The best way to boost effectiveness of your training sessions

The problem with wrong feedback

While working as a Tae Kwon Do coach I was getting some students ready for their upcoming black belt promotion test.

We were working on the 8th and final student form (Tae Geuk Pal Jang). Forms represent predetermined sets of stances, kicks, punches, and blocks which help students improve their technique as well as showcase everything they have learned so far while training.

Over a period of three weeks (with two to three training sessions per week) we got to the point where they memorized the entire sequence and got most of the technique right. But there was one part where they kept making the same mistake over and over again. Half way through the form they would stand in a long (Apgubi) stance while looking back and having the front arm in a high Inner wrist outer block (Anpalmok bakkat makgi) and the back arm performing a Low block (Arae makgi).

Credit: https://taekwondo.fandom.com/wiki/Taegeuk_Pal_Jang

The problem with this is that there are a lot of things to think about at the same time. You have to be in the correct stance while your high blocking arm needs to be in line with your front knee and foot and the back arm performing another block.

We tried going slow, then slower, and in the end I was trying only blocks from a long stance and doing only a single block at a time without worrying about the other arm. Nothing worked.

I moved their arms into the correct position so they could have a feel for their body position. Nope. This won’t work either.

Then I tried out something I haven’t done so far. I took my phone out and had them perform the same sequence while I was filming them. I had them look at it and they were shocked by how (in their words) stupid they looked. Let’s try it one more time now.

Eureka!

With just a single video replay they pretty much got it right. We had to tweak the timing a little bit but after just a few minutes we were fixed the issues they had for weeks. They knew they were doing something wrong but they didn’t understand and internalize it fully.

We would probably have gotten to the correct technique after a lot more work but once they saw themselves as I saw them they instantly knew what the problem was.

Show, don’t tell

In writing, you don’t want to explain to your readers everything. Instead of telling them “Ivan was upset after the race.” you can say “Ivan left the track right away. He didn’t talk to his coach or teammates and didn’t bother to answer his mother after she offered him a ride home”. You want your readers to feel the character and get to their own conclusions.

I took the same approach with my students. No matter how hard it tried tell them what the problem was, they just couldn’t picture it correctly. Once I showed them, everything fell into place. They understood and immediately corrected their mistakes.

One size fits all

It doesn’t have to be Tae Kwon Do. It can be any sport where you want your students to change their behavior. You might not like how your defense isn’t in line when the opposing team has the ball, or how your driver isn’t cutting the apex correctly in a particular turn or how your diver isn’t fully extended just before touching the water.

The key here is to show them their mistake. Even athletes with little experience will see mistakes right away and improve dramatically.

Don’t miss out

Pretty much everyone has a phone and nowadays and all of them do a good enough job when it comes to video quality so there really isn’t any excuse to not use it and cut practice time dramatically.

Time saved on fixing mistakes can be used to improve other areas and get ready for the next competition.

Clubs Craft enables you to add videos to your training sessions before and after a particular session. You can attach videos of your next competitor and add comments so your athletes know in advance what to look out for and what kind of drills to expect in training. Once a training session is done, you can attach videos for them to review key details and internalize everything to improve for their next session or competition.

Until then,
Enjoy training!