"Lefty" Steve Carlton had Tim McCarver.
Bob Bryan has Mike Bryan.
Ekaterina Gordeeva had Sergei Grinkov.
Baseball. Tennis. Pairs figure skating.
These are examples of athletic pairs with amazing communication.
The all-time MLB left-handed strike-out leader, Steve Carlton was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies from the St. Louis Cardinals in the early 1970s. A year later, his personal catcher, Tim McCarver, made his way to Philadelphia where he would receive Carlton’s nasty slider. Carlton and McCarver had a communication unto themselves, even forcing the Phils to sit starting catcher Bob Boone every time Carlton came up in the rotation.
The Bryan brothers, in addition to being twins, are legendary tennis partners, having made the finals in seven consecutive men’s doubles Grand Slam events. The brothers played on Daniel Island in 2004 when the Family Circle Tennis Center hosted Belarus in the Davis Cup. Their on-court communication and an aggressive style of play was, and is, amazing to watch.
Gordeeva and Grinkov’s communication on the ice was legendary. The 1988 and 1994 Olympic champions in pair skating, their movements were perfect, in sync, their jumps huge and unbelievably beautiful. The pair married, had a child, and continued to express themselves as skaters until Grinkov died suddenly of congestive heart failure at just 28 years of age. Gordeeva’s solo skate in honor of her husband and partner was chilling as she later said she felt as if she were skating with him.
The communication between these top performing athletes seems intuitive, as if they have unspoken communication.
Maybe they did. But most likely, their smooth communication came from hard work and lots of practice.
In any event, I’ve learned that unspoken communication isn’t communication at all. It’s a recipe for misunderstanding.
For some of us, good communication comes easily. For others, it’s an ongoing challenge.
How’s your communication? Do you practice it? Or do you assume that other people should intuitively know what you’re thinking?
Reminder to self: The truth is that the only way people know what we want or expect from them is to tell them.
Open communication might not earn you an Olympic medal, a tennis championship or a strikeout record, but it just might earn you some peace of mind.