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Post by zherteltherrien on Oct 24, 2011 12:22:25 GMT -6
What are some of the best pre-game speeches or motivation tactics you have seen/used?
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Post by coachfd on Oct 24, 2011 13:14:40 GMT -6
Our team motto is "Perfect Attitude - Perfect Effort." It's what we base everything on... the fact that if you give your absolute best level of focus and effort, then everything else will take care of itself. Focus on excellence, and success will result. We have given every member of our team a double-sided laminated card. On one side reads: "Perfect Attitude," followed by a description of what it means to 'play with a perfect attitude.' On the other side reads: "Perfect Effort," followed by what it means to 'play with a perfect effort.'
Before games, we gather in the locker room, and everyone takes out his card... coaches too.
As a football family, we read over (one person/coach reading out-loud) "Perfect Attitude," and then "Perfect Effort." It's our version of the University of Tennessee's "Game Maxims," I guess you could say. But it all comes down to bringing our A-Game. Reading the cards is our way of making a personal commitment to one another to bring a "Perfect Attitude" and a "Perfect Effort" for 4 quarters.
Every minute of every day, we talk to our players and coaches about the things they can control in life... While there are always going to be a lot of things that you can't control in life, you can always control your ATTITUDE and you can always control your EFFORT. More often than not, it is how well an attitude you develop, and how strong an effort you display, that will influence the outcomes you attain. While it is unrealistic to expect a perfect performance every single play, it certainly is possible to play your absolute best, by putting forth your absolute best attitude and absolute best effort. Champions display championship attitude and championship effort... PERFECT Attitude, and PERFECT Effort. This is what it truly means to "Bring Your 'A'-Game."
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PERFECT ATTITUDE
Playing With A Perfect Attitude Means:
Be positive. Be confident—not cocky, but confident.
Be positive. Be confident. Remain positive. Remain confident.
Trust your preparation. Trust yourself. Trust your ability to perform and execute.
Trust your teammates and trust your coaches. Trust everyone to do his job perfectly.
Trust your brothers to give their all. Trust your coaches. Trust everyone around you.
Trust yourself. Trust your preparation. Trust everyone to bring his A game.
Every play. Every day. Every time. All the time.
Have a Perfect Attitude:
Stay Focused. Stay Determined.
Live in the Moment. Be Great in the Moment.
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PERFECT EFFORT
Perfect Effort Means: Give your all, at all times.
Give a positive effort. Give a great effort. Give your best effort.
Give everything you’ve got, and give it every single time.
Every play. Every day. Every time. All the time.
Give your best. Give your most. Give your all.
Pour your heart into the game.
Pour your soul into everything you do.
All play… Every play. Every day. In every way.
Perfect Effort means: Give Your All…
Every time… All the time.
Give a Perfect Effort:
Always Give Your All.
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Post by coachfd on Oct 24, 2011 18:26:16 GMT -6
We've also read the following in the past, right before leaving the locker room.
It is something that one of our coaches wrote... we have a "Friday Night" version and a "Saturday Afternoon" version:
Why I Love Saturday Afternoons In Autumn
It’s Saturday afternoon in autumn... which means that while everybody else in the world will just be relaxing and hanging out like always, I will get to be a part of something special… because Saturday afternoon is game time, and if you're not a part of a football family, then you really can’t understand what that’s like. You really can’t understand what it’s like… to know that you’ve worked harder and invested more than anyone else on the outside will ever work or will ever invest, and you’ve been doing it year-round, with a group of people that you love—with a group of people that you’re linked with forever… and to know that no matter what people think or say, about anything or everything, that neither they, nor their opinions matter for the next three hours… because they haven’t paid the price, and they probably never will. They haven’t paid the price that we have. They haven’t done all the work that we have. They aren’t who we are; they don’t do what we do.
That is why this is a family, that’s why we do all the things we do, and that’s why everything we do we do for each other—why we do everything for one another. Every man in the locker room, every single brick in the wall, every single block in the house… the ten other sets of eyes in the huddle, the 50 other souls in the locker room… Every man… knowing that you’re bound by a common mission, a common will, a common purpose, and a common destiny… Knowing that it’s all part of something far greater than any one person.
Saturday afternoons are the reason we pour our hearts into this game. It means more… it is more, than anyone on the outside could ever understand.
This is our game. This is our family. This is our day. This is our time.
So… turn on the music, lace up those cleats, buckle up that chinstrap, shake out the cobwebs, and get ready to take your place in the halls of Forever...
… It’s time to turn on the lights. It’s time to step on stage. It’s time to be great.
Now is the time. Now is Our Time.
~ Let's go be great, gentlemen.
~ Let's go be great.
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Post by coachfd on Oct 24, 2011 18:45:00 GMT -6
Here's a great 3-minute speech from a California high school coach... awesome stuff:
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Post by coachfd on Oct 24, 2011 18:46:01 GMT -6
And of course, the classic "I Am A Champion" speech:
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Post by pvogel on Oct 24, 2011 22:15:49 GMT -6
coachfd- i agree. that Ed Burke speech is a classic. great coach and great speech.
our kids mostly do it themselves.
we stretch and do defensive warm ups on a separate field. then the kids go to the locker room and drink some gatorade and eat watermelon and get stuff squared away one last time. Then the whole team walks in a mob down the middle of the street to the stadium (almost a block or so). One of the players has a flag with our logo. they chant some stuff while walking down the street.
that seems to get everyone fired up.
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Post by grouchy71 on Oct 25, 2011 0:10:26 GMT -6
First year head coach here. So far through 7 games, I haven't given a pre-game speech. We return to locker room after our warm ups for a 12 minute "alone" time for the players, no coaches allowed. Then we walk to the field. I did suggest that one of our captains say something to the team prior to our most recent game, so at the end of alone time, he spoke his mind for a couple of minutes. As much as I know it's a part of what coaches are "supposed" to do, I abhor the pre-game speech. It doesn't last more than a play, if even that, it's cliched, stereotyped, and does not affect the outcome of a game. You want to have a good chuckle? Tape all of your pre-game speeches and then watch the ones where you end up losing/not playing well. How dopey does that look/sound in retrospect? I've coached with buffoons who are in the coaching business pretty much to be able to bully kids during the week and then mimic Al Pacino on Friday nights. Games are won/lost Monday-Thursday, not for 3 minutes prior to kickoff on Friday nights.
Just my two cents, this is more opinionated than I normally am, but that's my theory. I do think there are better ways to do the pre-game thing than what I do, but I don't think a coach standing up and waxing poetic is it. Anyone else out there do something different?
Grouch
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Post by coachfd on Oct 25, 2011 8:35:33 GMT -6
It should always be based on the moment and the pulse of the team. Some gamedays, teams might need a certain message. Sometimes they might need to be focused in some way, challenged, enfused with confidence, grounded, etc. Sometimes, it's individuals who need a certain message. I always try to get a feel for what certain players might need to hear or see... and then try to give them a personal word some point during pre-game or before kick-off. Some guys don't need to hear a thing--they're ready to go. Stay away from them and let them do their thing.
For the most part, though, motivation has to be short, but frequent: One sentence here, another there... between plays in-game, after another play--keep guys sharp, focused, playing with poise, etc. To tough on the above post: motivation has to be part of the entire process--it starts on Monday afternoon with the open of practice... but it has to continue on until the very end of the game. And then it begins anew, in some way, for "the next one."
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Post by coachwoodall on Oct 25, 2011 9:47:24 GMT -6
We get out of school four hours before KO. We meet right after school and that is when the HC does his pregame speech, so anything that is rah-rah is pretty much lost by kickoff, it is mostly reminders about what needs to be done, along with ST checklists. We then have something that the players do that is usually a whole lot more motivating than any big speech.
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