In the past few articles we have been discussing about effective communication. As I wrote previously, my aim is to increase your skills, to make you aware of your usual way of dealing with your team and, if necessary, change your behaviour to increase efficacy.

 

Tone of voice is part of non verbal communication. It can be low, loud, just perceptible, eccessive...

Many coaches/teachers do not realize how loud or low they are speaking, and that the variation of their tone can greatly affect communication efficacy.

First of all, it is important to receive players’ feedbacks in order to get information on how we are using our voice: Do they often ask us to repeat? Do they say they can’t hear us? Do they often show wrinkled foreheads? It is not always their fault!         

Maybe our tone is too low, as would be appropriate in a gym but not in a noisy open space: there are often other teams practicing at the same time, airplanes or traffic passing by, etc. It is important to find the right volume of voice so that our messages arrive in a clear and direct way. Also, when players are already displayed on the field it is necessary to raise our voice, as well as choosing a suitable position on the pitch.

 

Anyway, most of the time the problem is that the coach is continuously shouting! Coaches shout to explain an exercise, even the first time they propose it, they shout to repeat it, or correct mistakes, or to give feedback, during the match and in the locker room.

Beside the physical effort and often unecessary energy expense, speaking continuously loud and yelling have many other drawbacks. Shouting continuously is harmful: it irritates and tires us, gets on the players’ nerves and transmits that feeling of reprimand so usual for young people who are scolded through a raised voice in different contexts: at school, at home, on the field.

Shouting subconsciously recalls the typical feelings of a reprimand: rage, frustration, feeling guilty, distress, depending on the individual’s past experiences.

 

Moreover, shouting out of habit invalidates a most effective instrument for the management of the team and the indivuduals, because it makes shouting become a sort of background noise even when it might be a necessity. If young players get used to shouting, they don’t realize that in a given moment it means instead to stop, for instance in a bad or dangerous situation (especially true for younger children)

Paradoxically, it is more effective to fall silent suddenly when we want to call a messing-up team to order (it happens so often with children). Indeed, children are not used to a silent educator and, therefore, they get puzzled and look at us, they perceive our disappointment and begin stopping one by one and calling each other. I invite you to try this strategy, that has to be used with great coherence and firm attitude to be effective.

 

As a conclusion, it is essential to find the suitable tone of voice according to the context, and to vary it according to our goals: I raise my tone to call the team, draw attention more quickly, point out an important notion, stress a key word, order the group, indicate the change of exercise, etc. On the other hand, I’ll choose to lower my tone to explain in detail a particularly important or delicate notion, to speak to a single player, boost players’ confidence and calm them down.