fannishtalk:whydisignuponthisgodforsakensite:so-hockey-eh:Kaner scores to break the tie and gets a b

fannishtalk:whydisignuponthisgodforsakensite:so-hockey-eh:Kaner scores to break the tie and gets a butt tap for his effortsWhat is it with butt taps in sports? Is it mainly a hockey thing, since with the pads you can hardly feel it? Does it happen in other sports, too?Oooh, ooh, I can answer this!  From this article:Inside loud sports arenas, players must rely heavily on tactile cues to clearly and quickly signal success, happiness, anger and even trust. The butt plays a major part in delivering those messages. A 2001 study in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior tracked the touching habits of 171 college athletes. The stunning discovery? The butt slap trails only high-fives and hand taps as the most preferred and effective nonverbal tool for jocks. On a molecular level, butt slaps produce oxytocin, the hormone that generates feelings of trust. In other words, there’s a scientific connection between flicking ass and kicking ass.There’s also this article about team touching/team players in general that contains this gem: Recent research has established that members of high performing teams touch each more than those on other teams. One theory is that it keys the release of the hormone oxytocin, which creates strong bonds between the team members.Which is all just another way of saying teams that slap each other on the butt a lot, group celebrations, etc are all ways in which teams bond with each other and teams with strong bonds do better in whatever sport they are playing.   [By the way, oxytocin is the milk release hormone that women produce when they breast feed their babies, leading to bonding between them.]To bring this back to hockey/the Blackhawks - we saw last year on Road to the Classic how Toews was kind of jumping around pounding people on the shoulder, handing out butt pats, etc before the game (even his and Shaw’s jump into each other shoulder slam is relevant here).  And people thought that was so cute - but that type of attitude is also how he helps bond his team, motivate them.  In other words, a touchy feely Toews is a better team captain and team motivator than someone who leads by words or even by example alone.  Another example is the gif of Kane and Toews just kind of patting each other as they passed during a play - that type of non-verbal communication was them telling each other that they trust each other out there, they’ve got it, etc.  Even that recent story of Kaner talking to Sharpy while Toews skated around and kept coming up to tap his legs with his stick - even without it being acknowledged, that was a way to communicate between them that Toews was there, ready, everything would be ok, etc.  All with a 1 second touch in passing.By the way, these theories could, of course, lead to some awesome slash plot bunnies about teammates feeling the need to touch more to increase team bonding, leading to other forms of touching/bonding between them.  It would turn the phrase take one for the team on it’s head.  ;) -- source link

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