Pep Talks

Effective coaches put teams in the best position to succeed. On a scale of 1 to 10, I put 'pep talks' about 3 on that scale. Maybe it's too low. When playing in a championship game, that's enough motivation. 

I can think of a few instances when it might have helped. Our best player and rebounder was out and I asked everyone for "one more." Get one more rebound. Make one more play and we can win. They did. Maybe they would have played just as hard if just said, "go have fun." 

I think UNC Coach Sylvia Hatchell gave a different halftime speech to her team after a lackluster first half. "Everyone put your hand over your heart. Anybody feel it beating?" They rallied to win. 

Can we measure the impact of a pep talk? Simulated pep talks to athletes affected players. "The experimental group was more inspired by the movie clip [F(1, 139) = 29.06, p < .001], more inspired to perform [F(1, 139) = 24.10, p = .000], and indicated greater emotional dominance [F(1,139) = 7.19, p = 008] than the control group."

A separate question is the impact of emotion versus a few clear instructions.

• "Take care of the basketball. The ball is gold." 
• "Get great shots." 
• "Hold them to "one bad shot.""

With one group of middle school girls that spawned a D1 player, I finished each pregame huddle with this line. 

The girls would answer as one, "Fight!"

I wouldn't have it in me to give this speech to high school girls. Before your biggest game, could you unleash it on your team? 

Lagniappe. Arm swing detail (tip: get cellphone video of yours. You can upload it to YouTube and study it in slow motion.)