• Have you ever been misunderstood when communicating with someone?

• Have you ever made a comment you regretted?

• Do you ever find yourself talking more than you listen?

• Have you ever misinterpreted someone else?

Most of us can relate to at least one of these situations. Think about all the various ways we communicate on a given day: from the first person we tell good morning, to evaluating game tape, to resolving a conflict with a friend, and to conveying a workout regimen during practice. All of these examples require you to use communication skills.

Communication in sports is an essential skill that teams must have to be successful. The administration, coaches, training staff, team leaders, and the players all need to use healthy communication skills to be on the same page and help the team move towards achieving their goals.

Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

When we think about communication, we usually think of verbal communication. Examples:

• a coach yelling “shoot the ball” during a practice

• a coach giving a pep talk during halftime

• teammates talking about game strategy

Verbal communication is the foundation of a healthy team because relationships with teammates and coaches are often built through conversations. When we use effective communication skills, it can help us fine-tune game strategies and build trusting connections within the team.

However, we often forget about nonverbal communication. We are always giving and receiving nonverbal signals with our bodies whenever we work with others, like:

• the hand gestures we make

• the way we sit

• how loud we talk and the tone we use

• how close we stand to others

• how much eye contact we give

Nonverbal communication can send strong messages in any setting. Encouragement and dissatisfaction can be communicated without saying a word. But in the world of sports, nonverbal communication is even more essential because we rely on it during training and games. For example, when players or coaches want to make changes in position or strategy, they often use signaling instead of speaking. Maybe it is a specific hand gestures, facial expression, winking, or body language.

The key to healthy verbal and nonverbal communication is for the messages to be interpreted by others the way the way we intend. Sometimes, what we say with words and what we communicate nonverbally are two totally different messages. When faced with mixed messages, teammates and coaches have to choose whether to believe our verbal or nonverbal message resulting in misunderstandings.

If we want to be good communicators, it’s important for us to not only become more sensitive to the nonverbal cues of others but also to our own.

Quick Tip

A quick tip that can help improve our ability to be an effective communicator is to keep our verbal and nonverbal messages consistent. When communicating with someone, take a moment to make sure that your nonverbal communication (body language, eye contact, posture) and verbal messages are the same to avoid others receiving conflicting messages. For example, if you are telling a coach that you agree their decision but your hands are on your hips and you are looking at the ground, they may have a hard time believing you.

If interested, providers at Tackett and Bradstreet can give you more tips, help you work on understanding your communication style, and help improve your communication skills to better enhance your performance and achieve your goals.

-Jacob Daheim, MA

Quote of the Day: “Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication” ~ Mike Krzyzewski

Joke of the Day: Do you want to hear a construction joke?...

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