Demonstrating effective communication concerning athletic performance

Introduction

One of the major functions of an athletic coach is to motivate, train and mentor all the team members to become the best of what they consist.  Therefore, the ability of an athlete to communicate effectively is one of the distinguishing factors of an expert coach (Weinberg & Gould, 2015). A good expert coach will always try to communicate more effectively based on the understanding of the athletes’ perspective.

Types of communications Best Used by Coaches

Verbal Communication

These type of communication allies when a coach communicates orally with the athletes.  Training of athletes should be in the form of teaching instructions whereby an athlete is guided, given instructions and also coached on how he or she should exercise best the specific tactics to emerge a winner.  This form of passing information engulfs a crucial conversation between a coach and the athletes that try to make to make a discussion of the athlete way of performance and the best available improvements that are needed before a given event.  Verbal communication impacts on the emotions of an athlete which in turn influences the athlete motivation and readiness to perform in a given event (Borland, Burton, & Kane, 2014).

Non-verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication entails the uncommunicated messages from catches.  As identified before, coaches are the role models employee look upon. At the same time, they influence employee ways of performance through what they do and what they say. Saying is verbal, and action is a nonverbal which is expressed by the use of non-verbal cues while coaching an athlete.  Usually, all humans have a way of interpreting a given non-verbal cue and well understand the meaning of that cue (Cha & Chang, 2016).  Likewise, athletes interpret the moods of a coach through the nonverbal cues that are routinely expressed by a coach, especially at different circumstances.   The nonverbal cues include the body language, eye contact, and facial expression.

Written Communication

Written communication entails written messages sent by the coach or an athlete. These messages are sent through emails, training manuals, and operating policies.   When a coach gives out policies and requirement for athletes training, they are encouraged to use these form of communication in which they issue out templates of a training manual to all the athletes (Cha & Chang, 2016). This communication type is usually asynchronous, and it is used by a coach to communicate one single message in a uniform way to all the athletes or other intended parties within the team.

Types of listening to

The type of listening is insentiently decided through the influenced perceptions of what the athletes think about the coach. Likewise, is influenced by the circumstances binding the athletes, the motivation of the athlete and the value the athlete attaches towards the upcoming event. The athlete, as any human being will form preconceived conclusions of the actual event depending on the motivations and the actual preparedness, the athlete has got from the coach. Therefore, different listening styles are applied by an athlete. These styles include

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Informational Listening.

Usually, athlete training entails a lot of learning instructions as directed by the coach (Haff & Triplett, 2015). The attentiveness given by each athlete to listen to the instructions and get information as directed by the coach is one way of informational listening.

Critical listening

Critical listening is a much more active behavior than informational listening. Athlete gives this listening under the circumstances of evaluating the core agendas expressed by the coach at the same time internalizing them to make a viable decision as a person that will help in an event performance.

Therapeutic or empathic listening

Usually, and as indicated before, that attitude and emotions of a coach influence substantially the performance of an athletic team.   All athlete tries to understand the feelings and emotions of the coach giving and empathic listening.   The emotional bond with the coach, the sense of fear from the disappointment has made many of athletes fight for a winning chance in most events

The barrier to effective listening

Distraction

The barrier consists of physical, mental, auditory and visual. Too over the barriers, athletes are required to maintain focus on the instruction given by the coach and avoid other tools during train session that can destroy the use of phone and other and cameras.

Faking attention

Usually, those athletes who fake attentions just hear what the coach say, but they do not listen as identified from the three types of listening (Cha & Chang, 2016).

Noise

This barrier is common although, in the sports events, cheering is accepted.  During coach training, the athletes are required to give attention and listen keenly without any destruction, or noise. The reverse happens in sporting events where players positively need cheering voices to motivate their participation.

Sandwich approach

The sandwich approach provides a systematic way of constructive criticism that best applies when rectifying the behaviors of a person, in this case, an athlete. It requires a coach to start with positive feedback on the athletes more especially the latest event they performed. This step is liked to a slice of bread 1. The next step, preferably the “meat of the matter,” includes the provision of constructive criticism. It requires a coach to be brief and thorough by giving criticism to athletes on how they can improve their goals (Weinberg & Gould, 2015). Lastly, the coach should provide the athletes with the second slice of bread, which involves ending up on a positive note by speaking in general terms on the progress made by the athletes.