The Role of Non-verbal Communication in the Coach-athlete Relationship

The starting point in choosing this theme was the belief that in the specific professional sports instructive activity the dominant form of communication is the nonverbal communication in the coach-athlete relationship, with implications for the improvement of the training process. The study consisted in a sociological approach through an inquiry conducted on a group of athletes. The questionnaire comprised items with prefigured and open answers to facilitate the research in the female gymnasts of the “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau team. A dominant form of expressing in the sports training is represented by body movements as “an expression of energy and information through posture, movement and indices”, a psycho-somatic connection (body-soul) through which feelings and emotions are expressed. The gestures of illustration, the artifacts, the facial expressing are other landmarks of the existence of nonverbal communication perceived by the athletes in the sports training process. The body language communication is perceived by most respondents, the messages transmitted this way being continuous, facilitating a dialog between the coach and the female gymnast.