Winning the second half: The perceived and actual impact of the coach's half-time speech on basketball players’ performance

Abstract

This study was designed to explore coaches’ half-time speeches and whether players perceive these speeches as having an impact on their performance later in the game. A mixed-methods convergent design was used. Participants were nine male basketball players aged 19–34 (M = 27, SD = 4.76) from a team playing in the Israeli Basketball Premier League, as well as their head coach (aged 41) and two assistant coaches (aged 51 and 34). Data were collected on the coach's speeches at half-time in games during the regular season. In addition, face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the players and the two assistant coaches were conducted at midseason. The average speech duration was approximately 3 min, and messages were delivered at an average pace of one theme every 13 s. The most frequent theme was psychological, with more negative themes delivered compared to positive ones. Psychological themes appeared 50% more than informational. We discuss the differences in the features of the talks between games in which the team was trailing at half-time, and games in which they reached half-time with a leading score. A surprising gap exists between the participants’ perception regarding the contribution of the half-time speech to players’ performance, and the actual score at the end of the game.

The half-time talk: A mixed-method examination of youth-elite football coaches’ behaviours and team-management strategies

“…(Amador, U13) Changes in coach tone and volume during talks have been perceived as powerful tools for affecting emotions amongst male and female team-sport athletes. 4,41 In this study, all participants described their approach of regulating volumes and tones to strengthen or attenuate the meaning of the same message, which is expected to avoid speeches' monotony. 37 Likewise, Rafael (U18's) suggested that tactical instructions required pauses for facilitating player understanding 36 and Rogelio (U14's) affirmed varying his discourse's speed to hide or expose negative feedback to the group or selected individuals.…”

“…First, because coaches have limited ability to accurately recall game events, 51 conferring their views with their staff before entering the changing room might enable a more accurate revision of the first half and planning the talk. This meeting could potentially remove some emotion from coaches 4,8 and enable them to prepare a more objective message that meets the player needs, 41,52 regardless of the score.…”

“…Coaches have been observed employing a more positive approach during winning game-breaks, 5,11 and increasing and decreasing psychological units and tactical-content time during losing half-times. 4 In addition, coaches' non-verbal expressions can be an indicator of the current score during games. Indeed, participants with varied football experience have accurately recognised far and close wins/loses based on coaches' non-verbal expressions during selected sequences of real elite games.…”

“…Whilst the impact of half-time talks on players has recently been examined in basketball 4 , understanding of coaches' complete verbal activity during this period and with players of various development stages is still scarce. In fact, previous literature has claimed that leaders (i.e., coaches) are typically defined by the outcomes achieved on their followers (i.e., players) rather than their actual behaviours.…”

“…2 For example, Lorenzo et al 3 identified that basketball coaches use more elaborate instructions and questions during these periods than during the game. Although the half-time interval in football is the only occasion enabling a prolonged interaction with players throughout the game, 4 previous studies have examined the type of messages provided during combined game-break types. 5, 6 However, only a few have specifically addressed the perceived factors underpinning coaches’ half-time delivery qualitatively, 7,8 and no attempts have systematically observed the full spectrum of behaviours employed by elite youth football coaches during half-time.…”