The Complexities of Athlete Learning Part 1
Hands tying the laces of a white ice skate with a shoe next to the ice skate.
For those of you that read last week’s blog post, this post and next week’s builds a little bit on it. Fair warning, that also means this will be a two part post. The focus of this series of blog posts is to look at how errorless learning, an external focus of attention, and analogy learning may improve preparation and performance for an ice skater and explore the role implicit and explicit teaching techniques have on the athlete. Okay, so in simpler terms, we are going to use an example to explore different types of learning and attention to understand how performance may be impacted. And if you just want the highlights skip the bullet points at the bottom.
Setting the Stage
Three key teaching concepts, errorless learning, external focus of attention, and analogy learning, may be used to support this skilled athlete in enhancing performance and improving preparation. While they will explore them individually below, they can be used together and, at times, may be intertwined, so in certain situations it may be beneficial to keep these concepts working together rather than separating them. For the following discussion, the assumption is that the skilled and competent athlete in question has been trained via an explicit method, has learned a couple of minor motor skills incorrectly, falls into conscious motor skill thinking at times, needs a back-to-basics approach, or requires minor finessing. It is important to understand where you as an athlete are starting or if you are someone who supports athletes to know as well.
Errorless Learning
As a learning strategy, errorless learning works to reduce errors as much as possible or where an environment is created so that few errors have been made in learning new skills (Scheper et al., 2019). While this technique appears to be more effective for novices (Poolton et al., 2005), a place exists for its use with skilled athletes. One of the benefits of errorless learning is its promotion of implicit learning, which is usually understood as the skill being unavailable for conscious inspection and lacking verbal knowledge of the skill (Masters & Maxwell, 2004). For example, one of the components required in a long program is a complex step sequence. Any highly skilled ice skater can take individual steps and perform them together in a highly complex sequence. However, when judged in competition, judges evaluate every detail, including the correct execution of the edges. Additionally, correct use of edges, in general, is essential for almost everything. A single edge use is the difference between a flip and lutz. In order to skate cleanly, edge clarity is essential. So to sharpen or fine-tune the athlete's edge use in a complex sequence, creating an errorless learning environment may clean up any minor sloppy edges. This may be accomplished by pulling apart the steps in the sequence and slowing down. The added benefit is that the athlete would also be working towards transitioning these skills to more implicit, which may help with conscious thinking learned from explicit techniques.
External Focus of Attention
Having an external focus of attention is asking an athlete to concentrate outside of the body or the intended movement. In contrast, an internal focus of attention asks the athlete to concentrate on the inside of the body during a movement task. Both types of attention have their place, but for a skilled athlete an external focus of attention may be more beneficial. An external focus is superior during both practice and retention sessions (Raisbeck et al., 2018) and has consistency in producing more effective and efficient movements when compared to an internal focus (Singh & Wulf, 2020). And since the athlete is skilled, there is space to enter the nuance of having an external focus. Singh and Wulf (2020) specifically looked at the effects of having a distal external focus versus a proximal external focus and suggested that the level of expertise is essential because, for a skilled athlete, the focus may be more beneficial if the focus is on the overall movement. These subtle differences can make a difference. For the ice skater, that may mean asking the athlete to focus more on the overall movement effect of the jump elements in the long program rather than having an external focus related to technique. This makes logical sense because if the athlete has transitioned from the conscious stage of learning to the more autonomous stage, the skills are more automatic, and there does not seem to be a significant need to focus on technique.
Wow that was a lot! Good thing this is a two part post. Let’s break this down to recap thus far.
Errorless learning strives to reduce errors as much as possible or create an environment that does allow for many errors in the technique. While this technique appears to be more effective for novices, skilled athletes can benefit.
An external focus of attention means bringing your attention outside of the body or the intended movement while an internal focus of attention asks for the concentration to be on the inside of the body during a movement task. For a skilled athlete an external focus of attention may be more beneficial.
take action today moment:
Whether you read the whole post or just the bullet point, take a moment to think about what errorless learning would look like for you in sports in any area of your life.
Then, take a moment to experiment with external and internal focus of attention. Try bringing your attention to the inside of your body and then try bringing your attention and awareness to different places in the space that you are in. Maybe start this exercise while sitting, then try it while moving, and maybe if you are feeling ready try playing with internal and external attention while talking to someone and see what you notice.
References
Capio, C. M., Uiga, L., Lee, M. H., & Masters, R. S. (2020). Application of analogy learning in softball batting: Comparing novice and intermediate players. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 9(3), 357.
Lola, A. C., & Tzetzis, G. (2020). Analogy versus explicit and implicit learning of a volleyball skill for novices: The effect on motor performance and self-efficacy. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 20(5), 2478-2486.
Masters, R. S. W. (2000). Theoretical aspects of implicit learning in sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 31(4), 530-541.
Masters, R. S. W., & Maxwell, J. P. (2004). Implicit motor learning, reinvestment and movement disruption: What you don’t know won’t hurt you?. In A.M. Williams & N.J. Hodges (Eds.), Skill acquisition in sport: Research, theory and practice (1st ed.) (pp. 201-213 ). Routledge.
Masters, R. S. W., & Maxwell, J. (2008). The theory of reinvestment. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1(2), 160-183.
Masters, R. S. W., Poolton, J. M., Maxwell, J. P., & Raab, M. (2008). Implicit motor learning and complex decision making in time-constrained environments. Journal of Motivational Behavior, 40(1), 71-79.
Masters, R.S.W., van der Kamp, J., & Capio, C. (2013). Implicit motor learning by children. Conditions of children’s talent development in sport. West Virginia: Fitness Information Technology, 21-40.
Poolton, J. M., Masters, R. S. W., & Maxwell, J. P. (2005). The relationship between initial errrorless learning conditions and subsequent performance. Human Movement Sciences, 24, 362-378.
Raisbeck, L., Yamada, M., & Diekfuss, J. A. (2018). Focus of attention in trained distance runners. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 13(6), 1143-1149.
Scheper, I., de Bruijn, E.R., Bertens, D., Kessels, R.P., & Brazil, I.A. (2019). The impact of error frequency on errorless and errorful learning of object locations using a novel paradigm. Memory, 27(10), 1371-1380.
Schmidt, R., & Lee, T. (2013). Motor Learning and Performance With Web Study Guide: From Principles to Application (5th ed.). Retrieved from https://redshelf.com
Singh, H., & Wulf, G. (2020). The distance effect and level of expertise: Is the optimal external focus different for low-skilled and high-skilled performers?. Human Movement Science, 73, 102663.
Vealey, R. S. (1986). Conceptualization of sport-confidence and competitive orientation: Preliminary investigations and instrument development. Journal of Sport Psychology, 8, 221–246.
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