Communication Skills in Sport and Exercise Psychology

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Communication Skills in Sport and Exercise
Psychology

• Ailsa Anderson
• 19 January 2006

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Plan for today

• Define communication
• Describe characteristics of effective
  communication
• Highlight the importance of effective
  communication in SP
• Practice effective communication

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Importance of effective communication

• Important in establishing rapport and trust with
  athletes and coaches
• Rapport and trust develops if individual feels
  understood and accepted (Nelson-Jones, 1997)
• Helps gather relevant information to support
  athlete
• Important skill for your needs assessment

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Effective listening skills

• Very important skill in effective sport
  psychologists.
• E.G. -
• she (the SP) can listen to you, she wont
  interrupt you, shell make sure youve finished
  talking before she will get in there. Thats, I
  think very valuable because you need that (GB
  Athlete from Anderson et al., 2004)
• Effective listening demonstrates we care enough
  to hear the other persons view-point

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Active listening

• Possess an attitude of respect and acceptance
• An Individual wont communicate with you if he
  thinks you will judge him
• Tune into the individuals viewpoint (empathy)
• Show that you (are trying to) understand their
  viewpoint and what is going on for them
• Yeah, your coach sounds awful
• You feel angry and frustrated with your coach?
• Nelson-Jones (1997)

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Egans (1994) SOLER Guidelines

• S - Face the client squarely - a posture that
  indicates involvement
• O - Adopt an open posture
• L - At times it is possible to lean towards the
  other
• E - Maintain good eye contact
• R Try to be relatively relaxed

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Asking questions

• Open vs closed questions
• So you feel nervous when it is a big
  competition?
• Tell me how you feel at big competitions?

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Responding to the athlete

• Let the individual know you are hearing them
• Encourage the individual to continue
• Small rewards (NelsonJones, 1997)
• Then
• Sure
• Uh-uh
• And
• There you go!
• Head nods
• Eye-contact

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Responding to the athlete

• Reflecting and paraphrasing
• Repeat back (using different words) what you
  think you have understood from the client
• Shows you are hearing (the content and emotions)
  and being empathic
• What I hear you say is that you are sad
  because.
• What caught my ear

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Effective listening role plays

• In threes
• Discuss for 5 minutes
• How are you coping with final year?
• Your hopes and fears for post-graduation?
• Your ambitions in your sport
• Another topic

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Effective listening role plays

• Bear in mind
• 1. Physical positioning
• 2. Open questions
• 3. Small rewards
• 4. Reflecting/ paraphrasing

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Summary

• Defined communication
• Described characteristics of effective
  communication
• Highlighted the importance of effective
  communication in SP
• Practiced effective communication