Communicate with your athletes
Issue: Volume 28 Number 4
The success of any coach, at perhaps every level of competition, is determined by his or her ability to effectively communicate with athletes and in turn getting them to better communicate with each other. It’s easy to focus primarily on the technical elements of sport — putting together good game plans and teaching good technique — but also easy to lose sight of the need to communicate effectively. Coaches may be knowledgeable and highly organised, but without good communication skills, these attributes may never be reflected in the performance of their athletes.
Ask yourself these questions. Do you encourage athletes to speak up? Do you pay attention to body language? Do you recognise signs of dehydration and fatigue? Communicating would be easier if athletes always told coaches when there was a problem. However, research suggests that 70 per cent of communication is non-verbal. That’s why it is important for coaches to watch for signals that indicate something is wrong. Coaches skilled in reading their athletes and who encourage them to speak up can successfully prevent the effects of dehydration or injury, assist in skill development, and bolster athletes’ confidence. (Petlichkoff 2002)
The following 10 tips are for improving coach–athlete and team communication.
1. Be approachable
Establish open lines of communication with your players. Ask questions that specifically address injuries, hydration status, and recovery. Pay attention to both the verbal and non-verbal messages your athletes send. If they look tired and lack effort, they may be sending an important non-verbal message about their hydration and nutrition status or their need for additional rest. (Petlichkoff 2002)
2. Be an active listener
Hearing what your athletes say and understanding them are distinctly different. When in doubt, paraphrase what they say, so they know you are listening. For example, ‘What you are saying is…’ or ‘Are you suggesting that …’ helps athletes know you are listening and understand their concerns. (Petlichkoff 2002)
3. Define roles
Give every athlete a sense of how he or she fits into the big picture. By recognising the role each of your players contributes to the team, you give your athletes a sense of worth and achievement. You should instil in every team member a sense that they can improve their status by hard work and commitment. (Steuerwald 2002)
4. Set goals
Encourage your athletes to set realistic goals and communicate how to achieve them. Discuss the differences between individual and team goals and the need to sometimes sacrifice personal goals for team objectives. The ability to set goals with a sense of purpose is a life skill that will help your athletes beyond their sport. (Steuerwald 2002)
5. Establish mutual trust
Positive relationships are built on mutual respect and trust. Your athletes must know that they can depend on you to be fair and positive, even in intense competition. Criticise behaviours or decision-making, but leave personality out of it. Criticism must be constructive, positive, consistent, and oriented around improving performance. None of your players will improve when made to feel worse about themselves. (Steuerwald 2002)
6. Communicate with a positive approach
When providing constructive feedback, think good, better, how.
Good — start with something they did correctly.
Better — give instructional feedback on how to get better.
How — finish with a compliment so they want to get better. (Petlichkoff 2002)
7. Empower athletes
Within the context of a disciplined and structured environment, empower your athletes to make decisions and control various aspects of a game or competition. Thoroughly teach concepts with each athlete understanding his/her part. Then, charge your athletes to execute their part by making adjustments on the run and communicating problems with you. Responsibility and authority must go hand in hand. Avoid coaching a fear of failure into your methods of communication and encourage risk taking as an integral part of athletic competition. (Steuerwald 2002)
8. Fuel athletes’ minds and bodies
Your athletes will not be able to perform mentally and physically without the proper foods and fluids. Educate athletes about food and fluid selections that focus on refuelling and rehydrating. Sports drinks offer athletes more than water because they replace fluids and electrolytes lost in sweat and put back carbohydrate energy. Properly fuelled athletes are able to perform at a higher level physically and mentally. (Steuerwald 2002)
9. Develop a communication plan
Plan for communication opportunities just as you plan for game structure. Opportunities for communication can be as simple as searching out an athlete after a difficult practice and asking if they understand the reasons for the criticisms given. Your athletes can only apply coaching guidance in so far as they understand what is desired of them. An excellent technique for developing lines of communications is a season-end interview. You can engage an athlete in ‘20 questions’ in a quiet environment so that they feel you are interested in them as a person. (Steuerwald 2002)
10. Use communication to improve teamwork
Better teamwork is an interaction of five key elements (Lenti 1996):
Effective communications — Clear, positive communications from coach to coach, coach to athlete, and athlete to athlete are essential in establishing the concept of ‘teamwork’. All team members and staff will clearly understand team goals and work toward the achievement of stated objectives.
Winning attitudes — We all know that athletes with good attitudes are usually the ones who will contribute most to the team. It’s not enough to inspire good attitudes in individual players: a ‘team attitude’ is necessary to build the kind of teamwork needed for success. A good team attitude can be defined by how well your athletes accept their roles and responsibilities to the team. The star role is relatively easy to accept, but it is equally important for the team specialists and back-ups to understand and accept their roles and responsibilities. Encourage this kind of attitude by setting an example: accept all the responsibilities of your position as coach, not just the ones that you like.
Team ego — Once players understand and accept their roles on the team, it is possible to take the concept of ‘team attitude’ one step farther to ‘team ego.’ This simply means that players must overcome their own egos for the good of the entire team.
Motivation — Your athletes must be given reasons to be motivated to achieve success for the team. Set up a continuing system of motivation by setting long-term goals and by encouraging your athletes to achieve them by meeting a series of short-term goals. Include personal, academic and career goals as well. By measuring progress in small steps, your athletes are given an ongoing sense of achievement that keeps their motivation high. Your athletes can also motivate each another. Split players into drill groups and score them as a team rather than as individuals, make your players feel they have a vested interest in each other.
Discipline — The establishment and maintenance of positive communications, team attitudes and egos, and motivation depends heavily on the final element of teamwork — discipline. Discipline is the glue that holds everything else together. Remember that discipline, if used fairly and consistently, is a positive force in building teamwork. Rules are a part of discipline so make sure the rules you do have are consistent with team goals, are realistic, and are enforceable. Also develop self-discipline — ‘what one does when no one is watching’. Help athletes develop self-discipline through: a) setting goals, b) clearly communicating your expectations of them and maintaining those standards, and c) demanding the best effort from each of them, whether in practice, in the classroom, or in the game.
References
Lenti F 1996, ‘Building teamwork’, GSSI Coaches Corner, www.gssiweb.com.
Petlichkoff LM 2002, ‘Speak up or sit out: encouraging players to ask for help’, GSSI Sidelines , April, www.gssiweb.com.
Steuerwald B 2002, ‘Communicating with the athlete and their readiness to change’ GSSI The Clipboard, www.gssiweb.com.
This article is reproduced with the permission of the editorial team at The Coaches’ Edge. To join The Coaches’ Edge, log on to www.coachesedge.com.au.
