Introduction
Communication is the transfer of information in the form of an understandable message through a channel from a sender (coach) to others (athletes, personnel). Communication is the exchange of information, thoughts, ideas, or emotions among two or more people. Successful communication also means that the message should not only be transmitted, but also appropriately decoded (Kanelopoulos, 1990). Communication is an important factor of cohesion of any group of
people which works together attempting to achieve common objectives. Effective communication is a prerequisite for group coordination, the development of good personal relationships and trust within the team and the creation of a positive environment around and within the team. Effective communication among group members leads the team effort to the achievement of its goals. On the other hand, any lack of communication usually leads to bad cooperation and coordination and finally confusion among team members. In fact, communication is necessary for all team functions and has been called the life-blood, or the neural system of any organization (Himstreet, 1995). Communication is correlated to effectiveness and efficiency of any team function, through its informational, motivational, evaluative and emotive role.
Himstreet (1995) stated that the communication process could exist on four different levels: the inner-personal, the
interpersonal, the group and the organizational level. Since communication is a complicated process, researchers from various organizations have developed a variety of unique methods to study the construction. Such methods are activity sampling, sociograms, eco-analysis and the flesch index in addition to the popular questionnaires, interviews, experimental designs and observation, which are used also in other areas (Aldag and Stearns, 1987). Coaching is a very important profession, especially when you have to help athletes to enjoy mastering new skills, competing with others, and to feel good about them. Successful coaches not only should have the proper technique, knowledge or skills of their
sport, but also they should know how to teach these skills to athletes. The coach's success and team performance depends, to a large extent, on his or her ability to communicate effectively with the athletes. The basketball
coach, as the leader of a group of people, encodes and sends messages to players and assistants, in order to affect their behavior. The communication process involves four different parts: