Listening and Hearing...

I’m sure you’ve heard of the game where you get 10 or 12 people together where the first person in line reads a sentence of about eight words and they whisper into the next person in line’s ear what is written on the paper. Then that person turn’s to the next and whispers into the next person’s ear and so on. When the last person gets the message they tell everyone know what they heard. Of course by the time it gets to the end of the line the message can be far different than what was first written on that piece of paper.

There are a lot of reasons for this, such as a people’s ability to enunciate, hearing quality or the skill to focus when someone is whispering in their ear. The fun in the game is that each person may have heard a different version of the original message by the time it reaches the last person and that is the comic relief in the game.

When playing a game like this, winning means getting everyone to hear the message so that at the end the true meaning of the message is recognized as being the same as it was in the written form. Of course, the more messed up the last person’s reciting of the message will bring the biggest laughs.

Coaching young athletes can be a lot like this game because the focus for some is much better than it is for an entire group. If there is only one coach working with the group especially a large group the message can easily be garbled. If there are two coaches and the group is split up the important thing is that the coaches need to relay the very same message and teach the same fundamentals the same way. This can be a problem as well as two coaches may teach differently. What matters most is if there is true understanding and the important ability to communicate the message.

The same can be said for parenting or teaching, communication is a huge aspect of anything done in life. One word can change the whole meaning of the message. Heck, the very same thing can be said for married couples. The lack of communication or understanding between two people can be a real problem.

I can honestly say that I didn’t always pay attention in the classroom for a number of different reasons but I really paid attention on the field of play because I wanted to show off my abilities on the things I enjoyed doing most. Trust me, no one with competitive juices flowing wants to look bad playing competitive sports.

Sometimes the most difficult kid to coach is the one that thinks they know everything often because they are naturally gifted athletically. Sometimes the easiest to coach are those that have no clue about the sport but really want to and the take everything in like a sponge. The ability to want to learn and the ability to comprehend and perform the task are important and fun to see when it finally happens.

It all begins with the message from the messenger. It must be clear and succinct and the messenger must be able to see that the recipients of the message are listening and hearing what is actually said. When that happens good things usually happen with great results. Of course when it doesn’t it can turn out like an episode of the Three Stooges and that’s usually not a good thing.