Research shines new light on football half time team talks
Monday 23 April 2018
THEY’VE been called the most important few minutes of any football match – now a researcher has shone new light on the impact half time team talks have on players.
Dr Andrew Evans, a lecturer in sports psychology at the University of Salford, explored what goes on in the dressing room between coaches and players during those crucial moments – and found making small changes to the language used in half time talks influences how football players think and feel as they head into the second half.
His paper, published in the International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, focused on two equal-ability university teams playing against each other in a 60-minute football match, including some footballers who played semi-professionally.
Actors playing coaches
Dr Evans, who is also a sport psychology consultant, hired two actors to perform the roles of coaches, delivering different team talks as both teams were at nil-nil during the half-time interval.
The first actor delivered a scripted team talk containing several ‘irrational beliefs’. These are described as rigid, extreme and illogical beliefs, associated with negative emotions such as anxiety, shame and guilt, and with unhelpful behaviours such as players obsessing over avoiding making mistakes.
This talk included phrases such as ‘losing is terrible and in the second half there could be nothing worse than to under-perform’ and ‘failure to win the second half would be completely intolerable’.
The second actor gave a scripted team talk containing several ‘rational beliefs’, described as flexible, non-extreme and logical, which are associated with positive emotions such as concern – which is energising – and with helpful behaviours such as players facing up and confronting stress.
Players felt threatened
While players from both teams felt equally motivated for their second half football performance, the players who had received the ‘irrational’ team talk felt significantly more threatened by the second half and were more focused on avoiding failure.
This isn’t about wrapping players in cotton wool, or not reprimanding them about how they’ve played in the first half – it’s about using language that gives players a positive mindset.
Dr Evans said: “Language used during half time team talks is crucial to how players think and feel when heading into the second half so coaches need to be aware of the impact their words can have. This isn’t about wrapping players in cotton wool, or not reprimanding them about how they’ve played in the first half – it’s about using language that gives players a positive mindset.
“If you tell players that the cost of losing will be intolerable, awful, and that if they lose they will have let themselves, their fans, and their teammates down, then players will feel threatened and will have a tunnel vision based around wanting to avoid failure.
“New research in this area shows this is generally an unhealthy mindset to have and will potentially negatively affect a player’s performance on the pitch.”
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