Fault/Reason/Correction

In skill teaching and skill development it is often fairly easy to identify the faults. The key to making the athlete better and improving your proficiency as a coach is identifying the reason or the cause of the faults and then to devise an appropriate correction. Once you do indentify the cause then you need to know what buttons to push to achieve the correction. The first step is to develop “action words,” verbal cues that elect the correction. These cues must be words that elicit action; they must be something that the athlete can relate to. Find out what works for your athlete, get them involved in devising cues so they have ownership. That is only one step; you must also provide visual feedback in the form of video or still pictures of them doing the skill. Also show them proficient performers doing the skill so they can have a clear picture of where they are heading. The most important step is the kinesthetic, get them to feel it, put them is the desired position or posture. Touch all the elements visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Find which elicits the desired response and focus on that for that athlete. Think of this axiom that I learned early in my coaching career: Talk it. Chalk it. Walk it.