Authors: Crewther BT, Cook CJ.

Physiology & Behavior. Jun 25 2012;106(4):471-475

Positives and Negatives of Video Feedback

Commentary by Dr. Judy Goss

Progressing and excelling in sport is partly about the athlete effectively processing feedback, whether it is internal feedback that an athlete receives from sensory perception, external feedback as they watch video or technical information that is provided verbally. We often assume that once feedback is delivered then the change can be made. It sounds simple, however this is not the case. As I am lucky enough to work with many high performance coaches, I often find it comical and certainly have lost count of the number of times that a coach has turned and said to me, “that’s not what I meant at all”. If we could predict how a person would internalize, interpret, and respond to feedback, we could get out of sport and make some real money. With the huge increase in video technology and analysis, I would venture to say that athletes are getting more feedback today than even 5 years ago. This is why I feel that the research conducted by Crewther and Cook is critical. It is one of the few studies that actually studied positive and negative feedback effects on physiological markers. There are studies that look at feedback and it’s effect on performance, however few have examined the potential physiological effects that occur due to feedback. Crewther and Cook had rugby players complete a 1 hour video session with coach feedback. The video sessions were either footage of mistakes with negative coach feedback or successes with positive coach feedback. What they found was that the athletes that had received the positive feedback had significantly greater free testosterone levels than those who had received negative feedback. They also observed that those who had higher free testosterone levels had better game performances several days later. One mechanism cited for this change was that the increase in free testosterone was important for mood changes suited to the combative nature of rugby.

This research is a wonderful illustration of how video feedback is a tool that needs to be managed effectively to help an athlete’s state of readiness. It is often conceptualized that it is great that an athlete can actually see what they are doing wrong. Therefore, they have the understanding to make the correction. Obviously that is not always the case, if athletes who see a poor performance and receive negative feedback are actually experiencing a greater stress response, this is not always going to facilitate performance. Additionally, we need to be very aware that athletes may interpret what is being shown to them differently. For example, a coach may be quite pleased to be able to point out a simple mistake that an athlete had made, with the confidence that an easy correction can increase performance. The athlete may not see it that way at all. Instead, it may be perceived that the coach points out a habitual mistake and the room for improvement is limited. Point being made – what you see is not always what you get.