Step 1: Take baseline data
Step 2: Give your athletes instruction.
Step 3: Demonstrate the skill
Step 4: Practice
Step 5: Give your athletes feedback
Setp 6: Test them to see if they improved
Baseline data is one of the most effective—yet underused—tools a coach can use in practice. It answers a simple but critical question: How good are my athletes right now?
Top-level environments rely heavily on baseline data. It’s used in elite settings like Formula 1 racing, the NFL, NBA Combine, physical therapy, and powerlifting. The reason is simple—performance can’t be improved if it isn’t measured first.
Baseline data can take many forms depending on your sport. It might include averages, counts, speed, accuracy, time, or any other measurable performance metric. These numbers give you a clear, objective starting point.
Without baseline data, you’re guessing.
With it, you can:
1. Determine whether your drills are actually working
2. Clearly track if your athletes are improving over time
How to Take Baseline Data:
1. Choose a specific drill
2. Collect data 1–4 times to establish a consistent baseline
3. Run your training and implement your drills
4. Measure again and compare results to track improvement
If you’re not measuring performance before and after training, you’re not coaching—you’re hoping.
After collecting baseline data, you can begin training.
Training typically starts with instruction—telling your athletes what to do and how to do it. However, instruction should only make up about 10-15% of your total training time. The goal is to get athletes moving and practicing, not standing around listening.
Effective instruction should include:
1. Clearly explain what to do
2. Explain what not to do
3. Explain why it should be done that way
4. Provide both examples and non-examples
5. Encourage athletes to think by asking questions like, “Why do you think we do it this way?"
6. Have athletes repeat the instructions back to you
Having athletes repeat instructions is critical. It immediately reveals any misunderstandings, giving you the chance to correct them before training begins. If athletes don’t fully understand the task, the reps that follow won’t produce the results you’re looking for.
The next step is demonstration—physically showing athletes what to do.
A proper demonstration helps bridge the gap between instruction and execution. It allows athletes to see exactly what correct performance looks like, which increases clarity and confidence before they begin practicing.
Demonstrations should include both correct and incorrect examples. Athletes need to see what right looks like—but also what wrong looks like. Showing what not to do helps them recognize and avoid common mistakes in real time.
Demonstrations can take several forms, including:
1. The coach performing the skill
2. Using a video of a professional athlete
3. Having another athlete demonstrate for the group
The key is simple: athletes should have a clear visual of both success and failure before they attempt the skill themselves.
Without a demonstration, athletes are left to interpret instructions on their own—which often leads to inconsistency and mistakes.
Practice is the next step in the process. This is where athletes run drills and physically practice the skill.
During practice, coaches should use different tools depending on the athlete’s experience level:
If the skill is new: Use shaping. Shaping involves teaching the skill through successive approximations—breaking it into small, manageable pieces and training one specific movement or behavior at a time. This helps athletes gradually build the correct performance without feeling overwhelmed.
If the athlete already knows the skill: Focus on progressive difficulty. Gradually increase the challenge to match game-like conditions and adjust the performance criteria. For example, a criterion might be: “Pass the ball out of pressure with 80% accuracy.”
The key is always intentional practice—whether you’re building a skill from scratch or refining an existing one, every drill should have a clear purpose and a measurable goal.
Feedback is one of the most powerful tools a coach has to improve athlete performance, and it should be given continuously while your athletes are practicing.
Feedback can take many forms:
1. Verbal feedback – telling athletes what they did correctly or incorrectly
2. Video feedback – showing them footage of their performance
3. Data feedback – using graphs, stats, or metrics to illustrate performance
There are two main types of feedback: positive feedback and corrective feedback.
- Positive feedback highlights what the athlete did correctly. Reinforcing correct actions is just as important as correcting mistakes, as it ensures those behaviors continue.
- Corrective feedback addresses what was done incorrectly. To be effective, corrective feedback should follow a three-step structure:
1.Start with what they did correctly – e.g., “Hey, you did ____ really well, keep doing that.”
2. Give the corrective instruction – e.g., “Here’s what you did wrong, next time try ____.”
3. Explain why – e.g., “We do it this way because ____.”
Explaining why is crucial. Without context, athletes may misunderstand or reject your feedback. When they understand the reasoning, they’re more likely to apply it correctly and consistently.
Testing is the sixth and final step in the coaching process. This is where you re-take baseline data to see if your athletes have improved.
Testing is straightforward: simply measure the same metrics you collected during the baseline step. The key is not how you test, but that you can:
1. See whether your athletes are improving
2. Determine if your drills and training methods are effective
If your athletes have improved, that’s great! Continue progressively increasing the difficulty of the conditions and adjusting the performance criteria to match game-like situations.
If they haven’t improved, it usually means one of two things:
1. They need more training – Some skills have a steep learning curve, and athletes simply need more repetitions to master them.
2. They need different training – The drills you’re running may not be effective, and adjustments are necessary.
If athletes haven’t improved, the solution is to cycle back through demonstration, practice, and feedback, repeating the process as many times as needed until the skill is mastered. Improvement is rarely instant—it requires intentional, repeated practice.