— by Norbert Demps
Communication and all its different facets have been a huge part of my life. As a highly skilled, certified ski instructor since the age of 16, the international director of the Inline Skating Association and the person responsible for training examiners around the world, good communication was always key.
I learned so many different cultural aspects to communication through my university studies in Sports Prevention and Rehabilitation. I had the honour, for instance, of working with amazing athletes in different sports and with athletes who are differently abled, and these experiences really challenged me. In fact, I can’t think of anything that challenged me more in this area than the monumentous task of finding ways to communicate and guide effectively and precisely visually impaired skiers.
Imagine: you are surrounded by skiers and snowboarders of all age groups on a normal slope. Nothing is demarcated, blocked off or specially prepared in any way. You have to get not only the information of the slope and its conditions but of any changing conditions as well likedirection, rhythm of turns, speed and snow texture while adjusting your communication style quickly as needed. You have to consider your companions’ safety, as well as your own, and all the possible disturbances in your surrounding.
To top it off, and this may be the most important piece, you do it all with enjoyment. Your communication has to create room so your companion can feel the snow, the turns, the speed and the freedom to move through time and space. Which means you need to build awareness so you don’t over-communicate as well.
My biggest take away from those experiences? Due to the influence of our surrounding environment, we have a tendency to keep on changing our communication style and approach without ever being aware of it. So often I have had to remind myself about everything I learnt and consciously add it back to my daily communication style to improve the information I want to pass on as well as to keep on enjoying what I’m doing. This said, as a sports coach, and some of you may agree with me, I like to work on transfer effects: you can train your bad side on a turn while still improving your good side. Training one muscle group has an influence on others. So, why we do not transfer skills we learn in specific situations over to more general areas of our lives?
I’ll leave you with one last thought: communication can be easy if we, as the sender, take on the responsibility of building trust with the receiver. The more they fully trust that we will give them the correct and precise information at the right time, in the right context and as needed, the better all communication flows will become.
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