Guidance and feedback
Physical Education · GCSE · The School
Four kinds of guidance
VISUAL: a demonstration or video — essential for beginners, who need a picture of the whole movement. VERBAL: an explanation — more use to experienced performers who have the vocabulary and the feel to attach it to. MANUAL: physically moving the performer, as in supporting a handstand. MECHANICAL: using equipment, such as a float or a harness. Manual and mechanical build confidence and safety, and both risk dependence if kept too long.
Where feedback comes from
INTRINSIC feedback comes from the performer's own body — how the shot felt. EXTRINSIC comes from outside: a coach, a scoreboard, a video. Beginners rely on extrinsic because their intrinsic sense is not yet developed; experts rely mainly on intrinsic and use extrinsic sparingly, which is the direction good coaching moves a performer in.
Performance or results
KNOWLEDGE OF PERFORMANCE is about the movement itself — "your elbow dropped before contact". KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS is about the outcome — "it went out". Beginners need results feedback to know whether it worked at all; improving performers need performance feedback, because they can already see the outcome and what they lack is the reason for it.
ERROR: a tennis serve landing in the net. TO A BEGINNER: demonstrate the whole serve again (VISUAL guidance), then give KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS — "that one was in the net, this one cleared it" — because they cannot yet feel the difference and need to know which attempts worked. Keep it to one cue. TO AN EXPERIENCED PLAYER: give VERBAL, KNOWLEDGE OF PERFORMANCE — "your ball toss is drifting behind your head, so you are hitting it late" — because they already know it went in the net and what they need is the cause. Then step back and let them feel it, because in a match nobody will be telling them. Same error, and the guidance and feedback that helps is almost opposite at the two levels.