Feedback to participants

When wanting to improve athletes feedback is very important. Athletes need to be provided with feedback if they want to improve their technical and tactical sides of performance. ‘Feedback alone provides sufficient information for skill learning to occur’ (Jones et al, 2008) therefore it is up to a coach to provide this sufficient information for skill learning to occur. Since reading this quote I have tried to evaluate how I provide feedback to athletes. I did this my remembering experiences within the football team I coach.

The first example was a midfield playmaker, whenever he received the ball he often carried or passed the ball back into the congested areas of the field. During half time I spoke to the player and told him what he was doing. I then told him when receiving the ball focus on switching the ball to the opposite side of play where the space is likely to be. During the second half I saw a massive improvement, every time the player received the ball he looked up and passes the ball into space rather than the crowded areas. This not only had an improvement on that player’s game, it also saw an improvement to the team’s game as goals were scored due to the switching of play.

Another example was a player who lacked confidence while shooting. Prior to a match this player would always be taking shots and depending how good his shooting was before the game often had an effect on his shooting during the game, if it was poor beforehand it would be poor during the game too. I spoke to the player and told him instead of shooting before a match, aim for the crossbar. By doing this the target is reduced massively and so are the expectations of hitting the target. But if the player hit the crossbar he would then be confident as he has hit a small target. This is a good psychological tactic, and it paid off during the match. The player’s confidence during the match was far better when aiming for the crossbar and once this feedback was given to the player, his shooting improved and he scored more goals.

It is very important that coaches provide feedback to their performers as and when they see it.

These types of feedback sound very simples pieces of coaching but it is important to understand that a performer doesn’t always see things as simply as a spectator. The job I did was take simple observations and convert them to help improve a performer whether it be through tactical play or psychological. If I didn’t provide these types of feedback to the performers they would still be under performing to their potential.