Communication in Sports Coaching

This project explores the importance of communication in sports coaching, focusing on interpersonal and written communication. It examines the various types of communication, communication barriers, empathy, and development communication theory, highlighting their impact on athlete development and team performance.

Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Communication refers to an act of sharing information from one place or person to
another. It can be a process of transferring or conveying meanings from one entity or group to
another by using mutually understood symbols, signs and semiotic rules. Each and every
communication consists one sender, a message and a recipient (Barnlund, 2017). It is a two way
process of reaching mutual understanding where participants not only exchange information,
ideas and feelings but also generating and sharing meaning. Basically communication refers to a
process of transferring and getting information by using various tools and techniques.
Communication also play an important role in sport sector also. The main objective of this report
is that this project will discuss the important of interpersonal and written communication in
sports coaching. Sport communication is an aspect of communication studies that also
specializes in the study of communication in a sports setting. There are different types of
communication and they are useful in the sports such as verbal, non-verbal etc. Communication
help in translating the trainer's coaching philosophy, game plan and others. This assignment
related commination and focus on sports coaching sector and will discussed about
communication and how it is important in sports coaching sector. Importance of interpersonal
and written communication will be defined in context in context of therapeutic relationships &
communication and interpersonal skills. Different ways and barriers will also be defined in this
report.
MAIN BODY
Definition of communication
Communication simply refer to an act in which one sender, a message and recipient are
involved for transferring information from one place and person to another person and place. It is
fundamental to the existence and survival of humans as well as to a company. It indicates to a
process that create and share ideas, information, views and facts etc. to the people to reach a
common understanding. In Sport sector, communication is known as a factor and term that help
in building an effective team.
Ways and Types of communication
There are two types of communication and they are as following:
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Verbal communication- It refers to oral communication in which persons transfer their
views by orally and word of mouth (Bi, Ho and Zhang, 2015). In Sport coaching the trainer use
this kind of communication to provide urgent and short information through word of mouth. The
purpose of it, to insure that the athletes understand whatever the trainer wants to convey.
Interpersonal/Non-verbal communication- It is a face to face communication in which
people share information, meaning and feelings by verbal and non verbal messages (Gallois and
Giles, 2015). In Sport coaching, when the trainer trained its candidates then the person use and
follow this way and type of communication during the time of learning and gaining information
about a specific sport. .
Written communication- It is process in which persons deliver their ideas and views by
writing them. In sports coaching field, this way of communication used by the management
department of sports to share information with its athletes who learning and getting coaching
towards sports. The trainer also used this type of communication when they want to provide any
information to athletes then they use email, message and other tools for sharing information. It is
little harder than other types of communication because it required good knowledge of grammar
and others so that the sender can write correct and relevant information and transfer it to others.
Visual communication- It refer to a way in which conveyance of ideas and information
on forms that can be seen. In sport sector, this way of communication is highly used by the
trainer when they provide training to their athletes. When they trained them then they provide
them visual action that they can learn by visual actions. For example, when the trainer learn
some special action about a particular sport than by using visual communication the individual
make communication with the athletes.
Importance of interpersonal and written communication
Communication is important in sport coaching for conveying the goals effectively and
motivate the athletes. There are different types of communication and they all are playing an
important role in this sector.
Interpersonal and face to face communication is a way which is most essential and
effective to show the amount of information that the communication providers can use and extent
to share their views and information to receiver. In sport coaching, it is important and effective
because this communication includes facial expression and body language which is highly
effective. In sport sector when the trainer uses their interpersonal skills then they can do their
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work more effectively for transferring information in groups and team during the time of
training.
Source: Wrestle Communication,(2019).
Written communication is an effective tool to transfer the information (Habermas, 2015).
In Sport coaching with the help of this communication method, they can share any important
information to their athletes by using various tools and techniques like email, message and
others. This communication is important because it is easy to preserve, easily present complex
matter and provide a clear information to the receiver. For example, if the trainer making change
sport timing than by using email and message, the person can transfer this information to those
people who come to learn sport activities. It is beneficial because it saves time and money. For
example, during the time of learning and providing training to the athletes, whistle
communication is also used by the trainer. The individual use this type of communication to
gain attention of them and make communication to them, stopping unethical activity and other
various purpose.
Barriers of communication
There are number of barriers of communication (Jaworek, Koch Jr and Auld, 2017).
Basically barriers refer to those problems and issues that are occurring and generating cause of
psychological, physical, environmental and language problems etc. These all affect the process
of communication. Some barriers that affect communication are as following:
Selection of words- It is the first barrier and highly affect each type of communication.
For example, in sport coaching, the trainer has not right information and effective decision
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Illustration: Wrestle Communication

making that which kind of words and tone can be used to communicate with their athletes.
Misuse of a word can disrupt the communication process and make a bad reflection to the
speaker and writer. Wrong selection of the words creates problems for the listeners because they
do not understand the information clearly.
Grammar, sentence structure and spelling- It is an another barrier which affect written
communication. Errors and mistakes related to grammar, punctuation, spellings and sentence
negatively affect the communication and create barriers. In sport coaching, if the trainer shares
information to athletes and management by using written method to transfer information and
make mistakes in writing information related to grammar and punctuation. This create
misunderstanding for the people who receive this message and they do not clearly understood
the message. These errors refer that the individual who sent the message either does not know
the basics of the language.
Attitudinal barriers- It indicates to the perception that prevent people from
communicating effectively. In sport coaching, personality conflicts, resistance to change and lack
of encouragement or motivation etc. affect the communication in bad manner (Kazuhiro, 2015).
Effective receivers of messages should attempt to overcome their own attitudinal barriers to
facilitate effective communication.
Language barrier- Linguistic and language ability may act as a barrier to
communication. For example, in sport coaching, there are various athletes and they belong from
different place and geographical locations and they use different language so this factor and
barrier affect negatively communication.
Physical disabilities- These kind of barriers highly affect the communication. Physical
disability refers to those issues and problems which are related to the human such as hearing
problems, speech difficulties and others (Longinotti-buitoni and Aliverti, 2016). In sport
coaching, if any person either it can be trainer or athletes face these kind of problems and issues
than they also create a barrier to communication.
Empathy in communication
Empathy refer to the ability to understand and transfer the feeling of another. It can be the
awareness of the feelings and emotions of other persons. In sport coaching empathy refers to the
process of understand the views and feeling of others by making communication with them.
Empathy include some elements, like Understanding others which refers to understanding
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the feelings and emotions of others that what they want to say. For example, in sport coaching, if
any athlete does not put own views in front of the trainer and not able to share problems than the
trainer has ability to understand them. Developing others, it refers to those acts and actions
which are helpful for developing the potential. In sport coaching, the trainer motivates athletes to
share their views and make interaction with others so that they make and follow open
communication. Other elements are having a service orientation, leveraging diversity, political
awareness and they also useful for make effective communication.
Empathy in communication is most important because it defined the quality or process of
entering fully, through imagination in to others feelings and motives. Empathy is the art of
seeing the world as someone else sees it. It helps the trainer and others to communicate own
ideas in a manner that makes sense to others and it helps to understand others when they making
communication.
Theories of communication
There are number of communication theories, development communication theory is one
of them. The roots of this theory go back to the mid 20 century.
Development communication theory- It refers to the use of communication to serve
development (Mehrabian, 2017). Conventional theoretical assumptions are drawn from
development communications research and are challenged on the grounds that as theoretical
concepts they are inadequate guides to the chosen information and resolve development
problems and issues. For example, in sport coaching, the trainer can use this model and theory
for solving and reducing the problems and issues of athletes so that they can share their
information and issues easily. The people can transfer their views by using different ways of
communication. By providing appropriate solution to them, the trainer also makes improvement
and development in them (Perloff, 2016). There are some major features of development
communication theory such as this theory play an important role in the development of athletes
and help in set a goals and objectives to them. With the help of theory, they can get a solution for
their problems and issues. It helps in providing an environment where they can make open
communication and easily share their views by using development communication tools.
Strengths and weaknesses of development communication theory
This theory helps in identifying and specifying tools for communication which makes
communication effective. It helps in international development projects when the trainer provide
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training to athletes for it. It is beneficial for making participation in communication media by
make it inclusive.
If the trainer uses this theory than cultural hegemony is occurred by development
communication implementation. This theory highly focusses on westernisation more than
modernization.
Qualities associated with positive relationships
There are various qualities which make good and positive relationship. Some of them are
as mentioned below in context of a trainer and an athlete:
Respect and good faith- It is the one and most important quality which help in building
good relation. If the athlete give respect to the trainer and faithful towards them. The person and
make development in career growth and specific field and make better relationship with the
trainer.
Transparency- It is another important quality, if both trainer and athlete make
transparency and share all the information related to their fields than they can develop good
relation in positive manners.
Interpersonal skills
It refers to those skills which can be used by daily basis to make communication with
others directly or indirectly (Petronio, 2015). These kind of skills consist a range of skills like
listening, questioning and understanding body language. In sport coaching, these all skills help
athletes in understanding the information which are providing by the trainer through word of
mouth, written communication, body language etc. These skills are beneficial for the trainer also
because by using these communication skills, the person can share own view, ideas and
information to the athletes so that they can clearly understand what the individual want to say
(Putman and et. al., 2015). For example, in Cricket, the trainer used different types of
communication like interpersonal, visual and others than they clearly communicate with the
athlete and clearly understand various steps and actions of this sport. With this can share
information to them and analyze their issues and problems. So with the help of communication
they can reduce and resolve their issues and make transparency between them.
For instance, a trainer who provide training about football and only focus on the training
or have not a good communication with the athletes then it negatively affect both as well as
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trainer and learner also. Because they will not sharer their issues and problem with the individual
and not clearly learn and get knowledge about that specific sports.
CONCLUSION
From the above information, it can be concluded that communication is an important
tools and play an important role in the sport sector or in a sport coaching. There are different
types or ways of communication which are useful for sharing informational to others and
understanding their views. In communication there are various kind of communication barriers
that are occurring in communication can be faced by the trainer and athletes. In this assignment,
different ways of communication, empathy of communication and theories of communication are
explained to analyse and development of the communication. Different types of communication
and importance of interpersonal communication is also described.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Barnlund, D. C., 2017. A transactional model of communication. In Communication theory (pp.
47-57). Routledge.
Bi, S., Ho, C. K. and Zhang, R., 2015. Wireless powered communication: Opportunities and
challenges. IEEE Communications Magazine. 53(4). pp.117-125.
Gallois, C. and Giles, H., 2015. Communication accommodation theory. The international
encyclopedia of language and social interaction, pp.1-18.
Habermas, J., 2015. Communication and the Evolution of Society. John Wiley & Sons.
Jaworek, G. S., Koch Jr, R. L. and Auld, M. D., Ethicon LLC, 2017. Articulatable surgical
instruments with conductive pathways for signal communication. U.S. Patent 9,700,309.
Kazuhiro, Y., 2015. Communication device. U.S. Patent 9,198,127.
Longinotti-buitoni, G. and Aliverti, A., LIFE CORPORATION SA, 2016. Wearable
communication platform. U.S. Patent 9,282,893.
Mehrabian, A., 2017. Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Perloff, RM., 2016. The dynamics of persuasion: communication and attitudes in the twenty-first
century. Routledge.
Petronio, S., 2015. Communication privacy management theory. The international encyclopedia
of interpersonal communication, pp.1-9.
Putman, J. R. and et. al., 2015. Communication application server for converged communication
services. U.S. Patent 9,015,297.
Samovar, L. A. and et. al., 2015. Communication between cultures. Nelson Education.
Wood, J. T., 2015. Interpersonal communication: Everyday encounters. Nelson Education.
Online
Types of Communication. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.marketing91.com/five-types-of-communication/>.
Communication Barriers. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://phicare.com/competencies/communicationbarriers.php>.
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