An issue with using verbal communication is that some of the students within our classes, English is their second language meaning that they might not understand what we are explaining if we use verbal communication. But it can be valuable for the students who English is their first language and will be able to understand what we are explaining to the participants. Verbal communication can be used in other ways such as feedback which can be specific and direct (Wrisberg, 2007) and verbal communication can be used for encouragement.
Non- Verbal communication is used for demonstrations (first blog post), praise such as hand signals e.g. thumbs up and encouragement such as clapping and hand gestures (Hein et al., 2005) (Zamfir, 2007). This can be a more effective way of communicating with the students where English is their second language as they will be more likely to understand what we are trying to get across to the student.
When researching about communication there was a recurring theme that communication is a key aspect in coaching (LaVoi, 2007) as it can be used to transfer your knowledge to the students, engage students, used for feedback and set the tone of the session (Jowett et al., 2010). Both verbal and non verbal communication is vital in order to pass information to and from the participants.
From being more animated e,g, body shape, clapping, arms not folded it gave us more of a presence in the room (Zamfir, 2007) and when they got positive feedback (Wrisberg, 2007) e.g. thumbs up. This gave the child who received the feedback motivation (Deci et al., 1985) but also the other students as they always wanted to get good feedback from the coaches. However it was difficult to go into detail with the feedback as they are unable to understand verbal feedback. Therefore the next following week, we had to demonstrate on what they need to work to help them understand what they needed to improve so demonstrated at least 3 time to ensure that the students knew their feedback (Anderson, 2000) which was effective as they understood what they needed to work on and was able to go back to the task and work on their feedback.
References
Koka, A. and Hein, V., (2005). The effect of perceived teacher feedback on intrinsic motivation in physical education. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 36(2), p.91.
LaVoi, N. M. (2007). Interpersonal communication and conflict in the coach-athlete relationships. In S Jowett, & D Lavallee (Eds.), Social psychology in sport (pp. 29-40). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics
Lorimer, R and Jowett, S. (2010). Feedback of information in the empathic accuracy of sport coaches. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 11(1), pp.12-17.
Wrisberg, C.A., (2007). Sport skill instruction for coaches. Human Kinetics.
Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. (1985) Intrinsic Motivation and Self- Determination in Human Behaviour. New York: Plenum Press
Zamfir, M.V., 2017. Verbal and non-verbal communication in sport environment. Marathon, 9(1), pp.99-106.
Weeks, D. and Anderson, L. (2000). The interaction of observational learning with overt practice: effects on motor skill learning. Acta Psychologica, 104(2), pp.259-271.
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