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Communicating With Your Athletes : An Important Aspect When Becoming A Successful Coach

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Communicating with your athletes is an important aspect when becoming a successful coach. Successful coaches are masterful communicators, and unsuccessful coaches often fail not because of poor communication but because of poor communication skills. Effective communication is just as essential to successful coaching just as it is to successful careers. There are three basic dimensions of communication: 1- Sending and receiving messages, 2- Verbal and nonverbal communication, and 3- Content and emotion. Typically, coaches are more skilled in sending messages than receiving them, in expressing themselves verbally rather than nonverbally, and in controlling the content of it. There are eight types of coaches when it comes to evaluating your communication skills. Firstly, Coach Incredible never admits to an error, and finds he does not get the respect he demands because he does not show any for his athletes. He has no credibility with his athletes. Secondly, Coach Naysayer words and actions are mostly negative, sometime almost hostile, increasing athlete’s self-doubts and destroying their self-confidence. The Judge mainly evaluates the athletes rather than instructing them. Coach Fickle is inconsistent with his messages to the athletes. Coach Glib is the most talkative person and he is a bad listener. The emotionless Coach Stone, doesn’t smile, wink, or give athletes pats on their back, which leaves the athletes insecure most of the time. The Professor does not know how to

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