CAB Chapter 5 - Kinesics

After reading through chapter 5 I knew I had to go with “kinesics” as my topic for this post.  Wood (2012) refers to kinesics as “body position, body motions, including those of the face” (126) and talks about how many different things we can convey the about the way we feel and the way others see us through kinesics (Wood, 2012).  The idea of nonverbal communication has been around much longer then the thousands of verbal languages present throughout the world and is often regarded as more believable than verbal communication (Wood, 2012).  Although kinesics is only one of many types of nonverbal communication it may be one of the most powerful. A person can send a message of a thousand words without even knowing it through kinesics. One of the best examples of kinesics might be a group of teenagers preparing themselves to enter a haunted house during the Halloween season. By looking into their eyes you can see fear, even though they may be laughing and joking in line before entering. Another good example might be a homeless man on the street. More than likely he is shuffling along with a slouched posture, looking down at the ground, obviously portraying hopelessness and despair. Even though neither of these examples use words it is easy to see how a message can be communicated.

The second   I was finished reading the section on kinesics a prime example popped into my head. Me being a sports, specifically a football fanatic, remembered back to the 1995 Orange Bowl when Nebraska played Miami. It was a game for the ages, a battle between two of best programs in the country. At the beginning of the game both teams were hyped up and ready to throw down. Miami was what though by some as a very “cocky” team while others might have called them confident. Either way they walked around looking that way. They were good and everyone watching thought just that when they saw them. The same went for Nebraska.  Being one of the best teams in school history made it easy for Tom Osborne’s players to exude confidence as they prepared to play. But even though the kinesics was easy to see in the start of the game the reason I thought of this game was how Miami looked closer towards the end. In the fourth quarter during a television time out both teams were on the field waiting for play to resume. While the Nebraska players were still standing tall, walking, breathing, and acting like they were ready to be crowned champions the once “cocky” Miami Hurricanes were down on the ground kneeling gasping for air, giving a nonverbal “white flag” of surrender. I have talked to two players from Nebraska that played in this game and they both talked about how in that moment they knew they had won because they could see the Miami players were ready to quit just by looking at them.

Learning about how nonverbal cues like looking beat down and worn out can be a great asset for my teammates and I as we enter this season. Even if we make mistakes and are starting to see the game get away from us we can keep that confident and ready to roll look in our eyes and in our body language, making sure we never surrender a moment where the other team knows that they have beaten us. It can work the other way as well. We can keep our eyes out for the other team doing what Miami did in the 1995 Orange Bowl and coming at them even harder when we see it.