Better Football Language Means Better Football

Jun 20

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What does athletic mean? What does technical mean? What does smart mean? We have all heard these words in the coaching world. We’ve been a part of coaching conversations where by using these words we attempt to describe a player. Any coach who has ever been on the collegiate recruiting trail knows what I am talking about.

The ambiguity of language isn’t exclusive to describing players but extends to describing matches or game situations. We hear expressions like ‘not wanting it enough’ or perhaps something like ‘we weren’t clinical enough’.

In any case, it’s a problem of poorly described football situations due to unclear language. The ambiguous nature of the football language creates a linguistic problem. Linguists define meaning in two ways; speaker meaning and audience meaning. Speaker meaning is what the speaker intends when using a word and audience meaning is what the audience understands when hearing a word. When these two meanings don’t match, we get miscommunication.

On top of that, we now know that the language that we use affects how we experience our world. The words that we use create a focal lens for what we pay attention to thus creating different perceptions based on the language we use. Language literally makes you think differently. This has massive implications on our coaching practice, and I will get to that briefly, but first let’s take a closer look at what exactly is the relationship between the words we use and our cognition.

Language and the Human Brain

The Kuuk Thaayorre language doesn’t use words like ‘left’ or ‘right’, instead they only use cardinal directions (north, south, east, west). Imagine replacing left and right with the cardinal directions; “your east shoe is untied”, “there’s an ant on your northwest leg”, etc. In fact, even how they greet each other incorporates cardinal directions. The normal greeting in Kuuk Thaayorre is “Where are you going?” and the answer should be something like ” Southsoutheast, in the middle distance.” If you don’t know which way you’re facing, you can’t even get past “Hello.”

It may appear that the Kuuk Thaayorre people, an Aboriginal community in Australia, have superhuman powers, but due to their language, they are able to orient themselves extremely well, at all times. When asked, ‘which way is northeast?’, even the youngest tribe members will be able to point with certainty in that direction. In order to speak properly, the Kuuk Thaayorre people always need to know where they are. It’s the requirements of their language that enforce and train this cognitive prowess.

In Russian, there are two different words for blue; light blue (goluboy) and dark blue (siniy). When studied, Russian speakers proved to be much faster at differentiating between different hues of blue in comparison to English speakers. Again, it’s the requirements of their language that enforce and train this cognitive ability.

In the Amazon, the Pirahã tribe do not have words for numbers. They don’t have words for ‘many’ or ‘few’. When researchers went to the Amazon to study these people, they found that the Pirahã could not grasp the concept of numbers. They could not count, they could not match number patterns, or remember any number sequences. Professor Everett, the researcher of the Pirahã people concluded in his paper, “A people without terms for numbers, does not develop the ability to determine exact numbers. People are only capable of constructing thoughts of which they possess actual words. Language is not just a way for us to express our thoughts, it plays a substantial role in creating them.”

Dr. Marshall Rosenberg’s work on emotional language found similar results. People who lacked a deep emotional vocabulary were less likely to recognise their emotions in the moment. Additionally, he found that a lack of emotional language in either partner of a couple resulted in more miscommunication in the relationship. Not having the words to describe how you’re feeling, leads to an inability to recognise and communicate those feelings.

Language is our Attentional Frame

As these examples have shown, language gives you a constant attentional frame. It’s the focal point of your thoughts. It helps you determine what’s important to focus on, something that you’re supposed to pay attention to because you have to use it in your language. In short, your brain subconsciously picks up on the things that you will have to communicate and disregards the things you won’t.

Consider this thought experiment; A realtor and a robber walk through a house. The realtor notices the leaky ceiling, the nice lighting in the kitchen, and the mold under the sink. The robber notices the brand new sound system, the china set, and the safe in the bedroom. Your culture and language direct your attention toward what is necessary.

So as we’ve learned the language that we possess shapes our ability to focus on certain things, this applies to football as well.

Recap:

It’s the requirements of language that force and train our cognitive ability.
People are only capable of constructing thoughts of which they possess actual words.
Language gives you a constant attentional frame; It’s the focal point of your thoughts.

Language in Football

To start let’s use a simple football example.

Say hello to Robert. Robert has never played nor coached football before. Robert has watched some football on television a few times in his life. Robert never engages in football discussions and does not know any football language. When Robert is asked what Team A could have done better in their match against Team B, he says that they could have run faster and kicked the ball farther.

Now, let’s say hello to John. John has played football for many years, and more importantly, has studied meticulously as a coach. He’s well-versed in football language. Within the club he works for, coaches are expected to describe events in terms of actions and not interpretations of actions. When asked what Team A could have done better in their match against Team B, he says that in attack within the team task of building up the centre-back had a pattern of passing the ball into the midfield line before creating passing options which led to a loss of possession.

Robert uses everyday language he’s familiar with to describe and explain the match he just saw. His ability to describe football is limited by his lack of football language. When Robert watches his attention goes to the words he knows, and his thoughts are limited to those words. Robert is like the Pirahã people who do not have words for numbers. He does not have words for football so he cannot think in terms of football.

On the other hand, because of John’s deep understanding of descriptive and objective football language, he is able to provide a much clearer picture of what happened. When John watches his attention goes to a wide variety of words he knows that describe what is happening. John is like the Kuuk Thaayorre who use cardinal direction daily.

Now, let’s dive deeper into John’s football language. Because John’s club culture expects its individual to speak with descriptive and objective football language, through necessity John has had to train himself in this way of speaking, which means thinking (language shapes thoughts).

Position, Moment, Direction, Speed

A great example of descriptive, objective football language is Raymond Verheijen’s Position, Moment, Direction, Speed reference. This reference is applied to describe football actions in terms of those four space/time characteristics. For example when describing a run behind the backline, one might say, “the left-winger was positioned appropriately behind her mark, the moment of the run was appropriate in relation to the pass and the defender to not be offside, the direction of the run was appropriate in relation to the opposition centre-back and the location of the goal, but the speed of the run was too slow in relation to her mark recovering and denying space behind.”

Verheijen’s PMDS model provides the coach with words to describe football actions thus directing their attention towards relevant space/time characteristics when watching their players. As coaches practice using this model, they are forced to better describe football situations for themselves and their audience. When all coaches within a club start using such model, as a collective they become exponentially better at describing football situations.

But imagine the cross-town rival club uses general football jargon after the left-winger doesn’t quite get to the through ball, “We’re just not clicking today. It seemed like she didn’t want enough. Our timing is off.” When using this language, the coach is not forced to be clear in their description. Again, this is another example of the Pirahã people. Their lack of clear language creates a lack of clear thoughts and descriptions.

Football Explanations

At this point, you might be asking what’s the big deal? So what if the cross-town rival uses common football jargon? Everyone understands it anyway. It’s actually a very big deal if we want to be problem solvers.

Humans are natural explainers. We look to find explanations in every single part of our lives. We are constantly asking why from when we’re young children to old age. Scientists believe that our constant desire to attempt to explain things in our world is the reason we developed a much great cognitive ability than any other species on our planet. However, our explanations can be wrong when we don’t have enough information about what we’re trying to explain. And as we have discussed, our language is our attentional frame. It tells us what to pay attention to. So if our language directs our attention to the most useful elements of what we’re experiencing then we have much better information to form our explanations.

To summarise in football terms, when our football language attunes our attention to important elements of the game, we can better describe what is happening. In doing so, our better descriptions lead to better explanations which lead to better solutions for our football problems (ie. Better training sessions).

Language in Philosophy

The British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” As we’ve seen, our language can either expand or diminish our ability to think. An expansive, descriptive football language can expand our ability to describe, explain and solve football. However, the keyword is descriptive. The purpose of language is to transmit ideas into the mind of another. The better our language the clearer are images are transmitted.

Language transmits our mental images to others. Wittgenstein came to this conclusion while reading a newspaper article about a Paris court case in which in order to explain with greater efficacy the details of an accident that had taken place at a road junction, the court had arranged for the accident to be reproduced visually using model cars and pedestrians. Words enable us to make pictures of facts. So when our language is limited so are our pictures.

Language Self-Reflection

Now, I turn this to you. What are the limits of your football language? Are you limiting your footballing thinking? How are you transmitting your football images? Are they clear? Do your football descriptions bring to mind the same images to your ‘audience’?

Now, think about your environment. Think about your club, your co-coaches, your staff, your directors, your players, etc. Is your environment forcing you to use language which is descriptive and objective as possible? Can you get away with meaningless football jargon? If so, are you okay with limiting your football thinking? Are you okay with not being able to count because you don’t have to use words for numbers like the Pirahã people of the Amazon, or perhaps you’re forced to use cardinal directions so you always know where you are like the Kuuk Thaayorre people?

If you feel like your environment is not forcing you to do this, we can help. Reach out to find out more about our consultancy program.

Language is a pillar to being human. They mold our thoughts and direct our attention. They shape our world and make us think differently. They connect us and help us grow together. Words help us describe better, explain better, and solve better. We all want to do best for our players and language is the first step on this journey.