One of the most important jobs of the head coach is to encourage his team at halftime when they are behind. Turnovers, negative plays, blocked kicks and poor tackling can lead to a halftime deficit. But how does the coach rally his troops? Does he blast their performance? Does he need to stay calm and encourage them to keep playing? No one was better at the halftime rhetoric than Vince Lombardi in the 1960’s. He used a combination of criticism and motivation to send his team out in the second half with a different mental attitude and sell them a plan to win the game in the fourth quarter.
Sometimes what a team needs at halftime is not a change of blocking scheme or a new defensive alignment. Sometimes what they need is to be reminded who they are and what they are about. They need to remember why they play and that a team is much more powerful than a group of individuals.
Take a lesson from Lombardi and work on your halftime pep talk for next season.