“There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring, and pride” Coach K.

In a game like basketball, effective communication is critical to the success of the team.

Effective communication is the glue that keeps the players together on the court so they can make game-changing decisions.

Importance of Communication

Basketball is a team sport. Research on sport psychology for basketball shows that, when it comes to winning championships, it’s not always the team with the dominating superstar that wins the trophy; it’s the one that works best together as a team.

During a competition, every player should have an idea about the next move of other teammates. This coordination comes with communicating.

Communication such as body language, gestures, and movement can be just as effective as verbal communication for communicating on the court.

Pointing to a place where you want the person or the ball to go, or pointing out what needs to be done are all effective ways to communicating your intentions to teammates while on the court.

The more you communicate, the more powerful your team will become. With more information, you will be able to make split-second decisions on the court which will result in desirable outcomes – Winning!

Benefits of Communication

• Effective communication helps players understand a situation on the court and enables them to make a difference and create conditions where other teammates can flourish
• Effective communication helps to develop understanding and improve performance
• Effective communication builds confidence among team members
• Effective communication encourages risk-taking and develops basketball mental toughness
• Effective communication will bring positive changes to your mental game, and you will feel confident on the court.

Along with team members, proper communication with the coach is equally important.

As simple as communication seems, much of what we try to communicate to others and what others try to communicate to us gets misunderstood, which can cause conflict and frustration.

Studies have shown that effective communication is best when it is direct and straightforward.

Learning effective communication skills will help you connect with your teammates, coaches, and others.

Emotions play an important role in the way you communicate.

It’s the way you feel, more than the way you think, that motivates you to communicate or to make decisions.

The way you react to emotionally driven, nonverbal cues affects both how you understand other people and how they understand you.

The best players in the world are successful because they know the importance of communication on and off the court.

*Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in Basketball.