Tell Them What To Say

I don’t think any team communicates enough if you ask their coaches. We are always pleading with our teams to talk more. Every team I’ve coached hasn’t talked enough to satisfy their coaching staff, to the point where it must be harder than we think. It’s not natural for a lot of guys to communicate openly and consistently, especially when they have a job to do in the middle of an intense game. It’s simply not that easy to get players to talk, or we wouldn’t be complaining about it all of the time.

It’s hard for a lot of players to do their job and talk to their teammates at the same time. Not everyone can handle it. We can’t just simply yell at them constantly to talk more. They need to know what to say.

I think this is a point a lot of us miss. If you want your team to communicate more, tell them what to say. They need to know the language, and it needs to be simple. One word cues. “Help.” “Blitz.” “Left.” “Right.” Don’t expect your guys to have a full conversation with their teammates. If you make it too complicated for them to talk, you are only making it harder.

Simply yelling and screaming at your team to “Talk!” isn’t helping them. For most, it doesn’t come naturally. Develop your own team language, using as many one word cues as you can. It can be something that your players take ownership of, that becomes their own. But make sure you tell your team what to say. It will make them a lot more comfortable talking on the court, and ease some of your frustration with your team’s lack of communication.