20th February 2018

Team Talk Analysis

Rugby is a big part of New Zealand’s society. The rugby culture is immense as the people of our country show great pride for their team. When the All Blacks come up against an over seas team it becomes war as we show great compassion for our teams. Although it is literally not a battle on in the stands or behind the TV there is definitely one on the paddock. In our rugby team the coach uses many different spoken language tools to convey the idea of war and aggression. He uses spoken language tools such as metaphors, initialisms and Jargon’s.

In our spoken language we modify it in many ways for it to become more beneficial. Coaches throughout a huge range of sport modify spoken language to benefit the team or individual they are coaching. This is shown during my rugby teams pre training talk where my coach modify’s his spoken language to become more aggressive and violent which insists that rugby is a battle. One way he modify’s his spoken language to make it feel like war during this team talk is by using a metaphor, such as “hit”. Which means in rugby terms, pass the ball. This puts aggression into the way he speaks to the team and gives the sport of rugby a war feel. It gives it this violent war feel because the real meaning of hit out side of rugby is to strike someone or something and cause injury in the end result.

Another way my coach modify’s his spoken language during this team talk is by using initialism. This makes the boys in the team feel included and the people outside of the team feel excluded in a way because they will not understand rugby initialism. Initialism’s such as “D” which is an abbreviation for defence is used often in this team talk. Initialisms put inclusiveness into the team but another strong roll they have in spoken language is to add speed and intensity. To initialise a word by just saying the first letter of the word it speeds everything up which makes it more intense and aggressive which and convey aggressiveness. Initialisms are another modification that the coach uses to get his aggressive point across that he wants to treat rugby like a battle.

The final way that my coach modifies his spoken language is by using a language tool which is a specialist term for a certain topics or in this case rugby. This is called a jargon. Jargons such as “attack wheel” are  specialist terms that are used in the Mount Aspiring College  first 15. Since the rugby community and the MAC 1st XV know this specialist term and know the meanining it they can feel included like they are part of an army or a battalion. Jargons are another way the coach coveys the idea of war and aggression into his spoken language.

Through this essay we can see that New Zealand rugby and rugby’s language has effected society hugely. So hugely that we start to include all of rugbys spoken language into our everyday spoken language. This gives us kiwis an aggressive up front and we may even come across rude. Studies show domestic violence rate increases after the our local province team looses a match where we are in war with each other by applying our aggressive speech in to physical violence. This shows that our coach is conveying the idea of war and aggression into our everyday life just by a pre training speech.

 

 

Join the conversation! 2 Comments

  1. I wonder if efficiency is your coach’s main aim here? I certainly doubt it’s why he employs aggressive metaphors.. what other aims might better suit what he’s trying to achieve in this setting?

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