Giving out feedback:
Okay, so we are all not so perfect coaches when we first started. Thanks to my coach who was also my mentor to be a better coach, my learning experience, and my education. So I'm sharing this with you and hopefully you learn from my mistakes. Sometimes I wonder why athletes are not responding or making changes I want them to make. It was so frustrating on me and the athletes. I ask myself is it me or the athlete.
At times, I used to give out too much feedback thinking people would think I was smart and knowing what I was talking about. Yes , I'm smart and know what I'm talking about therfore I was certainly WRONG about giving out too much as if I was lecturing. No wonder the kids are giving me the Scooby Doo look! So I guess it was me that was the problem.
In part one I have identified the types of feedback. The augumentive feedback can be qualitive and quantitive.
In my coaching experience giving out feedback, I believe that quality is more important than quantity. However that's really depends on the age and level of the athlete. The quality of feedback is more concrete of what you want the athlete to do. Telling athletes what not to do is not quality feedback. Telling the athlete what they did wrong and support it what they need to do to fix it, is quality feedback. Make sure you use words that athletes can understand. Do not use the big kinesiological science words. So put yourself in their world.
Quanity is how much feedback or information you give to the athlete. Have you ever go into a class room or lecture hall and listen to a 55-60 minute lecture? How much you really remember what was being said? I guarantee you may only remember the first 2 minutes and/or last 2 minutes what actually being said! The is the same for giving out to much feedback. The athletes may remember the first and last sentence you said. Too much feedback is like multitasking in their brains that can lead the athletes to be overwhelm thinking too much at one time. This results of poorer performance and frustration for both athlete and the coach. When giving out feedback try to keep it short and one focus at a time.
So what is my solution to my problem I used to have? I have what I call, bits and pieces. Bits and pieces help me give feedback one mistake, one focus, and one part of the skill at a time rather than the outcome of the skill. To help me, I deconstruct the skill in bits and pieces and focus on that. The outcome will come when the athlete organizes itself to understand the skill as a whole. Becuase the quality and quanity of feedback depends on age and level, my rule is to give them 1-3 things to fix and no more than 5-8 seconds to control the amount of feedback I give!
Best of Luck!
