16 | sound of silence

Despite making a living from sound, Kendrick Lamar understands the value of silence. In a discussion with Rick Rubin, Lamar referenced the role meditation has played in his existence, and how vital it is in an industry where the schedule cuts time in half.

I have to have at least 30 minutes to myself...to just sit back, close my eyes, and absorb what's going on...For me now, I have to find a way to understand the space that I'm in and how I am feeling at the moment.

kendrick lamar

The demands of professional sport are similar to that of a touring musician. When Lamar describes the cycles that can make the years go by quickly, he may as well be describing the schedule of a professional athlete (or coach or executive). And when your perceived value is determined by your productivity, it can be hard to prioritize what can sometimes feel like the exact opposite. But we know that productivity is often a reflection of recovery. In sport, this may mean prioritizing physical rest through sleep. It may mean paying more attention to how the body is fueled through nutrition. And from a mental perspective, it may mean giving the brain a chance to do nothing. It may be one of the few instances where you actually get something from nothing!

I am far from an expert on meditation, so I will leave you to seek out specific information elsewhere. The goal for this issue was simply to acknowledge that, despite my interest in sound, silence has a place, too! If you want to learn more, I would recommend checking out Daya Grant (and signing up for her newsletter). I was fortunate enough to attend a recent book club with Grant on Dan Harris’s MEDITATION FOR FIDGETY SKEPTICS, which is great introduction to the topic. The book, and Grant’s writings, are great starting points if you want to explore more about meditation.

Andrew Dix. 2021. Their hands communicate and their eyes listen: Perceptions of small group messages amongst deaf college basketball players. Communications & Sport, 9(6), 972-987.

summary: The purpose of this study was to explore how outsiders perceive communication among Deaf athletes using American Sign Language (ASL) in the sport of basketball. 96 hearing participants were asked to rate their perceptions of basketball teams using a modified version of the scale for effective sport communication in team sports (SECTS-2; Sullivan & Short, 2011). Participants were presented with presented with official team photographs of the male and female basketball teams from a private university in the United States for the Deaf. A graphic designer removed identifying information from the photographs and participants were given no information about the school or its athletes. Participants completed the SECTS-2 in response to the team photographs. Next, participants completed a distraction exercise the required continual addition and subtraction for periods of 3 minutes per operation. After the distraction exercise, participants completed a second SECTS-2 while viewing the same team photographs, but this time the photographs included the text “The basketball players in this photograph communicate through American Sign Language (ASL)” and “the basketball players in this photograph play for a private university for the Deaf.”

potential translations to sport: There is often tremendous emphasis on verbal communication (e.g., calling out screens) within basketball, but this study highlights the limitations of only thinking in terms of what can be spoken (or yelled). I have to admit that the title of this study - and even the abstract - led me to expect a far different procedure than what actually occurred. I had to re-read the method several times to make sure I wasn’t missing something! Despite that, I see the potential for something interesting in terms of translation.

I have previously had discussions around the topic of this research with basketball coach Harri Mannonen, with both of us wondering what could be learned by studying the on-court communication of Deaf athletes and what may be learned by limiting verbal communication of hearing athletes in practice. Based on the perceptions of the hearing participants in this study, some questions immediately form:

• Would I see positive shifts in communication (i.e., more messages of acceptance, enhanced conflict resolution) within my team if I limited verbal communication within a practice session?

• Would it matter if verbal communication was limited both teams? Would the results change if only one team was limited?

• If positive shifts in communication didn’t occur naturally, could I make them the explicit goals for the exercise and notice positive changes?

Again, this study’s procedure threw me for a loop, so I may be trying to make lemonade out of rocks here. At the least, I think it is interesting to think about communication as a constraint and about what we can learn from those whose communication looks different than ours!

In a recent article exploring how coloring helps South Carolina basketball star Chloe Kitts reduce pre-game nerves, Kitts aversion to any use of music was addressed.

Chloe Kitts does not like music. Not even a specific genre — just music. All of it. OK, save for Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA,” to which she knows all the words. Aside from that, whatever her happy place is, it does not include tunes. Yes, sometimes she wears headphones. They just aren’t connected to anything. If you lifted the headphones off her ears, 99% of the time you’d hear silence.

jordan kaye

I know that many athletes value the role that music can play in their preparation and love the opportunities to discuss its use. But I would never tell an athlete who didn’t want to use music that they had to just because there was research to supports its use in general. If coloring works for Chloe Kitts, then I would tell her to keep coloring. When it comes to athlete performance, the most important evidence is often personal.

In the spirit of silence, we go with a track from 1990 for this issue. The irony of the piece is not lost on me, but I am willing to overlook that and hope you can, too!

Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can't you understand?
Oh, my little girl

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

depeche mode ENJOY THE SILENCE

In honor of Chloe Kitts, this issue’s playlist is a single track from American experimental composer John Cage.