GAME DAY  - HALF-TIME

SUGGESTED TIME-LINE

  • 1st - 5 minutes - Recovery and Hydration

  • 2nd - 5 minutes - Team talk General Rules

    • Try and ensure players are sitting in their working groups i.e. Defenders, Mid-Fielders and Forwards.

    • Limit topics discussed to a maximum of 3 Moments within the game.

    • Try and relate the information to the pre-game team talks where you have hopefully referred to the session completed that week or cycle. This creates consistency in your messages and then allows you to build on the players understanding of the principles of play.

    • Substitutes usually know where they are going on and who they are going on for before half-time. We have specific conversations with them about what we are trying to improve while the first half is under way. We usually wait until we have talked to the team to make subsitutes so all players are focused on what is being said.

  • 3rd - 5 minutes - Individual discussions with players & player to player discussions

An example of a process to evaluate the half-time team talk

Task to try 

  • Watch the video on creating the most influential you, and follow the suggestion within it to write down what can you see, then hear and then feel/understand ?

  • Once you have evaluated the talk, then observe the 1st half-time talk below and considered what you would write and say back to this coach, do it on your own or ideally with a peer.

  • Compare it to the feedback from this coaches mentor which is next to the video on the right side below.

    • This need to be considered in relation to the coaches working environment which is youth development.

    • The feedback provided by the mentor is an excellent, it is not exhaustive but just enough for this coach to go back and work on.

    • Remember too much information is probably worse than not enough.

EXAMPLE 2 

The Half time speech was well prepared and thought out, I have made some comments only to fine tune, the question always has been when do you do the half time subs before or after the speech, obviously the choice is for the coach, if you do them at the start of the speech the ones who have come off will switch off, if you do them at the end then the players coming in need to remember what was said about the position they are taking over.  

You are more relaxed, try not to look too seriuos but good body language.

  1. Good starting with positives

  2. Board set up showed the picture,( maybe get the assistant to hold the board for you).

  3. Good demo of the first press and opening the lane to the full back, if the winger goes to the CB can the FB go 50/50 and get the CB's and opposite FB to slide across ( you addressed this later on in the speech but you did not move the magnets to show it, show the movement rather than talk about it. I think it was Georgia who you wanted to move across if the FB defended further up the field.

  4. Good Q&A with the players

  5. Good getting the injured players to get involved, I am sure you clarified with her what info to deliver with the picture on the board.

  6. Good demo showing the FB to play in behind, good information delivered in this moment.

The talk was easy to understand, appropriate information and not information overload.

Body positioning is critical for effective feedback

Studies have varied on the actual percentage, but it is commonly reported that 65% of the population are visual learners (Mind Tools, 1998) - while some studies suggest that up to 80% are NOT oral learners. Yet 80-90% of instruction is delivered orally. The gold standard for feedback in most sporting environments is video footage, but for many its just not possible to do it for so many different reasons.

One of the most commonly used visual aids a coaches will utilise in actual practice will be the classic whiteboard, Sharpie (whiteboard-maker) and/or whiteboard magnets.  However the humble whiteboard and round magnets outlined above does not show players the orientation or body position of the moment. This lack of detail leads to ineffective teaching and can on occasions create confusion. The ideal is to create the exact situation as it happens, in every detail possible and the importance of body positioning is critical to recreating the actual scene. The evolution of the simple magnet below will assist coaches in delivering their messages during the framing sessions, pre-match talks and also half-time talks. Give it a go and see how it impacts the transfer of information between the coach and player.