What’s your favourite/most used coaching cues?
Having to do assessments on Zoom has caused me to run into some obstacles. Nothing I wasn’t prepared for, but knew I’d be forced to adapt. When you can no longer use the proprioceptive cues that have helped in the past, it goes without saying you need to think outside of the box a little bit. Which would be most helpful in place of them? It got me thinking in the moment, so I want to share with you some of my favourite/most used coaching cues.
Brace for a punch
I find this to be a really easy one to conceptualize. A lot of my athletes trend younger so it’s really relatable to them to say ‘imagine your sibling is trying to attack you like you’re play fighting’
Squeeze your glutes
When learning new exercises that combine both lower + upper body, squeezing your glutes can be a simple way to keep their spine from doing a bunch unwanted movement. Take a med ball slam for example, it can be super easy for the lower back to sneak into that exercise if someone is trying to reach as high towards the ceiling as they can. This cue might reduce their range of motion slightly, but I find you often get a much cleaner rep.
Freeze
This cue might just be my favourite. I stole from @deweyneilson at a Kinstretch seminar, and it works like an absolute charm. It’s happened to me many times when I’ve tried to give feedback mid set and said something like “hold it there!” or “hold on” or “wait” or “one tip” and the result is almost always the same. They stop what they’re doing and stare at your blankly waiting for your next words. At that point the moment to provide mid set cues has left and you have to start over more less.
Dent the floor
Sometimes people are not not aware enough of to conceptualize internal cues. That doesn’t mean they can’t get to that place with time, but in the moment external cueing has served as really helpful to me. Working some 90/90 and it’s just been so straight forward how attempting to dent the floor ends up ramping up their %mvc by irriadating.
Visual Cue (mirror/video/picture)
This is something I believe everybody should be doing to some capacity. In the swimming community it’s unavoidable that you’re going to be doing video work. Pin pointing ares of improvement in flip turns, starts from the block, etc. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be adding video work to your sessions as well. It’s especially helpful because it allows them to see for themselves, they can learn more about themselves without your words for once. I will definitely be doing more of this in the future — 10/10 would recommend.
—
Comment below 👇 your favourite cues. I’d love to hear what has worked for you!
.