Feedback And Instructional Feedback

According to Coker (2015), “feedback is considered essential for motor skill acquisition as it assists in guiding the learner in modifying subsequent movement attempts” (p. 31). I believe this is partially in line with Knowledge of Performance (KP) because KP is about the nature of the movement pattern itself and it does not necessarily tell about success in terms of goal achievement (Schmidt & Lee, 2014).

Feedback also “can reinforce a behavior, provide information about the correctness of a performance attempt, explain why an error occurred, prescribe how to fix an error, and motivate the athlete to continue working toward their goals” because feedback “shapes a learner’s efforts to achieve a task goal” (Coker, 2015, p. 31). This is

I believe it is important to differentiate these concepts, plus examine how they are intertwined.

For example, following a golf putt, a coach could tell the athlete that the their arms did not move properly. This is considered knowledge of performance (KP) (Diekfuss & Raisbeck, 2016).

In contrast, if this same coach told the athlete that the golf ball stopped three inches from the hole (a measured result), this would be considered knowledge of results (KR) (Diekfuss & Raisbeck, 2016). The inherent feedback would exist as well because the golfer would be able to see that the shot was a

Regardless of the miss being 3 inches or not (as measured by the coach), the golfer missed. But, what if the goal had been to improve an inch versus sink the putt? The golfer could be satisfied with the success of the moment What if the coach was more concerned about the golfer developing the feel of how to move both arms in synchronization versus sink the hole? There are many dimensions to learning and perhaps the learner’s goals are at the heart of it all from learning to performance to the motivation to continue. And, what if an athlete needed to focus with an internal attention (associated with controlled and conscious attention) in order to learn the proper feel of the correct process before moving on to an external focus attention typically associated with automatic processes and skill mastery? I ask the question so that we don't become unbalanced in our thinking. Research reports that the majority of coaches use the internal focus of attention; therefore, there must be a valid reason for doing so and perhaps it is related to the feeling needed to conduct the process correctly first followed by advancing to the external. That would make KP an important aspect for beginner (at least until skill mastery) and not so much for one who is advanced, in my