Coaching with Cues – Effective Cue Progressions and Practices in…

By: Boo Schexnayder

Originally Published in: Techniques Magazine

Cues are verbal words and descriptions that coaches use in attempts to elicit a specific motor response from an athlete. Cues, along with demonstrations and feedback, serve as the vast majority of the methodology coaches use when teaching and correcting sports techniques. Cues vary greatly. Some are heard on a daily basis at every training venue in the world and are a lasting part of athletics coaching culture. Who hasn't heard a coach tell an athlete to "get the knees up" while sprinting or "build stride frequency patiently" on the jump runway. Other cues are far more sophisticated, show greater levels of understanding of the event by the coach, and they are valued as "secret weapons" by many successful coaches.

KEYS TO EFFECTIVE CUING

The true secrets to effective, high-level cuing can be summed up in four parts.

Understanding the Movement. The first requirement for effective cuing is a sophisticated understanding of the movement required. An understanding of how each body part moves is a good start, but understanding the relationship in timing between these individual movements constitutes a much more advanced understanding of the movement, and is a prerequisite to high-level coaching. An understanding of the appearance of the desired movement (and ability to identify deviations from the desired model) is helpful. In all, an understanding of the forces at play that create the movement's appearance constitutes a far more sophisticated and effective approach to cuing.

Understanding Cause-Effect Relationships. There are cause-effect relationships at work in the execution of any sport skill. The ability to effectively execute one phase of the event is directly dependent upon the proper execution of some prior movement. In the jumping events, these cause-effect relationships have many roots. Some are rooted in velocity or momentum development. Some are rooted in human elasticity, meaning elastic responses in certain phases of the technique feed energy and allow efficient execution of the event's succeeding phases. Some are rooted in posture, some in the rate of frequency development in the jump approach. Identifying all of the cause-effect relationships encountered in the jumping events is impossible; the number is infinite. Still, it should be the mission of a good jumps coach to identify and understand as many as possible in order to create cuing efficiency and expedite the process. Much time is wasted in coaching cuing effects without addressing their root causes. Efficient cuing in practice helps. Efficient cuing in competitions is critical since the number of competitive trials is limited and the opportunity to experiment is nonexistent.

Understanding the Difference between Appearance and Feeling. Understanding the appearance of the desired patterns of movement is essential to effective cuing. Understanding cause-effect relationships raises our level of coaching effectiveness. However, the most advanced and effective cuing takes into account the sensations and feelings the athlete experiences as the event is performed. In the jumping events, athletes are moving at high velocities and producing large forces, and at velocities as high as 12 meters per second, things feel different. Also, there is always a delay in human proprioceptive feedback. Sensations are relayed to the brain for processing in a delayed manner, meaning that a tenth of second or so passes between the time a position is achieved and the brain perceives it. This results in things feeling very different to the athlete than they might appear on video. The best cuing practices take in information based on how it looks to the coach and translate it into how it feels to the athlete.

Distinguishing between these is essential to good cuing. Performance is about movement, not positions. Even the most critical positions an athlete must attain in performance last hundredths of a second, and athletes must be able to move fluidly into and beyond these positions. In many cases, emphasis on a position disrupts the entire flow of the movement.

For example, at the end of the initial push off from a start, you see an athlete's body aligned in a straight line, from the head, through the torso and push off leg, to the toe. We all understand the importance of this position. However, in a good start, you never stop or rest in this position. To ask an athlete to "feel" this straight-line position would interrupt the flow of the movement and by the time the athlete achieves the position, the message is sent to the brain, and the position is perceived, the subsequent movements are already far too late and excessive backside mechanics result. All this, in spite of the fact that the "straight line" position is readily visible in every great start. It's not what it looks like; it's what it feels like. What is actually a complete push feels like an incomplete push to a great athlete. There are other examples. Great sprinters show significant backside mechanics when sprinting, but only feel the frontside due to the anticipatory nature of ground contact and the high velocities involved. Good triple jumpers show significant frontside prior to the landing of the first phase, but really only sense the backside component immediately prior to it, since the forward movement is not of the body's volition, but resulted from elastic loading of the hip flexors at takeoff.

Creativity. The single biggest factor that limits the development and improvement of a coach is an unwillingness to cue creatively. In many cases, the coach is simply afraid to say the wrong thing. Any cue might be a good one in a certain situation with a certain athlete. Cues that originate outside the boundaries of common jumps-coaching culture are often the most effective of all. Often, cuing something that is generally considered bad technique might very well work when the athlete's habitual mistake is on the other end of the technical spectrum. Adventuresome cuing is indeed rewarded often, and when it fails, the only cost is a wasted repetition. Along the same lines, repetitively using cues that aren't working - because of bias or because they are commonly used in jump coaching - wastes time and wrecks the athlete's confidence in the coach.

CUE SYSTEMS

A cue system is a group of related cues that are used to teach a skill and to control the subtlety or radicalness of the change in performance. In most cases, the cues in a cue system are not only related, but are of the same cue categories.

For example, in acceleration, the forward body lean and extended pushing create a sensation that the feet are behind the athlete. At maximal velocity, even though the feet touch down under the center of mass, the athlete receives a perception of dominant frontside due to the anticipatory nature of ground contacts. Therefore, an athlete who doesn't spend enough time in the acceleration phase could be cued to "feel the feet behind you longer" or told, "you got your feet in front of you too early." A person who over pushes in acceleration could be cued to "get your feet in front of you sooner." In this case, a cue system is built around the athlete's perception of the location of their feet with respect to the body's core.

TYPES OF CUES

Cues can be generally categorized into one of the categories below. This list of categories is not necessarily complete, and the categories are not necessarily exclusive. Many cues may fall into one or more categories.

Internal Cues. Internal cues are cues that refer to the movements or positions of body parts. "Knees up," "dorsiflex the ankle," "toe up," and "land on the heel" are all examples of internal cues; they refer to the positioning of certain body parts.

External Cues. External cues are cues that refer to movements of the body as a whole, often with respect to the surroundings or a certain location (like the takeoff board). "Lower your center of mass/hips," "push up," "push out," and "rise in front of the board" are all examples of external cues. They all refer to movements of the body as a whole or to the body's center of mass.

Spatial Cues. Spatial Cues deal with the location and relative position of the body parts with respect to other parts or the environment. For example, cuing the knee to drop in front of the ankle prior to pushing off of the board in the triple jump takeoff or cuing the arms behind the body at the initiation of the high jump takeoff are common spatial cues.

Temporal Cues. Temporal cues deal with the timing or the rhythm of movements with respect to spatial landmarks or other movements. A long jumper who rises prematurely at takeoff can be cued to "rise later." Common cues governing the development of stride frequency on the runway all fall into the temporal cue category.

Fragmented Cues. Fragmented cues deal with small portions of a larger movement. For example, cuing the subtle heel first grounding of the takeoff foot on the board in the triple jump, followed by a rolling action of the foot against the board, with an emphasis on flexion of the forefoot and extended pressure on the ball of the foot during takeoff, would constitute a very detailed description of the takeoff foot's actions during that phase of the event, but is fragmented because it would examine only a tiny portion of the total human anatomy.

Holistic Cues. Holistic cues deal with gross characteristics of the movement or larger portions of the movement. They are commonly characterized by one or two key words and the meaning is obvious even to an athletics novice. "Set up," "lower," "relax," "slow the back" and "work your transition harder" are all common holistic cues that you will hear repeatedly on the coaching box of any competition.

Qualitative Cues. Any cue used in a feedback situation that conveys the correct/ incorrect nature of a skill can be classified as qualitative.

Quantitative Cues. A cue used in a feed-back situation that does not only convey correctness or incorrectness of a skill, but also provides information regarding the degree of correctness or incorrectness, can be classified as quantitative. There are many situations in skill teaching where an athlete makes a change and feels it's a positive change. However, the change may be too subtle and insufficient or far too radical and overly extreme. Quantitative cuing conveys the quality of the skill, rather than absolute right or wrong conditions. Telling an athlete that an improvement was made from a grade of 50% to a grade of 75% gives the athlete not only an indication of progress, but also an idea of how radical the change intended must be and an idea of what perfect execution will feel like.

Radical Cues. Radical cues describe a partially learned skill as a totally new skill, as to minimize learning interference from the previous pattern of movement. In many cases, subtle degrees of error correction result in slippage and returning to old movement patterns. In many cases, radical cuing results in faster learning and greater permanency. Sometimes insecurity in coaching leads to a strategy where the coach makes a small correction on an experimental basis, with the intention of making a more radical change once improvement is confirmed. This strategy seldom works.

Overcuing. Overcuing is a form of radical cuing where the coach goes so far as to actually ask the athlete to make some mistake, in order to move an athlete radically along the technical continuum. When considering nearly every skill, a technical continuum exists, where radical errors lie at the ends of the continuum and the desired technical model lies in the middle. It's often a very effective and fast-working coaching practice, when an athlete is making an error, to ask the athlete to make the opposite error with expectations that the resulting technique will lie in the middle of the continuum.

For example, when examining maximal velocity mechanics in sprinting or on the runways, anterior pelvic tilt is a common problem. The hips tilt forward, the back arches into a lordotic position and the general shape of the body's core becomes curved: stomach in front, hips and legs behind. It's often effective to have these athletes think of curving their bodies in the opposite direction at maximal velocity. Of course, it wouldn't be correct to follow this advice exactly, but many athletes have improved dramatically as a result of this example of overcuing.

PROGRESSION AND PERIODIZATION OF CUING

Certain cues work better in different practice situations and at certain times of the training year. The following are some key considerations for long term cue usage strategies:

Internal vs. External Cuing. The preponderance of motor-learning research seems to support the superiority of external cuing in skill teaching. However, when dealing with highly technical skills, using only external cues can be a frustrating experience. Generally speaking, we use internal cues to establish a context of sorts in which external cuing works. When an athlete is cued externally, the resulting movement might very well be incorrect in spite of the fact that it meets the cue's requirements. There are right and wrong ways to execute the skill within the boundaries of the external cuing. Internal cues serve to limit the degrees of freedom in the execution of the skill, and thus provide the correct context for external cues.

For example, a commonly used external cue elicits lowering of the center of mass on the long jump penultimate step. This lowering can occur in many ways. It can occur
in support during the penultimate step or in the flight phase immediately prior to the penultimate grounding, or a bit of both. The amortization during lowering can be hip dominant, knee dominant or a bit of both. Cuing the hip, the knee, shin rotation, foot placement, etc., and developing proper movement patterns create a much better chance of success when external cuing is eventually used.

Spatial vs. Temporal Cues. Spatial cues, in most cases, are better at slower speeds and in the early stages of learning (in the "slower" phases of the event, like the start, they might be applicable at any time). In most cases, we see a progression from a preponderance of spatial cues to a greater involvement of temporal cuing. Spatial cues may be used in high-speed situations, provided the difference between appearance and the athlete's sensations are properly accounted for and they are used in a holistic manner.

Fragmented vs. Holistic Cues. Fragmented cues are used exclusively in drill situations and at low speeds or intensities. Holistic cues can be used in those situations as well, but are best reserved for high speed, high intensity situations. Any good coach-athlete tandem goes into a major competition armed with an understandable array of holistic cues.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Cuing. Quantitative cues can be used in nearly any situation that qualitative cues could be used and are generally preferred.

CYCLING CUE SYSTEMS

Cuing practices and cue systems should be cycled, in much the same way as training is arranged into cycles. Cues, like training, are a stimulus that produce an adaptation, and any cue tends to lose its effectiveness over time if used often; much like a workout that is overly repeated. Training produces adaptations, and in skill teaching, the adaptation desired is a change of motor behavior. Adaptation to a cue occurs over time, and the value of that cue then decreases for the time being.

Often, we see an athlete's skill levels improve dramatically due to the implementation of a new cue system. Eventually, the system loses its effectiveness and other technical issues begin to leak into the athlete's technical model, requiring implementation of a different cue system to continue the technical improvement, or even possibly to manage the technical regression.

Normal cuing progressions (internal to external, spatial to temporal, fragmented to holistic) are a big part of this necessary cycling of cues. However, additional cycling is typically necessary. This cycling can be effective in very simple forms. For example, in coaching a long jumper, alternating between cuing the penultimate side of the body and the takeoff side of the body provides a very simple effective cycling system. This alternation can occur from session to session, week to week, or month to month.

This is not to say that an infinite number of cues or cue systems are needed. Cues that seem to have lost their effectiveness regain their effectiveness after being on the shelf for a while. In most cases, two or three ways of cuing a particular aspect of jump technique, rotated on a regular basis, works well.

Of particular note is how this cycling of cue systems affects the peaking process. All coaches make adjustments to their training in the championship phases of training in order to enable an athlete the best chance to succeed in those critical competitions. Consideration should be given to adjust cuing practices as well. Since cues seem to lose effectiveness over time, implementing a new cue system too far in advance of the critical competition (and sticking with it through this competition) might result in technical regression at a critical time. Continued rotation of cues and cue systems, or the implementation of a new (but familiar) system 3-4 weeks in advance of a critical competition, can help to maintain and ensure technical sharpness when you need it most.

BOO SCHEXNAYDER, TRACK & FIELD STRENGTH & CONDITIONING COACH AT LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CURRICULUM AND TEXT FOR THE JUMPS SPECIALIST CERTIFICATION COURSE OF THE TRACK & FIELD ACADEMY. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TRACK & FIELD ACADEMY GO TO USTFCCCA.ORG.