Interpersonal Communication In Football

730 Words2 Pages

When I was on a softball team a few years ago, me and my teammates would communicate through the essentials of communication which are process, meaning, and symbolic communication both on and off the baseball field. In example, when we are on the field we communicate in procedural ways in order to reach a goal. We were engaging in action when we were practicing and using our knowledge when implementing a strategic plan on how we would play the different opponents we faced especially in crucial games. We were all different races so we all had different cultural backgrounds. There were people on my team who were of American, African American, Asian, Lebanese, Puerto Rican, and Dominican decent. Therefore, my language was constantly changing …show more content…

However, interpersonal communication competence was also a critical aspect of our games because our motivation and our approach on social situations not only has an effect on our performance, but it can generally have an impact on the team. To better clarify this term, “Your ability to communicate effectively is your interpersonal competence” (Devito, 10). For instance, there was a moment when we were tied with the opposing team in an important game. It was the last inning and I was the next batter at the plate. As I looked over to my right my hitting coach made a symbolic hand gesture towards me, which led me to make an adjustment with my hitting stance. I was able to get a double out of it, which means I was in scoring position after reaching second base. I then looked over to my teammates and cheerfully screamed towards them while clapping my hands together, “Let’s Go!!” This reaction was an attempt to motivate my teammates and enhance their energy levels. In the end the next batter up at the plate hit a line drive into the outfield and I was able to score a run. The game ended with my team winning and advancing in the …show more content…

After examining these two important events of communication that took place, there are the positive and negative outcomes of how we interpret communication and how we actively listen to each other in social situations. This resulted in the receiver(myself), to decode the message as being negative based on her unnecessary and unethical behavior. In addition, “Decoding refers to the act of understanding messages” (Devito, 12). There are certain noises that can have an impact on the receiver which are caused by the sender. For example, “psychological noise is the mental interference in speaker or listener and includes preconceived ideas, wandering thoughts, biases, and prejudices, closed-mindedness, and extreme emotionalism” (Devito, 14). Instead of listening to my teammate when she was trying to give me advice I was so focused on the anger I had after the comment that was made towards me, that I didn’t allow myself to control my actions. How could this be avoided? How does working on improving social linguistic skills help with communicating in difficult

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