CHAPTER 10 – Teaching New Skills

Question 1

Define task analysis.

Answer 1

Breaking a skill into its component parts so that it can be taught effectively, and improvements can be accurately monitored.

Question 2

Briefly describe two strategies for ensuring that young athletes understand what it is that the coach wants them to do.

Answer 2

 Ask questions to test for understanding; the coach should check the athlete’s knowledge by asking specific questions about a performance.
 Combine modeling with instructions; when modeling and explaining a skill, instructions should be clear and specific.

Question 3

Describe two types of natural reinforcers. Give an example of each.

Answer 3

 The sensory feedback that is inherent in the performance of a task; e.g., visual, tactile, and auditory sensations that come from performing the task well. The feel of the solid contact when a golfer hits a good shot, the sight of a baseball arching to the outfield after a solid hit, etc.
 Natural reaction of others; e.g., a cheer from teammates for a good play, the roar of the crowd when a touchdown is scored, etc.

Question 4

What are two reasons for encouraging coaches to capitalize on natural reinforcers?

Answer 4

 The more that beginners experience the natural reinforcers of performing a skill, the greater is the likelihood that they will practice that skill on their own.
 It is an important tactic for programming generalization of a skill from practices to competitions and for maintaining it in the long run.

Question 5

Distinguish between prescriptive praise and regular or nonprescriptive praise. Give an example of each that are not in this chapter.

Answer 5

Prescriptive praise is used when the coach is trying to get a particular behavior to occur more often. A coach identifies the aspect of the athlete’s performance that was desirable or that indicated improvement. Nonprescriptive praise (regular praise) is a simple positive comment from the coach.
e.g., nonprescriptive praise would be “great!”, “terrific!”, “well done!” etc., prescriptive praise would be “nice follow-through on your foul shot! You pointed your index finger at the basket.”

Question 6

Define “shaping” and describe a sport example that is not in this chapter.

Answer 6

Shaping is the reinforcement of successive approximations from an initial behavior to a final desired behavior.
e.g., a hockey coach wants his young defensemen to play the man which means player X making body contact with player Y to a sufficient degree so that player Y is no longer involved in that particular play. During a series of one-on-one drills, the coach praises the defensemen for moving back and forth as the oncoming puck carrier. Over some trials, the coach then praise the young defensemen only if he moves in the same direction as the puck carrier and makes body contact. Finally, the coach might withhold praise on subsequent one-on-one drills until the young defenseman not only makes body contact but makes contact sufficiently to take the oncoming forward out of the play.

Question 7

Define stimulus control, and describe a sport example from this chapter.

Answer 7

Stimulus control is the degree of correlation between a stimulus and a behavior.
e.g., the distance and terrain on the holes of a golf course must exert appropriate stimulus control over the correct selection of clubs in order for a golfer to hit the ball the correct distance consistently.

Question 8

State three reasons why a coach should continue to dispense deliberately-programmed reinforcers to young athletes, even after their athletic skills appear to have come under the control of natural reinforcers.

Answer 8

 Although natural reinforcers might maintain skills in competitive environments, reinforcers from the coach can help to sustain effort and performance during repetitive practices.
 Competitive situations contain punishers as well as natural rewards
 An athlete rarely reaches the point where there is nothing left to learn.

Question 9

List the six characteristics of effective behavioral coaching.

Answer 9

 This approach emphasizes specific measurement of athlete performance, and the use of such measures as the primary means for evaluating the effectiveness of teaching strategies.
 It recognizes a clear distinction between developing and maintaining behavior, and positive behavioral procedures are available for accomplishing both.
 It encourages coaches to help athletes improve as measured against their own previous performance as opposed to being compared to other athletes.
 It emphasizes that coaches use behavior modification procedures that have been experimentally demonstrated to be effective.
 Behavior modification techniques can also be applied to help the coach change his/her behavior.
 The coaches are encouraged to use social validity assessments to ensure that the athletes, parents, and others involved in the program are satisfied with the target behaviors that were identified, the coaching procedures that were used, and the results that were obtained.