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Feedback

It is important during your personal development plan that you seek feedback.

Feedback is information you receive about your performance. It is best to be given feedback immediately so that you can alter your performance and make it better while it is still fresh in your mind.

For feedback to be effective, it should only involve one or two pieces of specific information. This avoids confusion so you can focus on one particular point. Feedback should also be precise, accurate and positive.

Internal and external feedback

Feedback can have a big effect on practice situations. There are two types:

Internal feedback

Internal, or kinaesthetic, feedback is how you feel during or after you have performed or practised a skill. Your feelings provide you with information about your performance and can be very valuable in helping you to analyse it.

For example, you might say "I felt that I sliced across the ball in my golf swing and the ball veered off the left."

External feedback

There are many different examples of external feedback:

Verbal - Coach talking to performer, Written - review of performance on computer, Visual - watching a performance on a tablet and Knowledge of results - a performer aware they have lost a match
  • Verbal - spoken information given by a teacher or observer after watching a performance. Verbal feedback should tell you points to improve and areas where you have done well. An example of this would be, "My coach told me I had to straighten my legs during my cartwheel."
  • Written - feedback, such as an observation schedule, given by a teacher or observer for you to look at or read. An example of this would be, "My partner had ticked a box to identify that I was not standing side on when performing an overhead clear."
  • Visual - watch model performance or video and watch your own performance to compare and see strengths and weaknesses. An example of this would be, "I was filmed performing my gymnastics routine so I could watch it back to identify weaknesses. I noticed that I lacked speed on my run up to vault"
  • Knowledge of results - scores and results or where the ball/shuttle goes. An example of this would be, "I saw that my badminton long serve was landing in the middle of my opponents court, enabling my opponent to play an attacking shot."