- I'm going to react to the famous locker room speech
that Kurt Russell gives in the hockey movie, "Miracle,"
about real life events.
This is my first reaction to a speech from a movie.
Kurt Russell plays Herb Brooks,
the real life coach of the 1980 US team
and he gives a locker room speech just before their big game
against the dominant and undefeated Soviet team.
Now, in most cases, movie speeches are clearly scripted
by somebody in Hollywood.
I only looked into this a little bit,
but more than one source said that this is the actual text
of the speech that Herb Brooks gave, the real life coach,
on the day, in the locker room.
So, if that's true, this speech borders on prophetic,
because everything he says before the game comes true.
Now, I personally can't confirm or deny
if these are the actual words,
and I'm sure that Kurt Russell delivers this in his own way.
But if anybody watching knows the real answer about this
feel free to comment on that below.
Either way, this movie speech is famous for a reason.
We'll watch the whole thing and I'll give you my breakdown
of what makes it so great and maybe you can apply some
of the same insights to your own communication.
- Great moments
are born from great opportunity.
And that's what you have here tonight, boys.
That's what you've earned here tonight.
One game.
If we played 'em 10 times, they might win nine.
But not this game.
Not tonight.
Tonight, we skate with them.
Tonight, we stay with them.
And we shut them down because we can.
Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world.
You were born to be hockey players.
Every one of you.
And you were meant to be here tonight.
This is your time.
Their time is done.
It's over.
I'm sick and tired of hearing about
what a great hockey team the Soviets have.
Screw 'em. This is your time.
Now go out there and take it.
- So, that's amazing.
He created that level of impact
with a total of just 124 words,
and he does five things really well here.
We'll start with the basics and lead up to the last one,
which is the most important one.
So first, his conciseness makes him sound confident.
He uses really concise sentences
and that makes everything he says sound like the truth.
So, here are his first three sentences,
seven words, eight words, six words.
Some of his sentences are just two words.
- One game. Not tonight.
It's over. Screw 'em.
- It doesn't get any more concise than that
and it takes effort to shave words off
to make things that tight.
But when you're concise
every word matters and you'll sound more confident.
Second, his pauses sound confident as well.
We're still talking about basics,
but his pauses make a huge impact.
After every single sentence he pauses silently.
No fillers, no um, no uh.
He's using, at least, two and three second pauses,
after every sentence.
I counted some pauses that were five,
and even six seconds, long.
If you were giving a presentation
and your heart was pounding
and you paused for five seconds
that silence would feel like an eternity.
But you can see how powerful it is for listeners.
We're hanging on every word
and he's walking comfortably around the locker room
and that motion signals he's not done talking yet
and he hasn't forgotten what he's saying
during those pauses.
Together, a concise statement followed by a good pause,
lets each idea stand out and sink in.
That pattern, that combination, creates a rhythm
to the entire message that draws us in.
Third, he uses lots of parallel structure and repetition.
This gives his message momentum
and it's a bit more advanced.
Great writers and speakers create parallel structure
by repeating key words, important phrases
or repeating a grammatical structure.
Notice he repeated the words "tonight" and "we"
followed by an action verb.
- Tonight, we skate with them.
Tonight, we stay with them.
And we shut them down because we can.
Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world.
- The coach uses this technique to create momentum
and drill his message into his players' minds.
He says "tonight," seven times in the entire speech.
There's no way they can miss his message.
"Tonight is your time. Go out there and take it."
Fourth, he speaks right to their individual hearts.
He spends most of the time talking about his team,
the whole team, and he's very team focused, as a coach,
but he also speaks to them even more personally
near the end.
- You were born to be hockey players.
Every one of you.
And you were meant to be here tonight.
- It's easy to imagine how some players in the room,
at the moment, might not feel, personally,
up to this challenge.
So, he tells them directly, they were each born for it.
Great communicators, like this, speak to the minds
and the hearts of individuals.
And fifth, it's the most important thing he does
in this speech, and it's the thing that makes it legendary,
he speaks directly to the needs
of the listeners in the moment.
That's the secret sauce
to all the great speeches in history.
They speak to the unique
and specific urgencies of the situation.
This is not an off-the-shelf speech.
He's not talking about patriotism
or winning for your country.
He's not talking about making their families
or hometowns proud or getting glory.
Those are not the urgent needs of his players.
He's speaking to their doubt, insecurity
and fear of losing, that he knows they have.
He knows that each player needs to believe
that the guys in that room have what it takes
to beat this opponent in this game.
They need to know that their coach believes
they have a legitimate opportunity
to beat a historically dominant team.
If they don't believe that, then they've already lost.
And here's where the coach finds the perfect angle.
Now, finding the right angle for a message is
a huge challenge.
He doesn't say you're gonna win
because you're the better team, generally.
They would've never believed him.
In fact, he sort of acknowledges the opposite.
He says, if you played 10 times, the Soviets might win nine.
But the genius twist, the angle he finds on this message
is that those other nine games don't even matter.
They only need to win one game.
One of those 10, and that's tonight's game.
- Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world.
- No ordinary off-the-shelf locker room speech
was going to make any difference on that night.
He changed their minds with only 124 words,
so they could each say to themselves,
before they went out there, we are going to win this game.
It takes a lot of insight to speak
to the urgent needs of your listeners.
You have to know what it's like to be in their shoes.
Know what makes their heart beat faster
and find these specific words to solve that riddle.
And I take my hat off to Kurt Russell
for bringing this thing to life.
He crushed it.
And what are your thoughts?
Let me know below.
And I'm thinking of doing a series
on great speeches from movies like this.
Let me know what you think of that idea
and feel free to suggest some other movie speeches.
And be sure to download the free PDF in the description
with these seven instant tips
to become a more confident speaker.
Until next time, thanks, God bless, and I will see you soon.