Sprint performance: does coaching feedback matter?

In most team sports, speed is king. Faster athletes are almost always going to have an advantage, whether that speed is in a single straight-line sprint, over a curved distance, or repeated multiple times. Unfortunately, top speed can be particularly difficult to improve, as the margins are so small and simply working harder doesn’t necessarily get the job done. Because it’s so difficult to improve, any training strategy that enhances performance is of great interest to coaches and athletes alike.

Feedback for sprinting

When performing sprint training, there is typically lots of time between each effort, which allows for communication between athletes and coaches, and for coaches to provide feedback. It’s widely accepted that different types of feedback during this period will produce varying degrees of effectiveness in terms of further facilitating performance. For example, coaches can provide no feedback, they can provide feedback about technique, or they can let athletes know how fast they’re running.

Further, there’s also the option of having athletes race other athletes during their training repetitions because doing so can promote competition, which may also positively affect performance - particularly when the competition is a relatively even one. There are also situations where athletes are training by themselves or with another teammate but with no coach; is there any type of feedback that’s most appropriate for these individuals, when they don’t have access to a coach?

Something else that needs to be considered is mood and motivation. Performance is not just about time; it’s possible, and even likely, that what happens during these rest periods can affect athletes’ mood and motivation. And any changes in mood or motivation, whether positive or negative, can have a major impact on the current training session, as well as subsequent training sessions. 

So with all of these considerations, a pertinent question is what’s the best the strategy for providing feedback? Should athletes be competing with each other, or running solo? Is a coach giving feedback always effective and if so, what kind of feedback? These are questions scientists from Australia have sought to answer, in the hope of providing concrete answers for athletes and coaches.

The research

In this study, 12 female rugby players completed three different sprint tasks under four different conditions⁽¹⁾. The sprint tasks consisted of a 20-meter sprint, a 30-meter curved sprint, and a repeated sprint ability test. Athletes performed three runs for each task during each condition. However, each condition different in terms of how the sprints were performed:

* In the control condition, no information was provided to the subject.
* In the technique condition, the subject was provided technique feedback before and after each run. 
* In the competition condition, the subject raced against another subject.
* In the augmented feedback condition, the subject was provided with their performance time after each       repetition and reminded of it prior to the next repetition.

In addition to sprint times, athletes completed an ‘intrinsic motivation inventory and sports emotion questionnaire’ after the testing in order to examine the participants’ levels of mood and motivation. The mood testing assessed anxiety, dejection, excitement, anger, and happiness. The motivational questionnaire assessed enjoyment, effort, value, and perceived competence.