Welcome to this month's coaching section. As coaching section editor, I would like to provide you several themes in behavior modification, feedback, and the definition of the best coach.

Article one provides practical information about how to give feedback in coaching. Giving feedback is such an interesting research topic in sport sciences. There are different explanations and findings about it in sport psychology, sport pedagogy, and motor learning, but it is still an essential element of coaching and coaches. Athletes and coaches are heavily dependent on feedback in many cases.

Article two explains behavior modification in sports. This is still a popular topic in coaching sports, and can be used for both coaches and athletes as well.

And finally, article three presents some ideas about the definition of the best coach.

I believe that behavior modification techniques and giving feedback are not the only ways of effective communication, but can be helpful in the process of communicating.

I wish you a happy and healthy spring.

Ferman Konukman
Coaching & Sports Section Editor

Editorial content does not necessarily reflect the opinions and perspectives of PELINKS4U.

How to Give Feedback in Coaching and Teaching Sport Skills?

Dr. Ferman Konukman, Central Washington University, Department of Health, Human Performance & Recreation, Ellensburg, WA E-mail: konukmaf@cwu.edu

This is a popular topic in coaching and teaching sport skills. I prepared a simple, but detailed guideline on how to give feedback with some theoretical background.

What is Feedback?

Feedback is the information learners receive about their performance (Rink, 2002).

Kinds of Feedback

	Information available to athletes about their performance can be two types (Fischman & Oxendine, 1998):
	Extrinsic (Augmented) Feedback : The information is provided by external sources such as coach, teammate, video tape , judges, stop-watch.
	Intrinsic Feedback: The information is provided by the athletes’ own sensory systems such as the position of arms and legs during a jumping event.

Other Classifications of Feedback

Types of feedback can be classified in many different ways and each type of feedback may have different purposes (Rink, 2002).

Evaluative Feedback

	Evaluative feedback happens when there's a value judgment concerning how well a skill or task performed.
	This provides performance results directly to the learner via coach or other instruments, such as a coach saying, “John you jumped 60 inches this time.”

Corrective Feedback

Corrective feedback provides information about “What to do” or “What not to do” in future performances, such as a physical education teacher saying “Don’t forget to run after you hit.”

Evaluative & Corrective Feedback (Cont)
Evaluative & Corrective Feedback can be:

	General
	Specific
	Positive or Negative
	Directed to the class or group
	Directed to the an individual
	Congruent & Incongruent

General Feedback - General feedback provides information about a general performance outcome such as a basketball coach saying, “Good job ladies.”

Specific Feedback - Specific feedback provides information about specific aspect(s) of a performance, such as a strength coach saying, ”Have a pronated grip and extend your arms slowly.”

Negative Feedback - Negative feedback provides a negative statement about past performance and is evaluative, such as a high school soccer coach saying, “Even first graders play better than you.”

Positive Feedback - Positive feedback focuses on future performance and is corrective, such as a personal trainer saying “Lift the dumbbells at the same time.”

Individual Feedback - Individual feedback provides specific information about the performance of a single player, such as a tennis coach saying “Have a proper follow-through after you serve.”

Group Feedback - Group feedback provides information about the performance of a group, such as a basketball coach saying “This teams is playing amazing well today. Keep up the good work.”

Congruent Feedback - Congruent feedback gives information on performance that is directly related to what the learners have been asked to focus on, such as “Your speed and agility in this last touch-down was the turning point of the game.”

Incongruent Feedback - Incongruent feedback gives information to the learner that is not related to the task focus, such as “Watch your opponents very carefully in the last miles.”

Functions of Feedback
Feedback has three important functions in skill learning and performance

	Motivation
	Reinforcement
	Error correction or identification

Guidelines for Providing Feedback
Three steps approach (Christina & Corcos, 1988): Before giving feedback to an athlete, the coach should first do careful analysis of the athlete’s technique.

	The first step is to compare the athlete’s technique with the correct technique.
	The second step to analyze the technique is to select one error to correct one time.
	The third step is to determine cause of the error.

After the three-step process it is time to give immediate feedback. A Sandwich approach is recommended (Fischman & Oxendine, 1998):it starts with a compliment about the technique and finishes with encouragement.

Before giving feedback a coach should emphasize Four important points:

	How much?
	How often?
	How precise?
	When?

references >>>> continued top of next column...

continued from previous column...

How Much

	KISS : Keep It Simple Stupid, or Keep It Short and Specific.
	Short and simple information should be provided.
	Positive feedback should be provided instead of negative, such as saying, "Remember to have your elbow in 90 degree," rather than "don't drop your elbow before you serve."

How Often
Two factors should be considered very carefully:

	The nature of skill: If the skill is continuous, coach should wait till the end of performance (such as gymnastics). If the skill is not continuous or discrete, coach may provide feedback after every attempt.
	Level of learner: If a learner is a beginner feedback should be provided more frequently. When the performance improves coach should reduce the rate of feedback.

How Precise

	This depends on the cognitive and psychomotor level of an athlete.
	In early stages of learning more general feedback should be provided, such “Please swing your racket from down to up.”
	In advance learners this becomes more precise, such as “To have a better top spin please rotate your wrist forward.”

When

Feedback should be provided after the skill is performed.

What Does Research Tell Us?

Research in physical education, Motor learning, exercise, & sports have provided conflicting results.

Research in Physical Education

Silverman & Tyson (1994) made a meta analysis on feedback in physical education, and they have not found a relationship between student learning and teacher feedback.

Research in Exercise and Sports

	Mendoza & Schollhorn (1993) found positive results on training in the sprint start technique with biomechanical feedback.
	Bram & Feltz, (1995) found no effects in batting performance from feedback on batting skill performance in youth baseball.
	Vickers et. al, (1999) studied two coaching methods: behavioral training with abundance of feedback & complex instruction with delayed reduced feedback on baseball hitters. Results showed that both group improved in their performance.

Research in Motor Learning
Research in motor learning provided results that support the effects of feedback in general.

Janelle et. al., (1997) conducted a study involving throwing a tennis ball with the non-dominant hand (200 throws). Some of the participants received feedback and others did not. The results showed that individuals given feedback performed better than participants who received no feedback. Moreover, Individuals who got feedback when they asked for it performed the best.

Kernodle & Carlton (1992) found that prescriptive feedback helps more than descriptive feedback. In their experiment participants threw a nerf ball as far as possible with their non-dominant hand. Two groups of participants received descriptive feedback only (videotape replay of the movement). The other two groups received descriptive plus a prescriptive feedback (such as focus on the hip during throwing phase). Results showed that participants in the prescriptive feedback improved their distance and movement form better than descriptive feedback group.

Conclusion

	Consequently, research on feedback in sports sciences produced conflicting results and do not support strongly feedback as a performance enhancement.
	However, as Magill (1994) stated: Extrinsic (augmented) feedback may be necessary for some skills; it is not needed to learn some skills; for some skills it helps the learner to acquire the skill faster or achieve a higher performance outcome than would be possible without it.
	Therefore, these complex relationships in the learning environment should be considered very carefully, and replication of feedback research is needed in different settings.

Behavior Modification in Coaching Sports

Coaching is a highly demanding job that requires a lot of interaction with athletes in many ways, such as teaching sport skills, giving tactics, and teaching appropriate behaviors. Providing positive and negative reinforcement are the basic principles of behavior modification in sports. Thus coaches can eliminate or change undesirable behavior such as tardiness and aggressive behaviors in sport settings. Finally, this can produce more desirable behaviors such as sport personship and team cohesion for athletic performance.

Weinberg and Gould (1995) recommended the following key points when implementing behavioral interventions for athletes:

Target the behaviors: If you are trying to apply a behavior modification program, define and change only a couple of behaviors. Finding too many behaviors can cause confusion for athletes.

Define targeted behaviors: try to find observable and recordable behaviors such as attendance, tardiness, throwing racquet etc.

Record the behaviors: Recording these behaviors can provide an idea about the percentage of behaviors. Also this can be feedback to players and coaching staff.

Provide meaningful feedback: Providing meaningful and detailed feedback may increase athletic motivation on a task. This can be done at a team meeting or individual conference with the athlete.

State the outcomes clearly: Specific behaviors and outcomes should be stated very clearly.

Tailor the reward system: An external reward system could be helpful to motivate some athletes. Less motivated athletes may rely on them.

references

Here are some helpful links that provide information on how to set up behavioral strategies in coaching sport skills.

- Positive Coaching Alliance
- Article on Behavior Modification
- References to resources
- Violence in Sports