Evaluation of a Coaching Strategy to Reduce Swimming Stroke Errors With Beginning Age‐group Swimmers

Abstract

A coaching strategy to decrease errors in swimming strokes with swimmers who had not improved under "standard" coaching procedures was investigated using a multiple baseline design across subjects and swimming strokes. The procedure resulted in a large decrease in errors on swimming strokes during sessions in a training pool. Stimulus generalization of improved performance to normal practice conditions in the regular pool was observed with all but one swimmer. This improvement was maintained during two maintenance phases lasting approximately 2 weeks, as well as under standard coaching conditions during at least a 2-week follow-up. For two swimmers, error rates on one of the strokes showed a gradual increase between the third and fifth week of follow-up, but brief remedial prompting sessions immediately corrected their performance. Some beneficial response generalization to other components of the stroke being trained was observed, but no improvements were found on untrained strokes. The error correction package did not disrupt practice, require excessive amounts of the coach's time, or necessitate the use of cumbersome apparatus. In addition, the coach and the swimmers considered the procedures to be effective, and expressed their willingness to participate in them again in the future.DESCRIPTORS: swimming, sports skills, behavioral coaching, stimulus generalization, response generalization During the last decade, behavioral techniques have begun to influence the area of sports and physical education. Books in this area have been We express our appreciation to Don Wells, Head Coach, and the coaches and swimmers of the Manitoba Marlin Swim Club for their excellent cooperation during this research. A special thanks to Roger LePage, the coach who conducted the standard coaching and the error correction procedures, for cheerfully supporting this research and making many excellent suggestions throughout the project. We are also grateful to Coach Diane Backman for administering the social validation interviews to the subjects.

The Effects of Form Training on Foul‐shooting Performance in Members of a Women's College Basketball Team

“…For example, remediation of errors was one component of a behavioral coaching technique that effectively enhanced skill acquisition in football, gymnastics, and tennis (Allison & Ayllon, 1980). Similarly, error correction was combined with differential consequences to decrease errors in components of swimming strokes (Koop & Martin, 1983).…”

Behavioral Sport Psychology

“…The errors had persisted for several weeks in spite of the usual coaching techniques. Sandra developed an intervention package that consisted of identification of errors and correct behaviors, awareness training regarding the errors and correct behaviors, instruction with key words, mastery criteria, and immediate feedback, and demonstrated the effectiveness of the package in a multiple-baseline design across participants and swimming strokes (Koop & Martin, 1983). Other examples of strategies for decreasing errors have been reported for play execution of the offensive backfield of a youth football team (Komaki & Barnett, 1977), performance of gymnastic skills with young gymnasts , execution of throw-ins and goal kicks in youth soccer (Rush & Ayllon, 1984), and performance of volleyball skills by college players (Landin & Hebert, 1999;McKenzie & Liskevych, 1983).…”

“…What distinguishes behavioral coaching using performance feedback from nonbehavioral studies is that the principles of applied behavior analysis are used in the design and application of the intervention (e.g., contingent reinforcement, clearly specified behaviors and contingencies). Behavioral coaching using verbal feedback, instructions, and reinforcement has been effectively demonstrated in many sports settings, improving (a) play execution by youth and high school football athletes (Komaki & Barnett, 1977;Stokes, Luiselli, & Reed, 2010;Stokes, Luiselli, Reed, & Fleming, 2010), (b) stroke performance by youth swimmers (Fitterling & Ayllon, 1983;Koop & Martin, 1983), (c) correct relay tag performance by competitive inline-roller speed skaters (Anderson & Kirkpatrick, 2002), (d) foul shooting performance of a women's collegiate basketball team , (e) practice and social behaviors by members of a youth swim team (Vogler & Mood, 1986), and (f) the technique of youth tennis players (Buzas & Allyon, 1981).…”

“…A considerable amount of research exists concerning the use of these strategies to improve athletic performance, particularly goal setting, feedback, and public posting (e.g., Koop & Martin, 1983;Mellalieu, Hanton, & O'Brien, 2006;Ward & Carnes, 2002). This research is discussed at length in Chapters 6 and 7 of this volume.…”

Applied Behavior Analysis: Understanding and Changing Behavior in the Community—A Representative Review

“…Individualized goal setting was also used to improve elements of rugby performance (Mellalieu, Hanton, & O'Brien, 2006). Other studies with swimmers found that the application of behavioral principles and procedures improved attendance and work rates (McKenzie & Rushall, 1974), decreased errors (Koop & Martin, 1983), and improved performance of skills (Dowrick & Dove, 1980). Ziegler (1987) demonstrated that improved attentional skills to forehand and backhand strokes resulted in increased return accuracy of beginning tennis players, while in women's basketball, free throw shooting was improved following form training (Kladopoulos & McComas, 2001).…”