Nick Winkelman, MS
Article Archive
While we like to think of coaching and teaching as art forms, there is a distinct science to communicating for optimized motor learning. Communication starts by engaging clients in a way that ensures they are listening. Once we have their attention, we want to provide instructions, feedback or cues that focus the clients externally rather than internally. Further, we want to account for any physical limitations across position, pattern and power that could be limiting the effectiveness of our coaching.
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Trainers and coaches know the importance of strength and power development. Traditionally, we try to identify optimum doses (reps and sets) and periodization schemes rather than consider the types of cues we are using. However, we now know that attentional focus can influence movement velocity, movement force, vertical-jump and horizontal-jump characteristics, just as you would expect programming variables to affect such things (Vance et al. 2004; Marchant, Greig & Scott 2009; Wulf & Dufek 2009; Porter et al. 2010a).
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Once you have your clients’ full attention, their brains start processing the information you are sharing.
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If you’re not getting through to clients, it’s tempting to conclude that they are simply not paying attention. Yet extensive research on training and coaching suggests another possibility—you may not be using the right cues to optimize your clients’ attentional focus. Studies tell us the right kind of attentional focus helps people improve, while the wrong kind can impede progress. ?
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Coaches and trainers are really educators specializing in human movement, so it’s central to our success—and that of our clients—to build a fluid understanding of how humans learn to move and how we can influence their learning. ?
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Nod if these scenarios seem familiar:
You give your client well-articulated instructions and get a blank stare followed by, “So what do you want me to do?”?
You give your client a series of cues, but the client’s movements actually get worse because your point is misunderstood.
You have a successful training session one week where the client really seems to click with everything you are saying, but the next week it is as though your coaching had dissolved and the client is right back to those inefficient movements.
Client communications helps to gain trust and produce results. Learn simple strategies to improve communication and guide clients toward sustainable forms of success.
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