Mechanisms of Intercommunication

When observing the ways in which professional athletes communicate with each other, it turns out there are many different approaches.  Starting off with the football players, they have an abundance of ways to communicate with their teammates and their head coach.  NFL football players have headsets in their helmets to help them communicate plays to their teammates on defense and on offense.  The coach has a headset on and he is telling his players the plays and they confirm the play call.  The person that helps call plays in addition to the head coach on offense is called the offensive coordinator.  On defense, the person who calls plays is called the defensive coordinator.  Football is unique because of the headset situation.  Other sports, like basketball, use a playbook instead to call plays.  When the coach of a team calls a timeout, he/she draws a play on their whiteboard for the team to enact or he/she already has a set number of plays drawn up for the team to use on the basketball court.  If a hockey or baseball player were to look at the playbook, they probably would not understand the plays and what they mean.  Baseball athletes can communicate as well.  Hand signals from the dugout and from the catcher are used as a means of transmission with the players who are pitching or when a coach wants a player to steal a base. All in all, there are many ways players communicate in their respective discourse communities.