For track and field coaches and athletes, coaching cues are a great tool for instructing and reinforcing the desired skill components.

However, there is strong evidence to suggest that not all cues are equally effective.  

This article delves into the critical role of coaching cues – specifically, external and internal cues – in shaping athletes' performance, including their ability to develop and retain newly acquired skills.

What is a Coaching Cue

Coaching cues are concise, task-oriented pieces of information coaches can use to instruct athletes to perform specific skills. Effective coaching largely hinges on a coach's ability to convey instructions through simple and impactful cues.

For example, a sprints coach may use the cue “push the ground away” during the acceleration phase to get the athlete to generate more force.  

Cues that are overly lengthy or intricate tend to hinder skill acquisition. As a result, extensive research over the past two decades has aimed to pinpoint the most effective coaching cues.

Coaching cues primarily serve to direct an athlete's attention toward the key elements of the skill being taught, also known as the athlete's attentional focus.

Types of Coaching Cues

There are three primary types of coaching cues that you can use:

Internal Cues

These cues prompt athletes to focus on specific body movements associated with the desired skill.

For example, a spints coach may use the cue “Bring your knee to 90 degrees” to encourage their athlete to develop a strong knee drive or a jumps coach may use “Fully extend your hips, knees, and ankles at takeoff”.

Internal cues emphasize body parts and may disrupt automatic movement processes as they require athletes to consciously coordinate their movements.

External Cues

External coaching cues direct athletes' attention to the desired outcome or the effect of the skill.

Examples include "Stay long and low during the acceleration phase" or "Visualise where the implement will land”. External cues encourage athletes to think about achieving the outcome rather than the internal mechanics, leading to more natural self-organization of the motor system.

Normal Cues

Some coaching textbooks also describe a third form, labelled ‘Normal Cueing’. This is actually the lack of a specific instruction to the athlete and typically reflect the athlete's natural focus in the absence of cues.

Each athlete will have a unique focus of attention in the absence of cueing and it may be useful for the coach to understand what that is for their athletes. In the case of athletes who naturally hold an internal focus of attention, may benefit from receiving more external cues to adjust their natural focus.

Comparing Internal and External Cues

Numerous studies consistently indicate that external coaching cues tend to be more effective than internal or normal cues in enhancing performance outcomes. External cues demonstrate superiority in various contexts, including balance, neuromuscular expression, maximal speed, change of direction speed, throwing distances, and jumping heights.

Research highlights that external cues are not only effective for acute learning but also for chronic learning and skill retention, as demonstrated through retention tests conducted days after initial cueing.

However, internal cues still have a place in a coach’s toolbox. When dealing with beginning athletes or explaining highly technical movements, internal cues can help an athlete establish the correct model. The movement can then be refined and developed with external cues.

For example, a throws coach trying to get an athlete to develop a greater seperation between their hip and shoulder actions would struggle to achieve this through external cues alone. Instead, the coach may initially give use an internal cue e.g. “Fully extend your hip prior to extending your shoulder”. Once the athlete consciously understands the movement, the coach can then progress to using external cues e.g. “Feel the seperation between your hips and shoulders”.

Types of External Coaching Cues

External coaching cues can be further categorized into three dimensions: Distance, Direction, and Description.

Distance
This dimension involves cues that specify a distance-related aspect of the skill. For example, "jump towards the cone", “visualise the implement landing near the cone'“ or "project yourself towards the ceiling."

The distance can be either "close" or "far," and its influence on learning may vary based on athletes' experience levels.

Direction
Direction cues can be divided into "away" (e.g., jumping away from something) and "towards" (e.g., jumping towards something). Research indirectly suggests that cues focused on moving "towards" an object may yield better performance results.

For example, rather than asking an athlete to jump away from the mat, try cueing them to jump towards the end of the pit.

Description

Descriptive cues provide context and clarity to athletes. They can be action verbs (e.g., "push the ground away") or analogies (e.g., "propel like a slingshot"). These have been found to be most effective with experienced athletes who already have a mental model of the skill being taught.

What cues have you used successfully with your athletes. Let us know in the comments below.