03
Talk With Your Hands
Motivational speaker Jim Abbott was a major league pitcher who also helped the United States win baseball’s gold medal in the 1988 Olympics. I heard him last week at the National Association for Law Placement’s annual education conference. He is affable, self-effacing, funny, and sincere. His told stories designed to help us see that when you are on top of the world you may be down again in the blink of an eye, and somehow, you can pick yourself up. The rest of the crowd seemed to share my feeling that he was as entertaining as he was thoughtful.
Abbott is tall, like most big-league players, and cut a striking figure. As usual, I couldn’t help watching his speaking technique, and my first impression was positive. He paced more than I would have advised, but it didn’t prevent him from being friendly and accessible. His earnest demeanor was winning.
Like many speakers, he began without knowing exactly what his hands should do. They had a life of their own. His left hand kept seeking the comfort of his pants pocket, but Abbott resisted letting it go there. Both arms ventured away from his body tentatively at first, as he emphasized a point, then quickly pulled back into a more protective position near his torso. It was as if his body kept trying to help him talk, but he resisted its request.
Finally, as it does with every speaker, his body won. He relaxed into his speech, and his hands and arms began to show us his meaning with a fluid grace that supported his words and ideas. We saw how he received the snap of the ball as a high school quarterback, how his dad sat next to him and lectured about sportsmanship and humility, and how the split fingers look when you throw a fastball. He showed the catcher’s signal for a slider, how big his elation was when he got called to the majors, where the door to the locker room was when he walked out of it for the last time. The moment his body became an equal participant in his speech, he was sailing. He had us in the palm of his hand.
Jim Abbott was born with a withered right arm and hand. One reason he is a minor celebrity is that he pitched a no-hitter for the New York Yankees with his strong, perfect left arm. One reason he is famous is that he did it against all the odds—ostensibly one-handed. He’s not just a role model for kids who want a major sports career, he’s an idol for kids who are differently-abled. (That term is certainly appropriate in Abbott’s case; he makes me re-think my preconceptions about ability.)
Abbott gestures with both famous hands. You can see how they help him think. His left hand is beautiful, with long expressive fingers. It was relaxed and open as he spoke. Think what that hand knows how to do: throw a variety of scary, accurate pitches at a small imaginary rectangle 60 feet away! The knowledge encoded in his left hand is significant. No wonder that hand is so expressive during speech.
Science tells us that the knowledge encoded in Abbott’s right hand is significant, too, but it is different from his left. We saw that his right hand and arm are completely engaged not just in the sports he played, but also in the language he uses to tell us about it. He showed us how he accommodated his small hand, deftly slipping his glove onto his pitching hand to field a ball. His whole body coordinated beautifully to play baseball in the majors, and now it works just as well to tell us his story. The stories about pitching, and his father, and the door of the locker room were all told with both hands working in a naturally (and automatically) choreographed dance of his hands, arms, and body. Abbott’s body became his own visual aid.
Abbott is the perfect example of how people gesture instinctively. Everyone has a natural gestural “vocabulary,” or series of moves that accompany speech. For everyone, those moves are different. Some people gesture a little, some a lot, some vigorously, and some languidly. Some are much differently-abled than Jim Abbott. I once lectured to a room of attorneys that included a senior level lawyer with no arms at all, but who had a charismatic smile I had noticed earlier, across a noisy, crowded room. His whole body engaged in the act of communication, concentrating the meaning of his words in an intense face with captivating eyes.
Everyone’s body helps them speak, most often with explicit gestures. Everyone’s style is different, and each uses different tools to express ideas. Do you know how your hands help you talk?
