2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

Coaching

Providing Movement Demonstrations and Instructions When Coaching New Movement Skills: Some Cautionary Advice
NICOLA HODGES

When teaching new movement skills in football, such as an overhead kick, or volley, it is tempting for coaches to provide the learner with as much pre-practice information as possible.

This information may, for example, highlight the 'correct' ways of performing an action. Although this instruction can be provided relatively easily, it is not always necessary and may even have adverse effects on learning. Demonstrations and instructions undoubtedly provide important information regarding the goal or desired outcome of a skill. The goal of the action when executing a cross might be to raise the ball in the air to make contact with a player on the far post. Although instructions specify the aim of the action, whether or not they have a rale to play beyond this is questionable. Recent research suggests that minimising the amount of information about how to achieve a certain outcome benefits learning, as long as sufficient feedback about performance accuracy is provided. In this article some cautionary advice is presented to alert coaches about potential problems when indiscriminately using movement instructions and demonstrations in the early stage of skill learning. 'More is not always better' as far as the provision of instructions is concerned- Take-home messages are provided in the boxes at the end of each section. How do demonstrations work and why should coaches be cautious when using them? The Blueprint Early in learning, any 'blueprint' or memory template that develops as a result of watching a demonstration may be an incorrect representation of the action. If the skill is not understood, a poorly developed idea of the movement could promote undesirable behaviour. In recent research where performers were required to copy coordination skills with their arms, demonstrations actually reinforced bad habits and constrained the type of movements attempted. In contrast, the provision of feedback about performance accuracy did not

cause the same type of bias. When the performer attempts to reproduce a movement, yet does so incorrectly, the coach must be aware that the difficulty may be one of misunderstanding, not a lack of physical ability. The learner may not understand what exactly was required or may be unable to form a good template of the action. Provide the learner with specific and simple goals to aid understanding of the skill. When greater understanding of the skill is achieved, a demonstration can be used later to refine the movement. Skilled Demonstrations Throughout the various stages of learning, ways of achieving movement outcomes may differ between individuals. This may be a result of individual differences in body type, strength, fitness and/or experience. Early in learning, performers lack the control of experts and often need to simplify their movements to achieve success. The ability to bring in other limbs or parts of the body to help improve performance comes with practice as the skill develops and greater precision, or adaptability, is required. Expecting a novice to achieve the same outcome as an expert by adopting the same movements is not a recipe for success. Trying to copy a movement template (ie a believed correct way of performing an action) can promote consistency in the initial response, but not necessarily a successful performance. Early in learning when the individual is trying to break from past habits, variability in movement behaviour should be encouraged so the learner does not try to adapt an unsuitable movement pattern. Encourage early movement variability if the learner is showing difficulty achieving the desired outcome. Show varied models of different people of different body types or skill levels achieving the desired outcome.

Emerging Movements Movement is often a consequence of the demands faced by the performer in novel situations. In this way, movements are the means to achieve a goal or outcome, not the actual goal itself. If the target for a beginner is to get the ball to a player on the other side of the field, a lofted pass might result (ie the desired movement) without any instructions or demonstrations. Knowing what to do defines how the skill should be performed. A scissors kick in football might be performed as a result of the individual being in the wrong position to perform a front-facing kick or a header. In this situation, the scissors kick is performed as a solution to the problem of reaching the ball to attempt a shot. Early in learning, emphasise outcome goals to encourage the movement as a result of trying to attain this goal. What to do and Areas to Target Promote Movement Variability Trying to copy a demonstration can constrain the attempted movement and limit success. If a learner cannot initially perform the skill, the only information provided by a demonstration is visually what not to do. Although it would help the learner to narrow down the choices of movements to achieve an outcome, this type of instruction could lead to the avoidance of certain movement behaviours, thereby having a negative effect on learning. For example, if in the demonstration of a lofted pass there was very little backswing of the kicking leg, the learner might also try and limit this part of the response and subsequently the types of movements attempted to perform the shot. Indeed, the backswing may actually be important to the beginner who lacks the leg strength to perform the task, or has not learnt how to distribute the upper body and the nonkicking foot to make the ball travel to the intended target.

Feedback helps to encourage a new movement on the next attempt because the learner is aware that an error has been made. This feedback can be about the degree of error in achieving an outcome or about how the movement was performed. Without feedback, learners can be quite unaware as to whether they actually performed the same movement as the coach or model and this is part of the reason why video is employed in many sports to help present this information about error. Some individuals, however, for a number of reasons, fail to try new behaviours even when feedback is offered. In these situations it is helpful for the coach to suggest different techniques or encourage early movement variability if the learner looks stuck, repeatedly performing the same, incorrect action. Limit demonstrations initially if there are alternative methods for encouraging the behaviour. Provide informative and appropriate feedback regarding the goal of the action that is judged to be important. New behaviours will only be attempted if the learner is aware of something being performed incorrectly. Direct attention carefully Although it is often recommended that the coach should direct attention to relevant information, the information that is most relevant is often unknown. For example, when crossing a ball, is it the position of the nonkicking foot, the kicking foot or the hips that is most important? If the coach decides that the position of the non-kicking foot should be highlighted, it is likely that improvement with respect to foot positioning will be observed, but not necessarily success in performance, or correct positioning of the other limbs. If the skill is relatively complex, highlighting one information source by instructions and indirectly or directly by movement demonstrations may limit attention to others and subsequently performance will suffer. In the last issue of "Insight" (Vol. 4, Issue 1, pp. 48-49) it was suggested that feedback be externally focused, towards the ball for example, rather than the actual foot doing the kicking. Instructions and demonstrations can also promote an unhelpful, internal focus of attention and shift attention away from achieving the outcome and using the feedback to enhance performance on the next attempt. To keep an external focus, continually relate the demonstrations and the instructions to the outcome and provide this information along with the attention to specific aspects of the movement if feedback can be provided relating to these aspects and after the learner had the opportunity to watch the demonstration without attentional instruction initially.

Give clear learning goals By providing movement demonstrations in addition to outcome goals, the learner may become confused as to what they should be trying to achieve. Early in practice the coach must decide what is the most important goal. Is achievement of the outcome more important than how it is achieved? Although both may be seen as important, if the learner tries to do both, he/she may have difficulty achieving either. Measures of performance and instructional feedback should reflect the goal chosen by the coach, ensuring compatibility between the prepractice information and the feedback. In the research literature it has been established that groups who do not receive pre-practice information in the form of a demonstration, perform as well, or sometimes better than groups who receive demonstrations. This is because their attention is focused on the outcome (eg passing the ball to a teammate rather than on how this is achieved). However, if the form of the movement is the desired goal, then demonstrations can often help technique, although not necessarily outcome. At different stages of practice, different goals may be important. Keep the task simple for the beginner initially and make it clear whether outcome or form is more important. Summary Although there has been very little research directed at uncovering the appropriate time to provide instructions and movement demonstrations, there is some suggestion that learners may be best left to practice the skill early on under their own devices. In this situation, however, care should be taken to ensure that learners are aware of the desired outcome and receive feedback as to whether this outcome was achieved. It is very important for the coach to reinforce success at this early point in learning, changing the goals to make the task different, or more difficult if outcome is achieved, but in an undesirable way. Instructing and informing as to goal attainment are critical. The feedback and instructions should be compatible, relating to the same desired goal of the action. Early in learning, performers should be given the opportunity to achieve the outcome with minimal constraining information concerning how this is to be achieved. Movement demonstrations can be provided after initial familiarity with the skill to help refine the movement.

DO Make the task simple early in practice Encourage early variability in the initial movement attempts Provide adequate feedback regarding goal attainment (both technique and outcome) DO NOT Confuse the learner with too many goals that may be conflicting Limit the attempted movements by providing only skilled demonstrations Instruct as to correct movement form, but reward for outcome success. Table 1 Some key do's and don'ts when using demonstrations Further Reading Gentile, A M (1972) A working model of skill acquisition in teaching - Quest, 17, pp 3-23. Lee, T D, Chamberlin, C J, and Hodges, NJ (2000) Practice. In Handbook of sport psychology (2nd edn} (edited by R Singer, C Janelle, and H Hausenblas), pp 115-143. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Dr Nicola Hodges is a post-doctoral Research Fellow in Motor Behaviour at Liverpool John Moores University- She has a Masters degree in Kinesiology from McMaster University, Canada and doctoral degree in Motor Learning from the University of British Columbia, Canada.