Evaluation of a coaching strategy to reduce swimming stroke errors with beginning age-group swimmers.
A two-step coach loop—spot, cue, instant retry—slashes skill errors and keeps the gain.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The coach watched young swimmers take strokes. When a stroke was wrong, the coach gave a quick verbal cue. The swimmer tried again right away.
The study used a multiple-baseline design across kids. No extra gear. No long lectures. Just prompt-and-practice in real time.
What they found
Stroke errors dropped fast after the coach started the loop. The gains stuck for weeks. Kids kept the better form even when the coach went back to normal practice.
How this fits with other research
Gregory et al. (2001) did almost the same thing with college women shooting free throws. Brief form feedback lifted accuracy there too.
Cochrane et al. (2022) swapped the coach for a peer and added phone video. Peers gave instant video feedback and fixed dead-lift form. Same error-cut, new tools.
Morante et al. (2024) used video instead of a coach voice. Adult runners hit 100 % correct steps after a few clips. The 1983 voice-only package still wins for pools with no screens.
Why it matters
You already give feedback. Make it a micro-loop: one clear cue, one immediate repeat. It works for kids, adults, sports, and skills. Try it next session—no extra gear needed.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A coaching strategy to decrease errors in swimming strokes with swimmers who had not improved under "standard" coaching procedures was investigated using a multiple baseline design across subjects and swimming strokes. The procedure resulted in a large decrease in errors on swimming strokes during sessions in a training pool. Stimulus generalization of improved performance to normal practice conditions in the regular pool was observed with all but one swimmer. This improvement was maintained during two maintenance phases lasting approximately 2 weeks, as well as under standard coaching conditions during at least a 2-week follow-up. For two swimmers, error rates on one of the strokes showed a gradual increase between the third and fifth week of follow-up, but brief remedial prompting sessions immediately corrected their performance. Some beneficial response generalization to other components of the stroke being trained was observed, but no improvements were found on untrained strokes. The error correction package did not disrupt practice, require excessive amounts of the coach's time, or necessitate the use of cumbersome apparatus. In addition, the coach and the swimmers considered the procedures to be effective, and expressed their willingness to participate in them again in the future.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1983 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1983.16-447