Skill Acquisition

Practical Considerations for Coaches

Nick Winkelman, PhD | Head of Athletic Performance & Science, IRFU

Performance
Performance = Practice
temporary changes in motor behavior or
knowledge that can be observed & measured
during or immediately after Practice

SoderstroM & Bjork, 2015

Learning
Learning = Competition
relatively permanent changes in Motor
behavior or knowledge that supports long-
term retention and transfer to competition

SoderstroM & Bjork, 2015

 Pay
Attention
The mechanism by which our brain registers information is what
we call attention - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

You dispose of a limited budget of attention that you can

allocate to activities, and if you try to go beyond your budget,
you will fail ~ Daniel Kahneman
Attention Applied to coaching

Adapted from Magill, R. (2011) Motor Learning and Control

Concepts and Applications 9th edition
Making our Message memorable

Personal Novel Less = More

Coach As an
Instructor
Attentional Focus = Cueing
The conscious effort of an individual to focus
their attention through explicit thoughts and
feelings in an effort to execute a task with
superior performance
Internal Focus = Body Focus
Primary focus on the body (e.g., muscle) and
associated movement process (e.g., hip extension)
External Focus = Outcome Focus
Primary focus on movement outcome (e.g., jump
high) and associated affect on the environment
(e.g., push the ground away)
 Internal Focus External Focus
Extend your arms as high Catch Ball at Highest
as you can Point

Internal Focus External Focus

Explode Through Your Hips Explode Off The Ground

Wulf, 2013
 Internal cues constrain the
motor system by asking the
person to focus on a Simple
part at the expense of the
complex whole. .

External cues Direct attention

towards relevant movement
features, allowing the body
to self-organize a preferred
movement solution.

Wulf, 2013
 Novice Expert

01: Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) SMC

02: Premotor Cortex (PMC) M1

DLPFC
PMC
03: Supplementary Motor Cortex (SMC)

04: Primary Motor Cortex (M1)

Focus On The Movement

Song, 2009 | Beilock, 2010
The Learning Brain of a Novice looks very
similar to the Choking Brain of an Expert
the key minimizing conscious focus on
movement steps during skill execution

Consider how shifting your players

focus outward as opposed to inward
could support learning & mental
Robustness under pressure
External Focus cues have been shown to
Protect Against choking & encourage
an expert-like physiological state.
Coach As A
Facilitator
Facilitating | Session Level | Units
2014 Athletes Performance, Inc. 20
 BLOCKED Serial Random
S1 S1
Skill 1

S2 S3

S3 S2
Skill 2

S1 S3

S2 S1
Skill 3

S3 S2
 A progressive increase in
contextual interference from
blocked to random has been
shown to be superior to
blocked or random only.

Porter et al., 2010

The Performance your players
are prepared to deliver lives
in the Context of the
practice they experience

Porter et al., 2010

 Session Design and Skill Learning

Blocked Random

SMC

M1
01: Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex DLPFC

02: Premotor Cortex

PMC
03: Medial Temporal Lobe
Basal
04: Primary Motor Cortex (M1) Ganglia

05: Supplementary Motor Cortex MTL

06: Basal Ganglia

07: Cerebellum Cerebellum
Explicit Implicit
(Knowing) (Doing)
Lage et al., 2015 24
Skill Retrieval Drives learning. To strengthen
retrieval we must first forget. Skill spacing &
variability creates Desirable difficulty.
spacing out short & frequent bursts of
practice is key When trying to learn or
improve upon a given motor skill.
Facilitating | Drill Level | Units
2014 Athletes Performance, Inc. 27
 Self-Organization (Constraint-Based) Model

Player

Perception

Coordination
Movement

Action

Environment Task/Skill
PLAYER (BODY) CONSTRAINTS

Athletes ability to attain proper

Position stability and mobility relative to
the movements being performed

Athletes ability to express the

appropriate strength qualities
Power
relative to the movements being
performed

Athletes ability to coordinate the

Pattern limbs of the body relative to task
and environment constraints
29
TASK (SKILL) CONSTRAINTS

Manipulate the amount of space the

Spatial movement can be performed in (e.g.
small sided games)

Manipulate the amount of time the

Temporal movement can be performed in (e.g.
number of players or racing)

Change the rules to constrain

Rules/
Equipment
choices and/or introduce equipment
to constrain the movement options
30
Take Home
01 Say the most with the least
01 Use Language that is memorable and Interesting
01 Use external cues to optimize coordination & learning
02 The right level of session variability encourages deeper learning
02 Drills can be designed to constrain errors so a new pattern can emerge
 THANK YOU
Nick.winkelman@IRFU.ie | @NickWinkelman