Using video for more effective feedback in training can provide coaches with tools to give athletes individualized and targeted feedback. However, there are psychological, educational, and logistical issues to consider when using video. Effective use of video feedback requires distinguishing between learning and performance, directing athlete attention externally, and managing environments to maximize learning. While video can be useful, coaches must consider how to promote discovery learning and implicit skill development in athletes.

1. Using Video for More Effective
Feedback in Training
Keith Lyons
November 2001

2. Credo
The real impact of sports science at a
practical level is in giving coaches the
freedom to be coaches.
Wayne Greensmith and Bill Sweetnam

3. Starting Points
• We have been influenced by our teachers and
coaches.
• The world class environment has opened up
immense amounts of information that we have to
manage and integrate.
• Digital convergence has offered us unprecedented
technological tools.

4. Starting Points
• We are all trying to move our coaching
from ‘good practice’ to ‘best practice’.
• Long-term sustainable development:
Performance, Potential and Start are
inextricably linked in a performance
pathway.

5. Visual Literacy…
An ability to comprehend and
create visuals in a variety of
moving and static media in order
to communicate effectively.

6. Teachers have long known that …
Visuals help children comprehend
unfamiliar vocabulary and add
meaning to stories in ways that
words alone cannot.

8. Using Video for More Effective Feedback
• Some psychological issues.
• Some educational technology ideas.
• Some logistical issues.
• Appliance of coaching science and the art
of coaching.
• A question of perspective.

9. Coaching Contexts
The training environment
Preparation for competition
Competition
Analysis of performance data
Dissemination and education.

10. Psychological Issues

11. Feedback
We need to distinguish between the
role feedback plays in relatively
permanent effects on performance
(learning) and the temporary effects
(performance). It is important not to
confuse the two!

12. Richard Schmidt
• Frequent augmented feedback can
degrade learning!
• We must distinguish between learning
and performance.
• Feedback only if learner’s error outside
predefined band of correctness.

13. Positive Effects of Feedback
• Indicates errors.
• Directs corrections.
• Guides behaviour to target.
• Motivates and energises.

14. Negative Aspects of Feedback
• Becomes part of task when presented
frequently.
• Blocks error-detection?
• Encourages too many trial-by-trial
corrections that could degrade capability to
produce stable behaviour.

15. Effectiveness of video learning?
The effectiveness of video learning varies from person to
person. Perception is strongly affected by what we expect or
are ‘set’ to perceive. This influences both what we select and
how we organise and interpret it.
Perception organisation is affected not only
by the stimulus but by the perceiver’s past
experiences, present interests, and needs.

17. What kind of information?
• Qualitative
• Quantitative

18. Volleyball example
• Peter Hastie’s use of video with an Under-16
volleyball group.
• Motor skill acquisition:
– Post-event: “molecular view of performance”.
– Reinforcement of concurrent feedback.
– Systematic analysis

19. Volleyball Example (continued)
• Maximising use of video: distinguish
general outcomes from specific outcomes.
Coach pre-views to ensure specific
feedback or selection of cues.
• Importance of cueing attention for
responsiveness of players.

20. Synchronous
and Asynchronous
Use of Video

21. Train
Watch
Train

22. Asynchronous Environments:
Away from the Training Session

23. Plan
Review selected
behaviours
Watch
Permanent
video record
Train
Stimulated
recall
Plan
Select
behaviours
Watch
Permanent
video record
Train

24. Synchronous Learning
Environments:
at the Training Session

25. Watch
Train
Immediate Short-term
repetition of memory
task
Watch
Train

26. Dilemma!

27. Peter Jensen (1997), National Institute of Mental Health
Extensive exposure to television and video games
may promote development of brain systems that
scan and shift attention at the expense of those that
focus attention.
1. Quick changes of image activate the brain’s
‘orienting response’: it is hard to resist them!
2. The earlier children acquire a passive TV
habit, the more likely attention span will not
develop normally.

28. Implications?
• Children need much more time in self-
directed doing than viewing!
• Practicing concentration and attention
skills is best done through concrete
experiences in the 3-D world.
• Don’t fill every non-training minute:
otherwise how will children develop
intrinsic motivation?

29. Can coaches train
perceptual and
decision-making
abilities?

30. Ability?
• Some experts seems to have visual defects!
• “After 70 years of research there are few
conclusive links between performance on
standard visual tests and athletic
performance” (Starkes and Lindley, 1994).

31. Expert?
The classification of an expert, at least by
researchers on expertise, appear to be quite
arbitrary and that the criterion used to define
expertise varies substantially from researcher to
researcher and from study to study.
Abernethy, Thomas and Thomas (1993)

32. Expert?
Experts are frequently found to be surprisingly
poor on some component skills but are able to
compensate for any such weaknesses with
exceptional capability on one or more other
components.

33. Video and Occlusion

34. Starkes and Lindley (1991)
• Women’s basketball study
• Optimal offensive move for ball carrier
• Shoot, dribble, pass?
• Occluded at point of decision
• Useful at intermediate skill level to enhance
speed of decision-making?

35. Advantages of this Approach?
• Does not take up on-court time.
• Coach does not need to be present.
• Learning is self paced.
• Can be used all year.
• Minimal equipment required.

36. Lindley (1987)
Video simulations are probably the
best for training decision making …
Even with just 90 minutes of video
training over 4 days, intermediate
skill level players reduced their
decision-making times.

37. Anticipation
Fery and Crognier (2001)
• Information available in opponent’s
stroke movements in tennis?
• Occlusion.
• Prediction.

38. Williams (2000)
• Skilled athletes do not possess superior
visual systems but skill differences are
evident in cognitive dimensions of
performance.
• Experts encode and retrieve information
due to long-term memory structures.
• Anticipation.

39. Ward and Williams (2000)
• At what age do soccer players develop
perceptual skill?
• Report of work with 9 to 17 year olds.
• Shown video simulations with occlusion to
measure anticipatory performance.

40. Simulation
• Does it mimic real-world task?
• Realism and expertise of subject?
• Lessons from flight simulators?
• Extreme environments where task demands
often exceed perceptual and cognitive
capabilities? (Tactical air missions).
• Virtual reality?
• Reality rooms?

41. The World’s first Reality Center™,
SGI Reading, UK

42. First Reality Room in Oil & Gas –
Texaco’s Visualization Center, Houston
First Real-time Interactive Planetarium -
Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of
Natural History, New York
First Solid screen cubic environment -
Foundation of the Hellenic World,
Athens, Greece
First 170 seat interactive entertainment
Dome - Seoul, Korea

43. State of the art warplane cockpit system used by pilots to aim
missiles with their eyes now used to improve dyslexics’ eye-
fixing and tracking.

44. Learning a Motor Skill?

45. Gabriele Wulf
How can skills be:
• Acquired faster?
• Retained better?
• Transferred?
How can we use implicit and explicit learning?

46. Keith Davids
• Visual demonstration and verbal instructions
• Slow motion and real time analysis
• The structural organisation of practice
• Skill acquisition and deliberate practice
• Visual search strategies
• Cue usage

47. Internal and External Focus
• Thinking about one’s actions during
movement execution can be detrimental
to performance.
• Directing a learner’s attention to the
effects of their actions can be more
effective than directing their attention to
the movements themselves.

48. Implications for Video Feedback?
• Can we use video images to promote an
external focus?
• Can we promote discovery learning with
such feedback so that athletes develop
implicit learning?

49. Logistics 1
• Effective use of video requires time for coach
and athlete to become familiar with
technology and information presented.
• This is video self-confrontation!
• It requires the management of learning
environments to maximise the impact of
video.

50. Can you see?
• How comfortably you can see a projected
image is a function of the screen’s width
and height factored against the audience’s
viewing angle and distance from the screen.
• There are guidelines available.

51. Screens
• Centre of screen no more than 20 0 above
the eye level of any viewer.
• All viewers should be seated within 300 of
the projection axis and never more than
450 off axis.

52. Size of Audience and Size of Screen
Audience Size of Screen Distance from
First Row
1 to 4 21”
5 to 9 29”
10 to 14 37”
15 to 35 60” 10’
36 to 50 6’ 12’
51 to 140 10’ 20’
141 to 220 12’ 25’
221 to 400 16’ 33’

53. Subtended Angle
Prime seat!
2/3 way back

54. Impact of subtended angle on viewing experience?
Very
Involving
Not
Involving

55. Does size matter?
• Evidence to suggest screen size affects
attention.
• Evidence that size affects evaluation: the
bigger the screen the more positive the
evaluation.
• Are larger images more persuasive and
memorable?

56. Evidence from instructional media research
indicates that technologically influenced
coaching works best when an athlete is
empowered with decision-making authority
under the guidance of a knowledgeable
coach.

57. Shyness?
Since the 1970s, 40% of
adult Americans report
that shyness presents a
problem in their lives.
Shyness is a discomfort or
inhibition in interpersonal
situations that interferes with
interpersonal and professional
goals.

58. Monitoring the Impact of Video?
• We need long-term studies to help us
understand athletes’ transitions from novice
to expert.
• We need to reflect upon the impact our use
of video has upon our own coaching style
and monitor knowledge and performance
gains.

59. Video Modelling and Video Prompting

60. Video Self Modelling
• A procedure that uses carefully planned and edited
positive self-images with the goal of changing the
frequency or quality of a person’s behaviour.
• A short video of two to three minutes viewed by
student over two week period and forms basis of
monitoring.
• Requirement: person wants to change and desired
change is realistic.

61. Types of Self Modelling
• Feedforward (Peter Dowrick)
• Positive self-review

62. Video Modelling and Video Prompting
• video modelling is defined as a videotape of a
model completing the total chained task and the
participants viewing the model prior to each
training session.
• video prompting is defined as a video
demonstration shown during a training session to
participants after they have failed to perform a a
correct response within a designated time period.
Norman and Collins (2001)

63. Video Modelling
• Linda Haymes and Stephanie Martin: skill
building and improving performance. Research
with autism. Production of effective resources.
• Liisa Neumann: shortening development gap?
Low tech solution.
• Keefe: success at correct point in evolution of drill
can enhance and supplement learning.

64. Importance of video from
perspective of the participant

65. Behavioural Intervention
• Shipley-Benamou, Lutzker and Taubman:
task analysis of behavioural steps and
sequences then video created from
participant’s point of view. Behavioural
change evident one month later.

66. Critical Incidents
A critical incident is highly compressed case
study that poses a problem but offers no
preferred solution.
Aim: to trigger problem-solving discussions.

67. Instruction and Demonstration?
• The coach is responsible for teaching the
athlete what to do, how to do it well.
• Visual demonstration.
• Verbal instruction.
• Coach’s pre-practice impact?
• Paradox: we know a lot about augmented
feedback but very little about pre-practice!

68. Recent Research
• Coaches should provide clear instruction as to the
task goal and provide feedback that is appropriate
to the instructed goal.
• Instructions should relate to the task goal and not
necessarily the mechanical means to produce the
movement.
• Allow and expect error and variability early on in
learning as long as athletes know they have made
an error.

69. Recent Research (continued)
• Although there are general features of a
movement that define skilled performance
these templates do not generalise well
across individuals. Individually based
templates may be more appropriate.
• Do not confuse training with learning!
• Young children benefit more from visual
rather than verbal instruction.

70. Recent Research (continued)
• The relationship of explicit and implicit learning
processes: individuals learn to respond effectively
to certain aspects of skill without being aware of it
and without being instructed to learn.
• In stressful conditions, explicit rule-based
instructions may be harmful.
• Some athletes may focus on mechanics of
movement and hinder acquisition. Keep pre-
practice explicit information to a minimum!

71. Recent Research (continued)
• Pre-practice information can direct an early
learner’s movement strategy. This may not
always be most appropriate approach.
Discovery may be more effective.
• Encourage task environment experience and
encourage exploration and variability … so
long as sufficient error information is
available.

72. Recent Research (continued)
• Skill level determines what information athletes
gather from demonstration.
• Providing error information is vitally important
early in skill acquisition. It encourages new
behaviours… so long as athlete is not attempting
this from intrinsic feedback.
• Direct attention to external effects of the action
rather than the limbs.

73. Recent Research (continued)
• Challenge: discover ways of facilitating
behaviour change in early acquisition by
encouraging early variability in the
movement response and resisting the
influence of preferred yet undesirable
movement patterns.
• Withhold instruction early in acquisition to
encourage variability.

74. Recent Research (continued)
• Feeding back on movement should be as
simple as possible and should give
information about goal attainment. Error
information should be easily obtainable to
determine goal achievement and effective
implementation of pre-practice information.

75. Wilkinson’s £50m plan to beat world
• Television cameras implanted in ceiling of indoor
pitch to enable coaches to use instant video
replays via large screen.
• Access to Prozone tracking.
• Video playback facilities on 11 outdoor pitches
either at pitch or in seminar rooms nearby.
• Video viewing library.
• Analysis facility

76. Partnerships?
• Robert Baker (golf coach)
“I tried to show Ernie his swing several times
on the video. His right arm keeps getting
caught behind his body on the downswing.
But he is not prepared to work on it … that
is why he is so far behind.”
June 2000.

77. Key Issues
• Investment in video for augmented
information.
• Permanent record.
• Differentiate and individualise.
• Hook attention.
• Stimulate learning.
• Trigger change.