The Science of Halftime Team Talk: Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid Among Those Asking Minute9 to Find the Edge | soccer news

Carlo Ancelotti has won the Champions League five times more than anyone else as a manager, but he still has the will to learn. He recently spent over seven hours discussing the science of halftime team talk with a boutique sports communications company.

Founder Eamon Devlin Minute9His team of four data analysts has delivered several workshops to Europe’s reigning champions, Real Madrid. Perhaps this is a clue to the fact that football has not yet figured out the best way to utilize the most important 15 minutes. Coaching Week.

“People won’t look for a solution unless they think it’s a problem,” Devlin says. sky sports. Still, this is a sport that can be skeptical of new ideas, especially from outsiders. “There can be shame, but the best coaches always find time to learn, especially those based in continental Europe.”

How did an Irish lawyer turned Gaelic football coach end up providing team conversation insight to the most successful manager in European football history? The story began when Devlin’s daughter, Zoe, received a nine-minute rant from her coach while living in Switzerland.

She was 10 years old.

“That was everything to her.” Devlin said. sky sports. “He just left the team and didn’t come back. So I called the company. Minute9.” This is one small anecdote, but Devlin has heard many stories since. “Where do I begin? “Everyone in sports has their own halftime story.”

I have a story to tell. There have been instances where a player has been ordered to take off his shirt before the manager tramples on it to illustrate that an opposing player has all over his body. What about the player who had the temerity to leave the field injured?

“The manager came in, walked straight up to him, picked up an ice pack, threw it at the guy and asked if it was soft.” Horror story or motivational tool? Devlin sees all of this as evidence that managers aren’t fully aware of what’s really working.

It’s almost 30 years since John Sitton’s infamous halftime team talk was caught on camera. The Leyton Orient manager presented one of his players with an expletive-laden addendum that read: ‘Bring your dinner.’ But Sitton was not alone. voice.

“When the team is losing, coaches tend to talk more. We argue that they should talk less. The players’ brains are on fire. They know when they are being assaulted. They probably don’t need anyone. “I’m going to tell them that.”

For personal reasons, Devlin, 46, chose to switch from law to psychology as the subject of her thesis halftime team lecture, but found that literature on the topic was limited. “There were only nine papers published across all sports worldwide.”

He is currently undertaking a PhD on this topic at Leeds Beckett University. His study, “the world’s first football halftime”, includes interviews with former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and England’s World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward. Someone else.

“We interviewed coaches in the U.S. and Australia and expanded the scope of our research to other sports, but similar themes kept coming back. The results weren’t great. The players weren’t overly enthusiastic about what they were hearing at halftime.” It was a missed opportunity.

“Psychological topics made up about 60%. The message was basically ‘work harder’ and we need to do more emotionally stimulating things, but when you do that twice a week in professional football, it’s less effective.”

“We realized there was a pretty big gap between what the players wanted and what the coaches wanted. The players weren’t getting real information. The coaches weren’t involved. That’s not ideal because you could argue these are critical times. “No.”

The key is to make your precious time as impactful as possible. Devlin has found that some sports do this better than others, citing basketball coaches and boxing trainers as some of the most effective people at getting the message across efficiently.

“There are 11 ‘half-times’ in boxing, but there is no time to waffle. There is a very famous Irish boxing trainer, Billy Walsh, who explained to me that an Olympic boxer’s heart rate is between 85 and 100 per cent – maximum for the entire fight.

“It’s basically an 11-minute sprint. There are three rounds and two one-minute breaks. How do you communicate with someone who’s literally trying to survive? You can lower their heart rate pretty quickly by putting your hand on their shoulder. They’re concise. I learned how to let go, and it’s clear.”

Devlin isn’t allowed to reveal the names of most Minute9 customers and doesn’t want to reveal all their secrets for the sake of workshops and long-term team communication assignments, but that’s his key message to every football manager. “Basically, we’re trying to make the team more efficient by cutting out 900 seconds.”

The average halftime speech lasts five and a half minutes. Devlin tries to get that down to 60 seconds. “What we see is coaches losing people by bombarding them with information, and the players just blank out. We try to make sure they’re present and ready to listen.”

He added: “Firstly we try to make sure the players have landed and actually calmed down after the half-time whistle. We develop strategies to help the players because they can be extremely anxious. You won’t hear it for a second. “From stress.”

Devlin even found inspiration beyond sports. “Hospital staff in A&E have to deal with 20 patients coming in at the same time and we have protocols in place for that. We also studied air traffic controllers because they have to make complex decisions,” he explains.

“It’s a particularly high-pressure environment. If an air traffic controller starts shouting bad language at a pilot in the air, their shift won’t end. Your best chance of getting your message across is to be calm and concise.”

Listening helps. “One of the challenges of football is that you have very large coaching teams.” Devlin mentioned one Premier League side having 28 staff for away games. “One of the first things we try to determine is who exactly is in the dressing room,” he says.

“We had chairman, board members, sporting directors, sponsors, shirt signing people, shareholders, bankers. People say it doesn’t matter because they don’t say anything, but that doesn’t mean they don’t communicate.

“The challenge is the power dynamics in the room. Players wonder who’s in charge. As soon as they think that way, they lose attention. Keep it simple. Try to keep the room organized in general. It gives managers more opportunity to be heard. thing.”

One clearly communicated piece of information is more effective than six pieces of information. “The pro and con of the problem is that there is too much information. If you overload your brain with information, it will give up.” And sometimes you don’t even need to put that information into words.

Some people learn better through visuals. “It’s about finding a way to get the message across without using words.” And this has never been more important in a globalized game. “This room is like the United Nations. We need to change the way we communicate beyond giving long speeches in one language.”

So far, it’s been very reasonable. But some of Devlin’s insights are more counterintuitive. For example, although he discourages players from yelling at him, his research suggests that too much positive communication can be too much. It must have real meaning.

“Just saying ‘good job’ can be seen as a form of control to Gen Z. It’s an old bald man judging you. Another problem with ‘good job’ is that you just played soccer for 45 minutes and succeeded. Which of the 300 decisions did you make well?”

Ensuring that feedback is specific is likely to have a greater impact. “A better way would be to say that you have noticed that you have been putting in the work in the gym and that has helped you get a certain number of strikes into the box,” he added.

“That way, you’re not just noting what they did, but you’re highlighting what they did well, so they can try to repeat that. Because the offensive execution is good, they’re going to try to do more. That’s a simplified version, but the point is “You understand.”

Perhaps most surprisingly, Devlin was open to the idea of ​​players being allowed to use their phones during halftime. Checking social media may not be wise, but it can be reassuring to know that your loved ones are safe and well.

“Coaches can block phone use for the right reasons, but when you’re stressed, you scroll through your phone,” he explains. “I get quite anxious when I don’t check in. That’s my way of dealing with stress, and I don’t think I’m the only person in the world who does that.”

It’s a very interesting thought, and Devlin himself doesn’t claim to have all the answers. But in a sport where everyone seeks dominance, it is perhaps inevitable that new approaches to that precious gap will be discussed by forward-thinkers, including Ancelotti.

In the end, the coach’s skills are what matters most. “The best coaches have a variety of records to play at halftime. They can have at least six, ideally more, and it’s important to pick the right coach at the right moment,” Devlin said. says:

Then it’s still art. But there’s a science to halftime team talk, too.

What happened to Joey?

The good news is that daughter Zoe has picked up football again three years after the family moved to England, although she never made it back to the Swiss team. She currently plays for Oxford City Academy and is enjoying the game again.