to inspire a positive mental focus. Leave some time after your speech. Some players need to relax and have quiet time before games, others have a more energetic routine. Allow your players to get what they need before games. This will allow the athletes and yourself to get into the proper mindset. Your athletes could use this time to listen to music, pump themselves up, do some stretching and moving about, or to sit quietly and relax to get themselves focused. You can also use this time to focus on your own needs, your own anxieties, and your own strategy. Here’s a time when you can get yourself mentally ready, by focusing on your needs and those of your assistant coaches. You focus on what you need to focus on (strategy, anxiety, etc.) and let the athletes focus on what they need to have focus on. Some coaches have fiery speeches in their blood, others don’t. Don’t try to be a type of coach that you are not, your players will see right through you. Make it about the athletes and/or or about your opponent. Don’t make it about yourself. The pregame speech should pull your players together to work as a team. Remind players the importance of being good sports – no matter what happens on the field. Players should always respect the umpires, their opponents, and coaches. See how your athletes respond to your new and improved speech- you may see a new side of your team in the game that follows. So some take-aways, be precise, be positive, be focused in the choice of your words and in the tone of your message. Don't overload the athletes with information and trust that you have prepared them during training to be ready to play. Most importantly, be yourself and don't try and live up to the image of those great inspirational pregame speeches you might have seen on TV. And don't even get me started on half time talks.... ok maybe I will cover that another day.
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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