Providing Positive Feedback

By: Rainer Martens, Robin S. Vealey

Originally Published in: Successful Coaching

Provided by: Human Kinetics

Take this short true-or-false test to raise your awareness about giving feedback:

Questions

1. Save feedback until the end of practice so as not to disrupt practice time.
2. More frequent feedback is better than less frequent feedback.
3. When an athlete is making several technical errors, it is best to correct only one error at a time.
4. You and your assistant coaches should be the only people providing feedback in practice.
5. When giving feedback, do not tell the athlete what was done incorrectly—only provide feedback on
   how to do the technique correctly.
6. Give simple and precise information about how performance can be improved.
7. Frequent positive feedback, such as "Nice job!", is more important than lots of technical instruction.
8. Use sight and sound in providing feedback.

Answers

1. False—The sooner you give feedback, the more likely athletes will remember what the feedback pertains to and to practice correctly.
2. True, within reason—The more often athletes get useful feedback, the more they will try to correct their performance, and thus, the faster their learning will be. As athletes' technical skills improve, though, they need to learn to rely more on their own feedback and less on feedback from the coach.
3. True—Learning is more effective when an athlete attempts to correct only one error at a time, which means that you must decide which error to correct first. To do so, begin by determining whether one error is causing another. If it is, have the athlete try to correct that error first because this will eliminate the other error(s). However, if the errors seem to be unrelated, have the athlete correct the error that you think will bring the greatest improvement when remedied. Improvement will likely motivate the athlete to correct the other error(s).
4. False—Athletes, especially those who are a little older, should give feedback to each other (of course this feedback must be accurate).
5. False—In fact, feedback means to feed back exactly what was done. When athletes perform incorrectly, you should feed them back with what they did wrong. Then explain how to do the technique correctly.
6. True—Tell and show your athletes what they must do to correct errors. Be careful not to go overboard; give just enough information so they can concentrate on correcting one error at a time.
7. False—Positive feedback is good. However, specific positive feedback is much more valuable. Such feedback specifies what was correct and reinforces those aspects for all the athletes in a group. An example of specific positive feedback is, "Nice follow-through on that shot!" The same principle holds for negative feedback. If a player performs incorrectly, simply saying, "That was a terrible shot," is not helpful. The player already knows the shot was terrible. What is important is how to improve. A more effective approach would be to say, "Your shot was off the mark because you allowed your elbow to swing to the outside. Try keeping the elbow tucked in to your side."
8. True—People learn in different ways; some gain most from explanations of how to improve, whereas others need demonstrations. Both explanations and demonstrations should incorporate specific feedback. For example, you might demonstrate how a player performed a skill, explain what was good and what you believe needs more attention for improved performance, and demonstrate the refinement you would like to see. Show and tell your players how they can improve using specific positive and negative feedback.