E34: Communicating With Teammates During Critical Moments

Communicating with teammates during critical moments

Transcript

Communication with teammates when it is a close game, set or match

Communicating with teammates at critical moments during a game, set, or match

Scenario

He looks like he is really struggling.  What should I do?  Get it together John! There’s only 30 seconds left!  Oh, that doesn’t look like it helped.  That usually works for me. How did he miss that?  It looks like he just froze! 

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We talked about different types of communication (episode 13) and focused a little bit more on the verbal components, such as tone of voice, and the non-verbal components, such as eye contact, body movements and gestures. Last episode we discussed types of communication in partner sports. Today we are going to discuss communicating with your teammate or teammates at critical moments during a match or set or game. These tools can be used in any team sport. 

There's a lot of information for coaches about how to effectively communicate with their team. I will be doing a bonus episode later in the month with additional information specifically for coaches communicating with their team. However, this episode will focus on how teammates can communicate effectively at critical points during competition.

Think for a moment about how you feel when the game is close. Do you feel stressed? Pressure? Stress and pressure can make it difficult for you to process information, Focus, make smart decisions, and even just play in general. In an ideal world, stress can be managed and close games are just that, close games.  But in reality, for many athletes, close games lead to stress which leads to feelings of being overwhelmed and confused as to the right course of action.  (See episode 8 for more information on handling pressure, anxiety and stress).  This sometimes causes athletes to shut down completely.  Do any of these sound like something that you do?  Think about how you respond to critical moments in a game.  Take a moment to pause this, open your notes app or grab a pen and paper and answer the following questions:

What do you think about? Where is your focus?  What do you pay attention to well and what do you have a hard time paying attention to?  What type of information do you want from your teammates? How is the best way for them to give you that information?

Now that you have answered these questions, Think about it from your teammates’ perspective. Do they respond to situations the same way you do? Do they have the same Focus that you do? How do they process information? How do they like to receive information? Do you know the answers to these questions? For many of us the answer to that last question is no.  Unless you have been playing with your teammates for a very long time or have asked them these questions before, you may not know what your teammate wants or needs. The best way to Be an Effective Communicator in critical situations with your teammates is to Be an Effective Communicator in non-critical situation. It is more difficult to figure out the best course of action or find answers to the best way to communicate with a teammate at critical moments in competition.  It is much more effective to find out this information in advance.

Now that you have this information what are you going to do with it? There are a lot different theories in the research related to effective types of communication strategies and coping skills in stressful situations. Communicating In critical situations can be broken down into a variety of responses and preference. Today we are going to look at two types: problem-focused communicating and relationship-focused communicating and some tools you can use to communicate effectively with your teammate.

The first type we are going to look at is Problem-focused communicating. Problem-focused communication consists of information that you can give to your teammates to help them focus on the task at hand. For athletes that are analytic, this is going to tend to be their preferred type of communication. This communication includes sharing strategy information, refocusing your teammate on the Game Plan and analyzing the game plan to see if it needs to be changed,. It can also be as simple as going back to the fundamentals and simplifying The Game Plan to help you and your teammates to optimize performance.  

The second type we are going to look at is Relationship-focused communicating. Relationship-focused communication consists of using words and actions to help to manage relationships between you and your teammates, as well as help to regulate emotions.  Examples of this kind of communication include: motivational support (such as providing encouragement to a teammate that needs it) and physical support (such as coming together on the mound or in between points in a match).

 Remember, it is important to know YOUR preferred communication style as well as that of your teammates.  You and your teammates may have different styles and it is critical to know when to give more to your teammates (such as when they are not doing well or have lost confidence) and when you NEED more from your teammates.  Communication BEFORE these critical moments is the most important thing to do so that you and your teammates can be effective communicators DURING the critical moments.

To Review, The Focus four for Communication with your teammate at critical points in competition:

1. Take some time and figure out what YOUR preferred communication style is and how YOU want to be communicated with at critical moments in the game
2. Talk to your teammates BEFORE THE CRITICAL PART OF THE GAME to help determine their preferred style and how THEY want to be communicated with when the game is on the line.
3. Problem-focused communication consists of information that you can give to your teammates to help them focus on the task at hand.
4. Relationship-focused communication consists of using words and actions to help to manage relationships between you and your teammates, as well as help to regulate emotions.

How is YOUR communication with your teammates?  What could you do to improve your communication with your teammates during critical times in the game? For assistance with practice or additional tools to help you become a more effective communicator, contact me at RattoConsulting.com.  If you or your coaches or organization are interested in hosting a workshop or virtual seminar on this or any other sports psychology or performance optimizing topic, please email me at Laura@RattoConsulting.com. Next week we will take a look at how to communicate with your coach when you think he/she is wrong!

The single Biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place!  ~ George Bernard Shaw

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Scenario

Close your eyes and picture yourself playing your sport.  You and your partner are beating your opponents by a lot.  All of a sudden, you and your partner start disagreeing on something.  Strategy, what to do, whose ball that was, whose fault that was that you lost the point.  Now the game is close, you get tight, you and your partner start to disagree and fight more…and then you stop talking all together.  The Match is over and you lost and you can’t figure out what happened!

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Has this ever happened to you?  For those of you that have experience in the sport or business world, you have an idea of how important communication is.  This becomes more evident the less effective it is.  When an individual is not a good communicator, or when communication styles are different, then the situation can go downhill quickly.  This week we will start the first in our three-episode communication series focusing on three aspects of communication as well as providing sport-specific scenarios. The first topic we are going to talk about today is communication with a teammate in partner sports with specific examples from tennis and beach volleyball.  Next week’s topic is on how to communicate with your teammates when it is a close game or set or match and I will be using situations from clients that have come up across the years that include baseball and several other sports.  The final episode in the series will discuss how to communicate effectively with your coach when you think they are wrong or if you have questions about what they are saying.

In an earlier episode we discussed communication, what it is, how to do it and what strategies are effective.  A quick review of the The Focus four for Communication is as follows:

1. Communication is defined as passing on information from one place, person or group to another
2. There are five ways that we pass on information: verbal, nonverbal, listening, visual, and written.
3. When using verbal communication, it is important to pay attention to word choice and tone of voice
4. Non-verbal cues, such as hand gestures, facial expressions, posture, movement, touch and eye contact, many times provide more information about the meaning of the words, than the actual words.

 For more information on the Focus Four for Communication, see episode 13.

Today we are going to be discussing communication between two teammates in partner sports. Partner sports are an interesting dynamic because when you're playing it is just you and the other person. Coaches can give you feedback and information in between sets and during timeouts in beach volleyball, but when you're on the court it is only you and your partner. Communicating information quickly and effectively becomes even more important in sports such as tennis and beach volleyball when you do not have a coach to help you call timeouts or change the momentum of the game during a match.  Some ways to communicate in a positive way involve tone of voice, type of information, eye contact when possible, and verbal or nonverbal confirmation that the information was received and understood. 

Let’s use tennis for an example of how important early and constant communication is.  In tennis, when the other team drives the ball and it goes in the middle in between you and your partner and neither person goes for it. It is a ball that either of you could have gotten, but neither person did because of miscommunication.  One way to combat this is to discuss in advance who is taking the ball in the middle. Does it change based on if it is short or deep? Another thing that is important to do is to quickly talk about it after the missed ball and to reconfirm who will get that ball next time.  This will prevent a small miscommunication from turning into a larger issue later on in the match.  It also helps to check in with your partner on every side change to get any feedback and make sure that you are still on the same page in regards to the game plan against this team and how the match is progressing. This is also a good time to see if there are any changes that need to be made. 

How do we know if we are communicating well with our partner?  If you are frustrated with a situation when you are playing, then chances are, your partner is as well.  Think about the verbal and nonverbal cues that you are giving to your partner and that they are giving to you. Nonverbal cues such as slouched shoulders, not coming in to talk, rolling eyes, or turning your back on your partner are things that convey frustration.  Verbal cues such as deep sighs, yelling, or not speaking to your partner convey the same frustration.  The frustration may be with yourself or your partner, but these things can negatively affect your partner.

Let’s look at another example.  There is a beach volleyball player, let’s call her Sarah.  Sarah is a very nice person off the court and she is very intense on the court.  When she makes a mistake, she yells and says things like “That was dumb”, “Ugh! I can’t believe that happened”, “That was a terrible shot!”  Sarah’s comments are about her own play and her shots, but her partner thinks she is talking to her and starts to shut down.  How can this be avoided?  Sarah can talk to her partner before the tournament to let her know that she is not talking to her when she expresses her frustration.  Her partner knows this, but tends to get worried about Sarah and if her head is in the game or if she is still worried about the last play.  Sarah’s negative communication is affecting her partner, even though she does not mean it to.  One thing that could help Sarah would be to have a word or phrase or physical movement that she did that could help her to let go of her frustration, but that is one that is also not going to negatively affect her partner.  This is something that will take time to find and some trial and error in practice.  After a period of time, Sarah settles on the work “Snickerdoodle”.  Everytime she says it, it makes her smile.  It also lets her partner know that she is handling her frustration in a positive way.

It is important for both players and coaches to pay attention to their own nonverbal cues, both when speaking AND listening, as well as the nonverbal cues of others

Two ways to improve active listening are making eye contact and repeat or rephrase (or say in a different way) what you just heard.

To Review, The Focus four for Communication with your teammate in partner sports are:

1. Communicating in partner sports is particularly important because there is not a coach to provide feedback or call timeouts to change the momentum of the game during a match.
2. Discuss strategy in advance and check in with each other throughout the match to make sure you are both still on the same page
3. Verbal and nonverbal communication that expresses frustration can negatively affect the performance of your partner.
4. Having a word or phrase or physical movement can help let go of frustration, and will also not negatively affect your partner. 

Have these scenarios ever happened to you? What did you do?  What do you think would have been a better way to approach the situation? For assistance with practice or additional tools to help you become a more effective communicator, contact me at RattoConsulting.com.  If you or your coaches or organization are interested in hosting a workshop or virtual seminar on this or any other sports psychology or performance optimizing topic, please email me at Laura@RattoConsulting.com. Next week we will take a look at how to communicate with your teammates when it is a close game, set, or match.