Silence is darkness.
Walk into a gym on game day and soak up the ambience. Hear the pep band, the players sharing concerns, bouncing balls, and sometimes...nothing.
At practice expect to be greeted by upbeat talk, squeaking sneakers, and occasional whistles. Silence means problems.
Sound moves us. Chef Thomas Keller explains that the sizzle of pan-seared meat feeds back temperature and moisture. Sam Jackson shares that sound guys or lighting crew make or break your performance. Don't live on the wrong side of sound.
Tone matters. We exhort or throw shade at teams with "let's go" depending on the tone.
A visiting coach knows his team faces a challenge hearing defensive talk. Talk intimidates. Talk energizes. Talk alerts teams. "Silent teams lose."
The parents yelling "shoot" or "don't reach" aren't making their child better. A potentially severe injury brings sudden silence. At a local high school game not long ago, silence erupted as a first row fan had a cardiac arrest.
Coaches use crowd noise at practice to accustom teams to load arenas. Or music to energize the players.
The opposing coach starts abusing the referee in the opening moments. "Get in the game" or "how can you call that?" back to back in the first minute earned a "T." You don't have to use the mother of all cusswords to get tossed for an expletive reply.
