Olympic Sports Technique Correction

Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Finland. Rapid technique correction using Old Way/New Way^®: Two case studies with Olympic athletes. The Sport Psychologist, 2002, 16, 79-99. Yuri Hanin, Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Finland. Tapio Korjus and Petteri Jouste, Finnish Sports Association, Finland. Paul Baxter, Personal Best Academy, Brisbane, Australia.

Abstract

"Exploratory studies examine the effectiveness of Old Way/New Way^®, an innovative meta-cognitive learning strategy initially developed in education settings, in the rapid and permanent correction of established technique difficulties experienced by two Olympic athletes in javelin and sprinting. Individualised interventions included video-assisted error analysis, step-wise enhancement of kinaesthetic awareness, re-activation of the error memory, discrimination and generalization of the correct movement pattern. Self-reports, coach's ratings and video recordings were used as measures of technique improvement. A single learning trial produced immediate and permanent technique improvement (80% or higher correct action) and full transfer of learning, without the need for the customary adaptation period. Findings are consistent with the performance enhancement effects of Old Way/New Way^® demonstrated experimentally in non-sport settings."

Statement by the first author

Professor Yuri Hanin from the Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Jyväskylä, (Finland) relates his experiences with the application of Old Way/New Way^® in his work with elite Finnish Olympic athletes and coaches.

Olympic sprinting coaching | technique correction | starting technique

Technique correction for a female sprinter (J).

Previous case studies strongly suggest that Old Way/New Way^® is an effective intervention strategy for rapid correction of technical errors with national and international level athletes.

However, one limitation of these case studies was that the interventions were all conducted by the end of the season and it was not possible to measure baseline performance and other outcomes of the learning trial.

Therefore, a more controlled study, involving a young national level female sprinter (J), was employed.

Athlete's profile

J was a 19 year old female sprinter with personal bests of 7.25 (60m), 11.51 (100m) and 23.62 (200m).

Background to the technique difficulty

There were two main errors in J's starting technique, namely:

• J's back converged at the same time as the push off from the blocks, making the push off powerless and direction of the push too upright.
• J's rear leg's movement pattern for the first step was incorrect because she raised her heel too high while bringing the real leg forward, resulting in a braking effect on first contact

The reasons for these errors were speculative but some possibilities emerged, as follows:

• Strength development of lower body and middle/upper body, especially the middle, had not been in balance. Legs had become too powerful in respect to the middle body.
• During the 1998 training season, a heavy harness (up to 20kg) was used to develop acceleration. Such a heavy load pulling from the shoulders may have caused her back to converge and changed the movement pattern at the start of the push off.
• Because of the convex shape in the middle of the body, body alignment during the push off from the blocks was not straight. Moving the rear leg forward with a correct pattern requires support from the body, so J was not able to perform the movement correctly because her back bent during the push off.

After careful consideration, it was concluded that, in order to correct the second error, the first error should be corrected first, so this became the goal of the correction session.

During training in 1999 coach and athlete tried to correct J's start technique using the traditional method, i.e., the athlete performed starts repeatedly (drill fashion), supported by continuous feedback from the coach after each start, with the conscious aim of changing the movement pattern.

Start technique improved slowly during drill sessions, but the athlete repeatedly fell back to old, incorrect, ways during competition.

(29.10.1999) J's coach, PJ, heard about Old Way/New Way^® from the sport psychologist (YH) and discussed the possibility of using Old Way/New Way^® with J.

(1.11.99) PJ attempted to conduct the Old Way/New Way^® session on his own based on general ideas about the method. Being untrained in the methodology, his attempt was unsuccessful.

(3.11.99) PJ and J approached YH to learn why the method did not work for them. It was decided to conduct the session together as a team, including athlete, coach and sport psychologist, so that the necessary expertise could be focused on the problem.

Stage 1. Error analysis

(4.11.99 and 5.11.99) A thorough error analysis was done. PJ wanted his athlete's push off from the blocks to be more efficient.

Summary of error analysis by the coach

What is she doing wrong?

She loses power because:

1. Right leg (rear) movement is too high in way forward (movement).
2. Her upper back rounds and her chin presses down toward her chest.
3. Left leg's push off from the front block is partial and its direction is too much upwards.

How should it be?

1. Her right leg movement forward should follow a lower path.
2. Her upper back should stay flat and her head should be in line with the rest of her upper body.
3. Push off from the front block should be done to the end meaning that her head-shoulders-hip-knee and ankle should form a line at the end of the push off. In that way the push off would be more efficient.

What is the difference "new" vs. "old"?

1. Right leg's (rear) movement forward is faster.
2. Upper body stays solid and her head is in line and directs push off into the right direction.
3. Whole body shoots forward as a result of push off.

In an attempt to simplify this list and reduce the amount of detail the athlete had to concentrate on, this error analysis was re-examined and refined.

Summary of refined error analysis of a sprinter's technique.

What is she doing wrong?

• her upper back rounds and her chin presses down toward her chest.

How should it be?

• her upper back should stay flat and her head should be in line with the rest of her upper body.

What is the difference?

• upper body stays solid and her head is in line and directs push off into the right direction.

Stage 2. Correction session (1.5 hours including warm up)

An individualized Old Way/New Way^® protocol for correcting J's technique problem was devised by PB, the Old Way/New Way^® Learning consultant. The protocol was implemented in one session with J and her coach, PJ.

The session was conducted by YH who was trained in Old Way/New Way^®, with the assistance of PJ.

Similar to our previous learning trials, the session began with YH briefly describing the four-step protocol, after which J did a regular warm up lasting 30 minutes. Then all four steps of the intervention were conducted.

During the session starts were video taped and immediate replay was used to emphasise erroneous and correct starting technique. At the same time after each trial J reported the feelings and kinaesthetic sensations that accompanied erroneous and correct execution of starts. These open ended self-reports were taped and later transcribed.

J's coach made the following observations of the learning trial, in a message to YH.

(12.11.99) "Thank you for your great help and interesting ideas on JO's start training. Here is my report of what happened."

Preparation for the LT session

"J was well informed about the learning trial. Before our meeting she was somewhat reserved and skeptical about the system. I think I was more interested."

"After our little experiment she was interested to know more and therefore our meeting helped a lot. She prepared for Tuesday well and I think she was kind of "open minded" about the session. Didn't expect marvels but was curious to see what would happen."

"Information you gave before the session was good and set her to concentrate on the session - warm up was very typical for her start training - the presence of the other girl didn't seem to disturb her."

Beginning of the trial

"J performed starts in the old way. She said it was easy to do them, because she didn't have to try to express any particular point. The hardest thing was to find clear 'feelings' and it took some time to really find some exact sensations."

"I think doing starts with eyes closed helped a lot. By the end of part one she found some clear images of that kind of start."

Finding the "new way"

"At the beginning it was hard to find the technique we aimed for. It took 5 tryouts to find that the movement of the left arm could direct her towards the right technique. Next 5 starts went well and she got a hold of the "new" technique."

"I think that in a complex movement like the start it is not possible to think only one thing but try to think the movement as a whole and try to find the right words for the athlete which ring the bell' for her. That has not much to do with pure biomechanics. I think the question is rather to find how the athlete really experiences the movement."

Comparing the old and the new way

"There was no problem doing starts in either way after she had found 'the leading arm movement'."

"Moving the front block in the previous step made the old way a little bit better, but still there was quite a clear difference between the old and the new way."

The new way

"Last six starts went well. She was very tired after the session but could still concentrate well to the end."

"I checked the videotape and there were 38 starts altogether. That is a very big amount."

"Now I look forward with great interest to see how well she can perform her starts in future start sessions."

(10.11.99) Sports psychologist's observations of the session (2hrs).

Step 1 (8 starts). Johanna did starts using the video taping and replaying technique for each start. She asked if she should emphasize the mistake (it turned out that in their unsuccessful session they did exactly that). I said we don't need that - just the usual erroneous start.

She could not report anything special in the first four starts. Closing eyes helped ("getting up, in a rush").

The last four starts were really typically bad (they worked on them for a year!).

Step 2 (9 starts) First, she had no clear idea about the right technique. It looked like her right technique was yet not developed.

First 5 starts (except one) were not good enough. We tried and experimented. The look did not work. So we tried with her left hand moving forward (it was bent and went up in erroneous attempts).

First it felt unnatural, not easy (as with the old start technique). Then she started to feel how her left hand moves forward and it became easier to get a better awareness.

Here' s a problem: If the coach and the athlete might not know the right technique! Therefore, developing awareness might be a problem. Here we deliberately tried to move her forward from the blocks (based on what happened during her ineffective movement pattern) and succeeded. The left block was moved a bit forward.

Step 3 (11 starts). Verbalization was OK: I did it for her two times and she did 3 times (all taped).

Step 4 (6 starts) All good starts even though she was really tired (in a usual training session they do only 8-10 starts. Now it was 38 times!

PJ recorded her time, despite the fact that we agreed to be not interested in that at this point!

It turned out that the less she tried (being so tired) the better her start was, PJ noticed.

Incidentally the last attempt was technically her best ever start!

I ended the session with a short summary of what was planned, how we progressed and what happened and reiterated the notes about 80% of good start later and how to handle spontaneous recovery.

One general problem emerged, though. How to do the good technique start if there is no ready-made pattern or if the coach is not clear about what is the best individually suitable technique for this particular athlete.

The three basic questions—what's wrong; how should it be done; and what is the difference, help to focus on description and that is fine as a beginning.

But we should add another question forcing a coach (an expert) to think about how to produce the right movement!

Today I called PJ again. He and J were very satisfied. PJ was especially convinced that it made the difference in this new methodology when it was done as a joint effort rather than on his own!

Stage 3. Post-LT stage

A follow-up in training and in indoor competitions was conducted to evaluate the impact of the Old Way/New Way^® procedure on athletic performance.

It was hypothesized that the correction of error in starting technique should result in gradual improvement of athlete's results in 60m and 100m.

It was anticipated that this success could also have a motivational impact and affect the results in 200m.

Case summary and discussion

This case again illustrates many of the important outcomes of Old Way/New Way that have been demonstrated experimentally and in field trials in non-sport learning settings.

These outcomes concern skill development, performance improvement, cognitive and affective change and the desire to continue using Old Way/New Way^® for technique development.

1. Skill correction

Predicted efficacy of performance following the successful correction session is usually around 80% or better.

Three separate training sessions (18.11.99, 22.11.99, 26.11.99) were observed in order to evaluate the impact of Old Way/New Way^® on subsequent performance of starts.

The results were as follows:

• 9 technically correct starts from 11 starts (82%) were good in the next training session
• 9 technically correct starts from 10 starts (90%) were observed in the two subsequent sessions
• What is more, spontaneous recovery of erroneous starts was handled effectively
• Learning gains also transferred successfully to competitive performance.

A series of video stills of J's starts clearly indicated the differences between the old and new way of starting. Technique faults are now corrected and her back stays flat and her head is in a straight line with the upper body. In addition, her left arm is driving her body more actively forward.

2. Performance enhancement

Now that J's technique was corrected and it was clear that the learning gains had successfully transferred to competition, J's performance was followed up further in competitions to test whether the "new way" of starting would produce faster times, i.e., that it was actually a "better" way.

Table 1 reports the dynamics of our sprinter's timed performance in pre- and post-correction situations. Immediately post-intervention, both results in tests (60m) and results in the competitions (national and international) improved significantly (p< 0.05). The magnitude of change was also of practical significance.

Table 1. Percentage correct actions after intervention

	Before		After
	Wrong	Right	Wrong	Right
Practice	100%	0%	20%	80%
Competition	100%	0%	15%	85%

Rapid correction of start technique in an Olympic-level swimmer—a case study using Old Way/New Way^®. Hanin, Y., Malvela, M., & Hanina, M. Journal of Swimming Research, 2004, Vol. 16, 11-17.

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of old way/new way. an innovative meta-cognitive learning strategy initially developed in education settings, in the rapid and permanent correction of consistent errors in starting technique experienced by an Olympic- level swimmer. Individualized intervention three days prior to the [national championships] included a detailed error analysis, step-wise enhancement of an athlete's kinesthetic awareness, and re-activation of the error memory, discrimination, and generalization of the individually optimal correct movetnent pattern. Self-reports, coach's ratings, and video recordings indicated that a single learningtrialproducedimmediateandpermanenttechnique^tmprovemetit(85-100 %correctstarts),afulltransferoflearning without the needfor the customary adaptation period, and improvedperformance. Thefindings are consistent with performance enhancement effects of old way/new way demonstrated experimentally in other sports.

This research won second prize in the 4th European Athletics Association [Coaching] Science Awards, out of a record entry of 28 projects from 13 European countries.

"I heard about the system two years ago when I was in Australia as an invited visiting international scholar. The idea of rapid correction of technique was very appealing since my practical work with athletes and coaches focuses on performance enhancement, optimal performance states, and preparation for important international competitions.

"Persistent errors in technique, especially under competitive stress, are very common among elite athletes and are perhaps among the major factors that can cause underperformance. Moreover, the major problem with a conventional approach to error correction is that it takes a long time and the change is often not permanent.

"Therefore, I started over a year ago by taking the Personal Best Academy online sports coaching skills course conducted by Dr Paul Baxter who uses and teaches Old Way/New Way^® in Brisbane, Australia.

"As part of this practical course, Paul and I communicated via email on specific performance enhancement problems I wanted to work on. I've been using Old Way/New Way^® for rapid correction of consistent errors in technique with track and field athletes (javelin, hammer throwing and sprinting), with a pro-tour female golfer, and also with a soccer team. All nine interventions were very successful. At the same time, we collaborated with Paul to advance our research into skill development and correction with elite athletes and still do.

"There are several benefits that I have experienced using Old Way/New Way. It is very practical; the technical problem is solved quickly and completely in just one single session; the results are immediate, there is no adaptation period as with conventional skill development and correction.

"Moreover, the observed technique improvement is permanent and extends into psychological benefits such as feelings of empowerment, enhanced self-confidence, satisfaction with the elimination of errors, better understanding, higher motivation and a desire to engage in more high quality training of this kind. A single learning trial lasting from one to two hours, including an half hour warm up, usually results in 80% or better improvement in performance. The new way (corrected skill) is consistently performed and spontaneous recovery of errors, if any, is easily handled. Skill improvement also directly transfers to competitive performance, as shown in our case studies. Under conventional skill correction methods, technique difficulties still resisted correction after months and, in some cases, years of effort. Without Old Way/New Way, as one coach said, it would have required up to 2000 repetitions or four years of practicing the correct starting technique before the performance would have improved.

"I think Old Way/New Way^® greatly extends the sport psychologist's potential area of applied work with athletes and coaches. Up till now applied sports psychologists worked almost exclusively in the domain of mental skills training as a means to performance enhancement. Now they can work in both domains.

"Perhaps, the greatest benefit for me professionally is that I can see how I can extend my own work - the Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF) model. For instance, from a general focus on optimal (or dysfunctional) emotional subjective experiences I have moved further to kinaesthetic awareness and now can appreciate more the role of individually relevant technique. Thus to enhance performance I can focus not only on optimal emotional states but on optimal technique which, if not developed, can be a serious barrier to performance improvement.

"Old Way/New Way^® is based on a sound theoretical and methodological framework. It has been empirically validated in non-sports settings (educational). The underpinning theory offers a high degree of predictability of performance errors and their likely resolution. The 4-step correction procedure itself is well structured and provides an opportunity for a well-planned intervention with a very clear focus. But what's more, the whole thing is a real cooperative effort between the athlete, the coach and the sport psychologist and this is a mutually beneficial experience usually resulting in the development of high quality working (partnership) relationships.

"The program can be used solely or in conjunction with another. For instance, I incorporated it into my own IZOF model as skill correction with movement patterns was missing from my applied perspective.

"Finally, team consulting with Paul via Internet in working with athletes and coaches was professionally and personally an outstanding and exceptionally enriching experience. Thanks Paul!"

Read the full case notes for the javelin thrower and the sprinter.

Olympic hammer throwing: Technique correction for a female hammer thrower

Athlete's profile

M, a 25 year old female hammer thrower. Personal best of 62.07 (1999). Gold (1996, 1999) and silver (1994, 1997, 1998) medals in national championships.

Error analysis

Today we had a special session to discuss the technical problems that emerge only during competition and very seldom in training. Here is a summary of the additional error analysis.

What would we like to change?

1. She starts her first turn by turning her head to the left too early so that the left shoulder leads the movement.
2. Her weight is on her right foot.
3. A triangle formed by shoulders - outstretched arms - hammer is distorted and hammer's trajectory is narrowed and not as wide as it should be.
4. Her right knee is raised too early and is landed too late.
5. Her right foot is "sailing", i.e., dancing and turning the toe to the right instead of to the left.
6. She works with her upper body, instead of with the legs, feet and pelvis.>
7. She is not sitting and leans forward trying to compensate.

How should it be?

1. Her weight should be on the left foot.
2. She should look straight ahead, at her hands and the hammer.
3. She should make a wider swing with the hammer.
4. She should keep a 90 degree angle between her hands, hammer and head.
5. The angle between her hands/arms and body should also be 90 degrees.
6. The starting movement is not wide enough.

Based on this error analysis an Old Way/New Way^® protocol was prepared and a special session was organized.

Results

Again the experiment was successful. Detailed transcripts from this athlete describe how gradually, from one throw to another throw, her awareness of the wrong technique improved and how she could control her movements better.

The session with M was very successful both from the point of view of the outcomes (corrected error) and the documentation. Specifically, her non-stop talk taped after each throw produced about 10 pages of transcripts.

During the session we had to change a few things. For instance, school children came to have their PE lesson at the field so M could not throw. Awareness and discrimination steps were done on the sand, doing 4 turns pre-throw performance and keeping balance.

Then getting back to the ring required some adjustments. The throws were performed from the ring using the NEW way.

She was really tired (exhausted) due to a considerable mental and physical load, having done 40 throws and 4 turn attempts.

Case summary and discussion

This case illustrates many of the important outcomes of Old Way/New Way^® that have been demonstrated experimentally and in field trials in non-sport learning settings.

These outcomes concern skill development, performance improvement, cognitive and affective change and the desire to continue using Old Way/New Way^® for technique development.

Part of this case study was to test if the shift from ineffective emotional to optimal emotional performance state was possible. Using the same approach but not as strictly structured, the athlete did it herself after getting instructions over the phone.

Briefly described, the problem was that this athlete was that she felt she achieved her optimal states and performed to the best of her abilities mainly during training. However, in competition she felt a lot of anxiety, merging close to panic attacks. Using Old Way/New Way^®, she was able to shift to a more optimal state and felt much better.

Olympic javelin: Technique correction for a female javelin thrower

Athlete's profile

M was a 25-year-old female javelin thrower who has competed in several European and World Championships and in the Atlanta Olympics. Table 1 reports the dynamics of her results over the last nine years.

Table 1. Olympic javelin thrower's performance 1992-1999

Year	Competitions	Mean dist. (m)	Min.	Max.
1992	11/2	50.34	54.00	46.84
1993	10/2	54.41	58.26	48.44
1994	12/1	55.72	58.70	51.26
1995	16/5	61.06	65.16	56.22
1996	16/4	60.74	63.28	56.50
1997	14/5	64.15	67.32	61.36
1998			66.43
1999			61.50

Background to the technique difficulty

The 1999 season was a difficult one for M. She suffered from injuries; a new type of javelin was introduced; and she experienced consistent errors in technique during competitions.

At the beginning of the season M did not react to this error at all because she was not even aware that she had a technique problem. However, when TK, her coach, pointed out the error M began to pay more attention to it. She was able to compare this incorrect technique with her previous throws using video playback and with practice the technique problem appeared to be resolved.

For the next six months everything appeared to be all right, especially during training when M was not required to perform at maximum effort. At the beginning of the season in spring there were still no obvious signs of the error. When the new javelin type was introduced in 1999, M tried to throw low, thinking that if the throw is low it would fly better.

The main emphasis at that time during training was on finding the most appropriate direction and the right trajectory for the new javelin. Little attention was paid to identifying the movement sequence required for a technically optimal performance because the technique problem was not apparent at this stage.

However, in summer with the beginning of the competition season, the technique problem became more evident and also grew more serious.

M tried stronger throws and felt more pain in her shoulder and the results were clearly below her potential and previous performances. Most of her throws were below 60 m, although her personal bests in the previous seasons were 67.32m in 1997 and 66.43m in 1998.

An important characteristic of the technique error was that during training and practices M was able to throw correctly almost every time, giving the impression that coaching had produced the desired improvement. However, in the stress of competition she would invariably fall back to her incorrect technique.

Correction of the error in technique that consistently appeared almost solely in competitions was now really important for two reasons. Firstly, this difficulty in technique was making M uncompetitive. Secondly, it caused M considerable pain in the shoulder and this could potentially develop into a serious (season-ending) injury.

Two months of skill correction and drills failed to improve the situation and the World Championship in Seville was only three weeks away, so at YH's invitation TK agreed to try Old Way/New Way^®.

In the sections that follow an overview of the Old Way/New Way^® session will be given, splitting the procedure into pre-, mid- and post-intervention stages.

Stage 1. Pre-learning trial stage

1. Motivation to change

Getting the athlete's agreement to participate in Old Way/New Way^® is an important first step. A sport psychologist and a coach cannot change the athlete; she must make the change herself.

While a total belief in the methodology is not a pre-requisite, at least some degree of commitment to change and improvement is required. At YH's request, TK had a preliminary discussion with the athlete and, as expected, the athlete expressed some doubts as to whether she should change her old way of throwing. Her e-mail messages reveal those feelings.

(14 Jul 1999). "Yes, I did my first throwing session today after having given the elbow 2½ weeks to recover. It was not bad at all, I was of course a bit anxious about if it would hurt or not, but it didn't. I did quite many throws but only "easy" ones and mostly from walking. We talked with my coach about what you suggested I should do when throwing. Well today (mostly since I was throwing easy and we did it to "test" the elbow) I did it the "normal" way....and it was quite ok! I never really throw with a "competition run-up" in training, mostly because I feel better about my throwing when I'm throwing off grass. So I'm not 100% sure if I should still try to do the "new" way, which I also told my coach - so what do you think??? - when I throw from grass it is easy for me to "find" the throw and have the right technique!!!! I'm throwing again next week on Monday."

Two things are important to note here:

(a) M's hidden resistance to change and the fact that, as TK said, they never really tried to correct the technique before because there was no problem in training and hence no real need to change anything; and

(b) the consistent error in technique appeared only during a run-up with full speed and during the stress of competition.

Subsequent correspondence between M and YH revealed that her unstable performance and the re-occurrence of the error, especially in competitions, had made her ambivalent about the need for correction. When everything was going well she saw no need to change but the recollection of problems during competition gave her the feeling that she would like to do something about it. Her uncertainty and indecision are still apparent in the following messages.

(25.07.99). "I came back quite late from throwing training yesterday, so I'm writing this feedback today. I still remember how it felt. Well, in a way I didn't feel as focused as last time, maybe I was a bit eager to throw?! I'm not pleased with everything yet, but I guess I just need to have patience right now and not try to rush things. At the end of the session I kind of got the feel for how it should go (and I was able to focus better or "think of nothing") and my last throw was probably my best one also."

"I must admit I'm a bit nervous for Wednesdays meet, it feels like "the first meet of the summer" then again in a way it will be. My coach is coming too so that will help a little bit. The other training that I've done has been ok, so I know 'I'm getting there' -like I said a lot of patience or nice n' easy, right."

(30.07.99). "Well, this might sound a bit weird, but I felt pretty good physically and even in the warm ups, but I just can't get it right (YET) at the finish of the throw. I feel that I'm getting close (or I'm just hallucinating, he hee) to getting it right. I guess the only 'problem' is that I've got one more meet to get it right at, our Nationals. I must say I feel a lot more confident that I can throw well now than I did 5-6 weeks ago, so it will be an interesting meet on the 7th!! (1999)."

(3.08.1999). "I just thought I'd write you some comments about today's throwing. To put it short, getting there. This was probably my best throwing session for the summer!! Still not totally satisfied but it's getting better every time now! A month ago I couldn't feel a thing when I was throwing but now I'm starting to get the feel back! I know my coach talked to you earlier today so you know we did a 'normal' throwing session. I didn't focus on anything in particular to 'fix' just trying to stay relaxed and 'letting it come to me'. So, like I said today's training was a positive experience."

At this stage M appeared highly motivated and optimistic and was clearly improving during training. However, the technique problem was still not under control.

TK was ready for an Old Way/New Way^® learning trial but with the recent improvement in M's psychological state and in her general attitude it was jointly decided to postpone technique correction until after the national competition.

M knew her optimal performance state and was able to mobilize at the right moment, thus compensating for her sub-optimal technique. Consequently, M subsequently won the national championships. Even more importantly, she finally broke the A-limit (60m) for the first time in the season and would now be able to go to the World Championships in Seville.

After the celebrations, however, it was still obvious that M's throwing technique was too forced and had caused her elbow injury, so M and TK made an appointment with YH to commence technique correction.

The aim of the skill correction was to help M return to the better technique she had employed during the 1998 season.

2. Error analysis

Old Way/New Way^® requires a detailed understanding and description of the technique fault. Three questions have to be answered, namely, "What is she doing wrong?", "What should she be doing instead?", and "What are the differences between these two ways?"

Since Old Way/New Way^® is a team effort involving the athlete, her coach and the sport psychologist acting as change facilitator, all these stakeholders have to contribute to the error analysis as well as to the other stages of the skill development process. YH asked TK to describe M's technique problem in detail.

Summary of coach's error analysis

What would we like to change?

1. The shoulder's line turns forward too early.
2. The speed of movement does not increase (does not go on) bravely till the end.
3. The elbow of the throwing (right) arm moves too low in the pull.

How should it be?

1. Left shoulder (body side) should be forward longer at the beginning of the throw . Putting down supporting foot.
2. Left shoulder (body side) should be forward longer at the beginning of the throw . Putting down supporting foot.
3. Stronger (more active) leg work during the final stage in crossing steps.
4. The body stays in vertical position.
5. Back arm is higher and starts a movement later, so javelin pull is longer.

What is the difference?

1. Javelin pull is shorter.
2. Rotation stretching of the body does not happen as it should.
3. The body does not move forward enough during the pulling.

This initial description of the technique problem is very involved, with many components of the throwing action being implicated.

Although an experienced coach can spot numerous technique faults readily, the initial aim of any Old Way/New Way^® intervention is to identify and select only one or two major aspects of technique for correction during a single session. Attempting to concentrate on more than one or two aspects at any one time tends to confuse and overload the athlete and also makes observation by the coach and sport psychologist during the intervention much more difficult.

The next step, then, was to condense this list of faults into one or two items that could more readily be managed during the skill correction process.

Identifying one's own technique faults can be quite difficult, as shown by M's initial comments on being asked to do so.

"I have tried to think of how to sketch the good and bad throws, but it's very difficult to even explain what happened in the throws second by second. I think that even in a good throw I sometimes don't remember a thing of the throw! I do have the throw from this year on tape and I compared it to last year's throw (65.77) and I can see the difference, so I guess that's as close as I get. I think my coach can explain it better since he's the 'observer'."

These comments are especially interesting from the point of view of learned errors that an athlete is unaware of and therefore cannot control. Clearly, we need a thorough but not over-detailed error analysis of the movement requiring correction. Focusing on too many details, however, will just overload the athlete and make the correction session less effective.

Since the role of the athlete is central in Old Way/New Way^®, M was asked to comment on her coach's error analysis and to describe her problem in her own words.

(29.07.99). "Yes, I would have answered pretty much the same, maybe in a little bit different way but basically the same things! For example, I am too early with the upper body, I open up and face forward when the left leg gets down instead of keeping my upper body (shoulders) sideways when I plant my left leg."

This was already a useful simplification of the basic problem. Based on this error analysis an Old Way/New Way^® protocol was prepared and a special correction session was organized.

Stage 2. Learning trial stage (2 hours including warm up)

An individualized Old Way/New Way^® protocol for correcting M's technique problem was devised by PB, the Old Way/New Way^® consultant.

Prior to the session, three tasks were undertaken. M, TK and YH watched video tapes of erroneous and correct technique, at M's suggestion. This was followed by YH's brief explanation of the Old Way/New Way^® protocol. M then did her regular warm up which took 30-40 minutes.

The actual protocol included four steps, namely: improvement of M's mental and physical awareness; systematic and progressive discrimination of the old and new ways; generalization or practice of the new way; and a review with instructions on how to handle spontaneous recovery of the technique error.

M's coach made the following observations of the Old Way/New Way^® session .

1. Preparation for the session

Two days before the practice, the idea of Old Way/New Way^®seemed still a bit strange to M. The day before, M was not yet strongly motivated to do the session ("Well, OK, we can do it..") But on the morning she started to show a little enthusiasm so her mental state was good.

Prior to the session we watched the videos of throws at M's own wish, to compare several competitions (1997, 1998, 1999, and National Championships), to get a better idea of the correct way of throwing.

Good warm-up and physical preparation for the training session following about 3 days of rest.

2. Developing awareness

M did not want to do wrong throws. When asked about her feelings, sensations, there was no clear picture of physical awareness.

After 6-8 throws, some feelings. 3-4 throws were the old (wrong) way, others were correct. She had a strong image of the right throw from watching a video and having done some training at home.

3. A breakthrough

A clear Aha! experience emerged in body-sensations as she was requested to throw with eyes closed.

With closed eyes she managed to feel how the old way of throwing worked. "Left arm first strikes strongly to the left and backwards-down and shoulder line turns open, then just supporting leg/foot lands down and the right arm moves low from the side and strikes in the end to the left side and downwards."

Several throws with eyes closed reinforced the feelings/bodily sensations.

Initial resistance to Old Way/New Way^® training disappeared, with emergence of good motivation to do the throws. About 12 "old way" throws were performed.

4. The new way

The shift to the new way was successful and quick. Bodily sensations of the new way appeared immediately with each throw.

At this stage already a need to compare old and new ways was felt. "Now I don't turn my shoulder into the open position but try to move breast forward. Feel tension (stretching) of the right part of the chest muscles and of the shoulder as the throwing arm goes up for the spike, like in volleyball."

As sensation developed, there also came a thought that left side to maintain/move forward and longer. The right sequence, "first landing support foot then left hand moves to the side and extension of the right shoulder", throwing arm moves automatically upwards and forward.

Throws in the new way with eyes closed resulted in too careful a landing of the support foot, producing worse throws in the new way.

5. Comparison of the old and new way

The Old Way/New Way^® sequence of movements was done 5 times. Calling the patterns old ways and new ways seemed to suit the athlete, very well.

At this stage there was a clear sensation of difference about the arm movement. M began to feel a little tired. No more resistance to doing the old way. M clearly differentiated between old and new ways after each throw. When asked, M would like to do even more throws Old-New way, if only she were not so tired.

6. Practicing the new way

Altogether, 6 throws were performed in the new way. Despite tiredness, M did strong and correct throws with a long and strong pull. M began to feel more strong sensations from the support foot (compared to previous throws). The arm movement (throw) felt like a "volleyball spike". Good feeling and better awareness of the new way. After the throws, a debriefing session reinforced the successful training session.

7. Conclusion

Altogether M performed about 40 throws. Training progressed well. Throwing succeeded unusually well and all throws done with a good, speedy rhythm. During training M's self confidence clearly developed.

Stage 3. Post intervention stage

The post-intervention stage is concerned with evaluating the session and reinforcing successful technique change.

TK's highly positive evaluation of the intervention was confirmed by M's comments on the following day:

(12.08.99). "Well, here are my comments on yesterday's throwing. I was very motivated before the session but I had my doubts about Old Way/New Way.^® Like I said yesterday, it was against my logic to throw the wrong (old) way on purpose but now I can see why I needed to do it! In the beginning when I was still fighting it (to throw the old way) it was difficult to say what I did. I felt it was a lot easier to feel the throw and what I did when I closed my eyes, and I could very clearly feel what I did (wrong)."

"Already before the session I had worked a lot on getting it clear to myself about the arm hitting it high. I didn't think about it at all and it was not so clear to me how wrong it was until I watched the tape from and compared it to my 1997-98 throws. I didn't feel it was difficult at all to throw the new way and with this I mean changing the way to throw and it also felt very natural."

"I think it was better to do the throwing inside into a net than outdoors because it was not difficult at all to focus on these 'special things'. I'm satisfied that even when I got tired at the end from taking many throws I could still manage to do quite good throws the new way. I think yesterday's experience was a very important and interesting one!!! I'm also a bit surprised at how 'easy' and how fast I was able to adapt to the new way to throw!! THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP!!"

It was now important to reinforce these new feelings of empowerment and to enhance M's self-confidence. YH's message aimed to do that.

(12.08.99). "Thanks very much for your quick response with very important comments. Your feelings confirm that you did a great job of shifting from the old way to the NEW way. But what's even more important, you spent 1.5 hours and managed to make a really profound change in your patterns. As you will see, from now on in 80% of all cases you will easily enjoy doing your NEW way with your NEW friend (new javelin)."

"It means just one thing - you do not need to "fight" the old way (worry about technique) at all. Just say (acknowledge) - yes, this is my old way; now this is MY NEW WAY! I liked very much how strong, skillful and attractive your new way was. And how straightforward! So, big opportunities and YOU are in CHARGE!!! My congratulations! Keep doing a good job. Don't forget - even in training throw ONLY your NEW friend (friend) and practice daily your NEW way (5-6 times) by imagery. All my best wishes & Good Luck."

The first training session following the session (again in the hall) was successful. All three important elements of the throwing movement worked well. TK's comments are as follows.

(13.8.99). "Throwing practice went very well. M did 20 throws, all with the new javelin (earlier before the old model was also used in training). All the throws were good (none bad) and even better than during the Old Way/New Way^® session, i.e., 100% correct. M herself evaluated her throws (previously it was the coach who rated the performance). The throws with the right technique were easy to do for her."

The response from M concurs well with TK's comments:

(13.8.99). "Well, I had another very enjoyable throwing session behind me!! We threw indoors again, because it seems like it's easier to concentrate on the important things. I would say I managed to throw the new way quite well, at least 95% of my throws very OK. It felt very easy to throw (hitting it high and feeling the pressure in the shoulder) especially considering I threw quite a lot only 2 days ago."

"Old Way/New Way^® seems to have worked well for me. I will do 2 sessions in Portugal/Spain so I will definitely have some nice outdoor sessions too, soon. Thanks!!!! It feels gooooood!"

The first training session outdoors, the second after the Old Way/New Way^® session, was important as a means to check if additional distractors would affect M's performance of the new way and constituted a further test of transfer of learning. Again, the results were very good.

(18.8.99) It was a successful session (20 throws and 15 were really good technically). Only 5-6 throws were a bit different but not exactly the old way. A spontaneous recovery of the old way was handled well. This proved that outdoors throwing compared to indoor experiences was no problem. However, by the end of the session, there was some pain in the left knee. M was reminded to continue regular daily imagery of the NEW WAY.

(24.8.99) M had a very good training session - 15 technically good throws (only 1-2 not quite satisfactory). No pain in the knee. Distance 58-59 with 70% effort.

(26.8.99) M made it in the qualifications (the qualifying distance was 61m). She did 61.50m, her personal best this season with the new javelin.

The following day (27.8.99) M had a bad problem with her knee. She could hardly walk, let alone run. Being a great fighter, she managed to throw 60.48 m, ranking 9th in the competition, just a few centimetres from the finalist's group. At this point, she is successfully recovering from the knee operation and is preparing for the Sydney Olympics.

Case Summary and Discussion

This case illustrates many of the important outcomes of Old Way/New Way^® that have been demonstrated in non-sport learning settings both experimentally and in field trials.

These outcomes concern skill development, performance improvement, cognitive and affective change and the desire to continue using Old Way/New Way^® as the method of choice for further technique development.

1. Skill correction

Old Way/New Way^® is a behaviour change methodology. In skill correction and development in sport its effectiveness is judged in terms of technique change in the desired direction. In other words, did M's technique improve?

Table 2 shows the dramatic improvement in percentage of technically correct actions following one Old Way/New Way^® learning trial lasting approximately 90 minutes. Learning gains also transferred successfully to competitive performance, indicating that the transfer of learning was enduring.

Table 2. Percentage correct actions after intervention

	Before		After
	Wrong	Right	Wrong	Right
Practice	90%	10%	15%-20%	80%-85%
Competition	100%	0%	10%	90%

 

2. Performance enhancement

The fact that M also produced a personal best following the Old Way/New Way^® session is, for the purposes of this study, irrelevant, even though it is highly significant for the athlete and her coach.

This is because the purpose of Old Way/New Way^® has been achieved whenever two things are accomplished, namely:

1. The athlete's technique changes in the desired direction during a correction session.
2. The learning gains, i.e., improved technique, transfers to competitive settings.

If the initial choice of "better" technique, i.e., the "new way", is correct then athletic performance should also improve but this is not always a natural consequence of technique development. Sometimes, a change in technique is accompanied by no improvement at all or even a decrement in performance, if the choice of the "new" technique is unsuitable for the particular athlete.

In certain situations it may not even be possible to decide in advance which of several possible technique changes is likely to produce improved performance.

M's technique problem may be such a case. Although M and TK used video playback of M's 1998 throws to decide that she should try to "regain" the better technique of the past, the fact that she had to learn to handle a new javelin meant that she was, to some extent at least, searching for an entirely "new" way and not just trying to recover or reinstate a previously successful technique.

To some degree, the idea of "getting it back" is misleading. It is an oversimplification of the real learning problem. Better to use the idea of "changing/correcting a wrong way and then learning a right way". The fact that the new, right, way may resemble something the athlete could do before is not nearly as important as the fact that she first has to unlearn the error.

The unlearning is the key to behaviour change because, according to our psychological framework, Habit pattern interference is what we are trying to overcome. Habit pattern interference is what stops her unlearning that wrong way. Old Way/New Way^® bypasses habit interference so she can then successfully unlearn the wrong way.

The fact that the new way resembles a past, successful, way of doing things may be purely coincidental, although, to a coach and athlete who are unschooled in the theoretical basis of Old Way/New Way^®, the idea of "getting back a lost skill" sounds logical, simple and therefore becomes an attractive explanation.

But there is more to it than that. What we are doing with Old Way/New Way^® is reducing or stopping the proactive interference that normally prevents or slows down unlearning and disables transfer of training.

Old Way/New Way^® is therefore an interference eliminator, you might say. It allows the association of conflicting ideas to happen in the brain and it also exerts retroactive retrieval inhibition on the "old incorrect" way so it is quickly "forgotten" and the person is then left with the new way as the normal, logical natural choice of how to act.

3. Enhanced understanding

M was able to quickly develop a conceptual grasp of the new and subtle technicalities involved in throwing the new javelin. This was apparent from the transcript of her verbalizations during the Old Way/New Way^® session and her subsequent reflections. This conceptual understanding lies at the heart of the observed technique improvements.

4. Improvement in affect

In addition to skill development, one of the side effects of Old Way/New Way^® also experimentally demonstrated in non-sport learning contexts is a sudden improvement in affect.

This is more than just an athlete's happy reaction to obvious signs of technique improvement; it also comes from the feeling of empowerment, i.e., increased control over the change process, that accompanies the mediation process.

This realization of control is all the more impressive to the athlete because it occurs within such a short time span and is usually unprecedented because this rate of change is completely outside the athlete's prior experience. M's observations clearly indicate that she felt strongly empowered by Old Way/New Way^®.

5. Continued use of the methodology

Another outcome of Old Way/New Way^® also observed in other contexts concerns the desire to do more of it. Subsequent to a properly prepared and conducted Old Way/New Way^® session, athletes typically want to use Old Way/New Way^® to improve other aspects of their performance. Coaches and sport psychologists also feel this way. Following their initial successes, M, TK and YH plan to use Old Way/New Way^® to help develop M's technique even further.

This desire springs not just out of the realisation that this methodology is very effective but is also based on the positive personal experience with Old Way/New Way^® as being a very user friendly as well as a cost-effective way of changing actual performance.

Admittedly, in certain situations other methods of skill development, e.g., behaviour modification, can also be helpful in producing fairly rapid behaviour change.

However, despite their effectiveness, the inherent complexity, resource intensiveness and low user friendliness of such alternative methods means they are not widely used by coaches.

Even the best methods of skill development are of little more than academic interest if they are not being adopted by practitioners.

The history of sport science is full of "application gaps" where important research results that could potentially revolutionize sport performance were never adopted by athletes or coaches, for these same reasons.

Perhaps for the first time, Old Way/New Way^® offers a viable alternative that is readily adopted by coaches and sport psychologists.

South Australian Sports Institute—accelerated skill correction in elite sport.

Kylie Baker (South Australian Sports Institute) & Gillian Tan (University of Southern Queensland).

^®) for accelerated skill correction: A new paradigm and technique for elite sport. Paper presented at the Australian Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2001: A Sports Medicine Odyssey. Challenges, Controversies and Change, 23-27 October 2001, Burswood International Resort Casino, Perth, Western Australia.

Extract

Mediational Learning has been applied by the psychologists at the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) with a variety of different athletes. These athletes include the following:

• baseball players (pitching technique)
• basketball players (shooting technique - 3 point line, and jump shots)
• divers (hurdle technique on spring board, take-off technique on platform, and body posture)
• rowers (catch position)
• soccer players (kicking technique)
• volleyball players (hitting and serving technique, as well as team concepts and beliefs).

Old Way/New Way^® empowers an elite soccer player to take personal control of change.

Unsolicited comments on Old Way/New Way^® from a member of the South Australian National Women's Soccer League

"For the first time, I felt like I was in charge, not the ball! I could control where the ball went or predict where it would go.

"There was so much less guesswork involved. Instead of relying on various tricks that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, I knew that if I got my foot next to the ball, kept my head down and followed straight through that the ball would go straight ahead. I was in charge, not the coach.

"For the first time, I don't feel like kicking is something that I can only do well when a coach who I understand is watching over my kicks and correcting poor technique.

"Now I don't only understand good technique in theory; I understand how my body needs to move to put it into practice. (I never found it very easy to learn kicking technique from [coach's name], for whatever reasons. And I didn't know how to improve the technique on my own. Now I know how to do that.)

"It is a different kind of understanding or knowing than I had before.

"Old Way/New Way^® has been great because I practice kicking less often and it improves significantly more that it used to!! That is, it helps me work smart instead of just hard. The "return" from Old Way/New Way^®, i.e., the benefit gained for the time put in, is excellent.

"For the first time, I have seen real improvement in my kicking during games as well as during training. I think this is because I know the technique well enough in my own mind that I can do it under pressure and quickly.

"My coach can see the improvement. This time, when I finally said to [....], after he told me how bad my kicking was that I thought my kicking was much more accurate, the kicking didn't let me down in the following game and even [....] said that it was great! Miracles will never cease!

"It is a technique that I can use to obtain further improvements in kicking and in other areas of my game.

"I feel so much better about my kicking and am so much more confident in myself about it. Now, at club, players that I respect want me to cross the ball to them instead of someone else because I can cross a decent ball.

"I am sure that the confidence I feel with kicking is impacting on other areas of my game, for example, people are telling me I have really good "vision" and I think it is because I can finally put a ball where I want to put it.

"Why was Old Way/New Way^® so helpful? What makes it work well? In my opinion, the presence of both sports psychologist and coach is critical, particularly in a situation where a coach has (possibly justifiable) preconceptions about the inability of the player concerned to execute the relevant technique.

"For me, with respect to kicking, I think Old Way/New Way^® taught me to focus on one thing at a time and to focus on direction rather than other aspects of kicking technique such as whether it was good strike or went the distance, or whatever. A successful kick was one that went straight, even if it felt terrible to kick and went along the ground instead of going in the air. Once I was able to kick consistently and strike a ball so that it went straight ahead, it was easy to make it go in the air and get more distance.

"As a result of doing Old Way/New Way^® I now think that the way to work at increasing distance is not so much to practice long kicks but to practice kicking technique over a shorter distance. Once that is right it seems to me to be much easier to get the distance.

"The Old Way/New Way^® sessions were the first time, I think, that I had ever had a coach actually work through with me in one session all the different things needed for good kicking technique. Most of what we talked about I had heard before, e.g., foot next to the ball, head down, follow through, toe down, etc., but never all at the same time and in a way that helped me put all of them together into one kicking technique. It was really important to build up a "new way" from all of those little things.

"As well as learning a 'new way', I learned how to trigger it - that there were a few things that if I got right the rest would follow."

Old Way/New Way.^® Sports Coach. 2003, Vol. 25, No. 4. National journal of the Australian Sports Commission

Compares Old Way/New Way^® sports coaching with conventional coaching, and discusses the highly effective use of the technique with Jason Gillespie, first class cricketer, and with Olympic athletes in Finland.

Cricket coaching | bowling technique correction | recovery from a performance slump

Extract from Sports Coach 2003, Vol. 25, No. 4. National Journal of the Australian Sports Commission.

"... one of the most spectacular examples of Old Way/New Way's^® success [is] cricketer Jason Gillespie [who] needed to change his bowling action .... he was able to change a major part of his bowling action in about 20 minutes...."

This is how Australian Test Cricket pace bowler Jason Gillespie (real name) overcame technical difficulties, as reported by Neil Cross in The Advertiser, Adelaide, on 13 November 1997 (reproduced here with permission); on 20 November and on 21 November by David Burtenshaw; and on 26 August 1998 by Trevor Marshallsea in Dublin.

"Australian Test paceman Jason Gillespie could make a surprise

Gillespie's recovery from stress fractures in his back has been faster than expected but there is universal agreement that he will not be rushed into a premature return to the field.

South Australian coach Andrew Sincock, who has overseen the rehabilitation process, said Gillespie appeared to have overcome the technical difficulties which were pinpointed as the cause of his stress fractures.

"I'm reticent to predict an actual time for his SA comeback but it could be before Christmas," Sincock said. "What we will do is wait until he is ready and then wait another week."

Gillespie had been bowling consistently off 6-7 paces at South Australian training in the past two weeks and in private sessions has even attempted his long run.

Sincock will supervise the paceman during an internal trial match next Wednesday and Thursday. Gillespie is expected to bowl exclusively off the shortened approach for three spells of three overs.

Like his coaches, he does not want to speculate on when he will be ready to again lead an attack.

"Our intention in this is that he will bowl faster with a better line and more swing control than before and in a way which will reduce the stress on his body," Sincock said.

Gillespie has been working hard on rectifying the problems with his action. Two months ago a group of experts, including Australian coach Geoff Marsh, Australian team physiotherapist Errol Alcott, fast bowling great Dennis Lillee and Sincock set down a program of strengthening and conditioning for Gillespie. It was felt he would take up to six month to return to bowling at first class level.

But Lillee said yesterday the improvement in his action was "quite phenomenal".

"He is looking very, very grooved in getting the action right over six or seven paces," he said. "There is no pain at when he bowls which is the first time in many years and proves what he is doing is correct."

"He will be off his long run in the next week or two. As long as he keeps those good lines I see no reason he should not be playing Shield cricket very soon."

South Australia will play three more Sheffield Shield games before Christmas. Gillespie obviously won't start in the match against Western Australia which begins at the Adelaide Oval tomorrow but there is a chance he will be passed fit for the clash with Victoria in Melbourne at the end of the month or the home clash with New South Wales which starts on December 19.

The Redbacks selectors might also be tempted to include Gillespie in the one-day line-up for the December 12 match with Western Australia in Perth.

Lillee said that it is important for Gillespie to be satisfied that he was ready and not just have a go. "I would hate it if he came back too soon," he said. "I have seen him and I think at this stage, at six or seven paces, he is very much on the right track."

But Lillee cautioned the real test for Gillespie would be his reaction to a long day in the field and being asked to bowl long spells in the heat. "As I have warned him, its a monitoring process all the way. It took me 18 months to get back in the right groove and even then I was not happy with the first action," Lillee said.

Gillespie has worked diligently with Sincock and educational psychologist Harry Lyndon in a bid to bring forward the date of his return to the bowling crease.

Lyndon, who works in the field of skill correction and accelerated learning, has been working on Gillespie's ability to recognise when he strays from the new action that is required.

"We are trying to modify the old action and create a new way of delivering the ball," Sincock said. "In due course, we will eradicate the old way."

Gillespie has been playing club cricket as a batsman in the lower grades so far this season with frustratingly limited success. It is clear he would like a return to bowling as a means of filling in long days in the field as much as anything else. (The Advertiser, 13 November 1997).

New Look Gillespie Off Leash. The Advertiser, 21 November 1997.

The main aim of Jason Gillespie's revised bowling action is to correct a minor fault - the incorrect landing of his front foot on arrival at the crease.

By pushing his left leg too far to the right in his delivery stride and twisting his torso, Gillespie compounded the strain on his lower back.

At the end of his new run-up he focuses on planting the left boot straighter down the wicket, staying upright at the point of delivery and then following through in the same direction.

Faull Finds Form. The Advertiser. 20 November 1997.

A call of the coin yesterday postponed Jason Gillespie's next step in his recovery process from back problems.

The big paceman was expected to bowl during the opening day of a South Australian State Squad trial on Adelaide No.2 but his side, led by Martin Faull, won the toss and chose to bat.

Gillespie instead worked out for about 30 minutes in the nets, encouragingly off close to his full run and at near full pace. He was closely monitored by Redback's coach Andrew Sincock, who has been responsible for the technical changes to the paceman's action since he broke down on the Ashes tour, and educational psychologist Harry Lyndon, who has been working on Gillespie's recognition and self-correction of his old habits.

Sincock said he had been encouraged by the pace Gillespie was generating while Lyndon made it clear that there was no reason for the Australian quick not to play first-class cricket again before Christmas.

Update 1: Because of an injury he sustained to his heel, Jason's return to first class cricket has unfortunately been delayed.

Update 2, 26 August 1998: On tour in Ireland, Gillespie has recovered from his heel problems. His new bowling action has reduced the pressure on his lower back.

His progress has given Australian cricket good grounds for optimism that he will soon take his rightful place among world-class bowlers against England this Ashes summer.

According to Trevor Marshallsea's report, Gillespie said, "It's pretty hard to change your bowling action but it seems to be working well."

Gillespie has, "straightened up at the point of delivery to stop his front foot crossing in front of his right and to better control his leading arm." "It's putting less strain on my back and I've noticed a difference."

Gillespie scored 3/49 from 12 overs in the first innings of Australia's 150 run win against Ireland.

Update 3, 6 September 1999: On tour in Sri Lanka, Gillespie achieved a personal best.

Performance coaching in lawn bowls: Series of five articles on the use of Old Way/New Way^® in sport coaching

This article first appeared in seven monthly parts in the Queensland Bowler from December 1998 to June 1999, inclusive and was featured in the coaching section of the Royal Queensland Bowls Association web site.

Old Way/New Way^® applied to sport coaching involving physical and mental skills. These five articles explain the theoretical background of Old Way/New Way^® and how this innovative learning system can be used to accelerate skill development and correction in lawn bowls. Mental as well as physical skills are dealt with in detail. The examples can readily be transferred to performance enhancement and technique correction situations in other sports. Competitive players and athletes as well as sports coaches will find this material useful. Read all the articles.

Technique correction | football coaching | ball handling skills | Australian Rules football | kicking technique | handball technique

Palm Beach Currumbin High School's Sports Excellence - Australian Football program employs skill correction.

Football coach Neil Mackay runs the Palm Beach Currumbin High School Sports Excellence - Australian Football program. In this program talented students spend a lot of time learning about and playing Australian football, a game that has been described by some as the fastest football game on earth.

Neil had spent several months during 1996 working with two of his prize players to correct technique errors they were experiencing with hand ball and marking, two of the key skills of the game. What appeared to be well established faults were still resistant to correction after all this time.

Another football coach had attended a coaching seminar where Neil presented a paper on skill correction and the challenge this presented for all coaches, and this coach contacted Personal Best Systems. A meeting was subsequently arranged and a plan of attack was developed.

The PBS facilitator worked with both players and the coach for 20 minutes, improving the players' self-awareness of their technique error and then re-programming their old technique with a new, correct, method of marking and hand balling.

Both players and the coach were taught a simple method for self-correcting on those 20% (or less) occasions when the error was expected to resurface. The players were told to get as much practice of their new techniques as possible and a follow-up session was scheduled.

When the follow-up check was done 2 weeks later, the coach reported that he had monitored the errors both during practice and in competition and after several applications of the simple post-treatment correction method, the technique problems had not resurfaced.

Football coaching | kicking technique correction

Mark Woolnough corrects his kicking technique and makes the All Australian Team.

Mark Woolnough lives and breathes Australian football. He was a star player in the State under-18 team and has a bright future in the game.

One evening in early May 1997 Personal Best Academy was called in to help correct a resistant technique problem Mark was having with his kicking.

Despite being highly motivated to improve and with all the encouragement from his coach, Mark was unable to make much progress with this habitual problem with his kicking.

While Mark could kick as well as the best of his team mates, quite often he would kick too high, sending the ball up into the air rugby style instead of giving it a flat and faster trajectory. The resultant delay waiting for the ball to come down to earth gave opposition players plenty of time to intercept the ball before the receiving player could get possession.

The Old Way/New Way^® facilitator first diagnosed the problem with the coach and with Mark, and then put forward a plan to correct the problem. When all were agreed on the plan they went back out on the oval and started work on the problem.

With input from Mark and his coach, Mark's error was diagnosed as being due to excessive backward lean while kicking. This leaning backward meant the ball when kicked went up high and came down slower, instead of traveling low, flat and faster.

This body posture problem was corrected in 20 minutes using an Old Way/New Way^® procedure. Mark's coach confirmed 6 weeks later that the problem had not required any additional correction and had not resurfaced.

However, another interesting development had occurred. Mark had developed a new, completely unrelated, bad habit with his kicking.

Being a talented footballer, Mark was always in the thick of the action and often had possession of the ball. While his kicking trajectory was now mostly flawless, the point at which he often aimed the ball was unfortunately not the best.

Quite often, when he kicked the ball to another running player that player was often tackled and lost possession.

Error diagnosis revealed that this was because, instead of kicking the ball to a point ahead of the receiving player so that player would have to keep running to catch the ball and by running fast could keep clear of opposition players, Mark would kick short of this point, so that the player either had to slow down or even come to a complete stop to mark the ball and was therefore easily tackled by opposition players.

Further discussion with the coach suggested that part of the problem was incorrect body orientation - Mark was facing the wrong way when he kicked and this caused the ball to go in the wrong direction. Now that the "wrong" and "right" ways had been identified, the road to correction was clear.

Mark then completed an Old Way/New Way^® skill correction session. A week later he went to Melbourne for the national competition where he was selected for the All Australian Team.

Update: Mark was selected for the Geelong team.

Mario improves his basketball free throwing technique

The ideal free throw

Set-up: There is a dot on the free throw line that is aligned with the basket. It's advised that one stradle the dot with feet shoulder width apart standing square to the line. Standing with feet square to the line puts the body in position to go straight at the basket with the shooting arm. When standing at the line, one should be leaning forward in a balanced stance with weight on the balls of the feet.

Grasping the ball: The ball is bounced slowly and deliberately a few times to relax the muscles of the hands and arms. The ball is caught on the last bounce so that the inflation hole is centered and facing up. It is grasped by placing the thumb of the shooting hand in the horizontal seam of the ball with the third finger pointed at the inflation hole. Placing the thumb in the seam aids in adding rotation or backspin to the ball on release. The "off hand" is positioned underneath the ball to provide stability and support. It remains in this position until the shooting arm straightens and the ball is released.

Shooting sequence: After grasping the ball, the ball is raised to the center of the chest and the elbow drawn in so that it's directly below it. Starting the shot from this position enables the ball to travel in a direct line to the basket. As the elbow is brought inward, the knees are bent and one goes down into the legs to initiate the shot.

Coming up and out of the legs provides the thrust to launch the ball upward and toward the basket. The eyes focus on the target (above the back of the rim) on the rise.

As one rises, the shooting arm is extended smoothly from its vertical position in the centre of the chest toward the basket. At this point the wrist has been cocked. After the arm has been extended the wrist is snapped at the moment of release which provides rotation to the ball. On release of the ball follow through involves a wrist action resembling a good-bye wave.

2. MY VERSION OF THE SHOT

First of all, I am righthanded and I do not straddle the dot. I stand with my right foot just to the right of it. I do this to compensate for a tendency that I had to be constantly shooting to the right of the basket.

On the advice of another player I tried holding the ball differently. I now grasp the ball firmly with my off hand on the left side of the ball and my right in a 11 o'clock position on top of the ball and off to the right. This adjustment also led to improved accuracy. This player also noted that my shots were hard and fast. He suggested that I should strive for a softer slower and more gentle shot so that if I hit the rim the ball wouldn't be deflected from it.

Aside from these two differences, my delivery adheres to the ideal.

3. HISTORY

I have been wrestling with my shooting for the past two years. As indicated, I sought to compensate for a tendency to shoot off to the right by positioning myself to the left of the dot on the foul line that is aligned with the basket. Since making this adjustment and then later changing the way in which I grasped the ball my error pattern changed. Now, I'm inclined to shoot just as many shots off to the left as I do to the right. As for range errors, again, I am quite consistent in that just as many are long as fall short. The exception here is when I'm tired. When this is the case, my shots tend to fall short.

Other players have been more helpful than my coach. He has no concerns with my delivery and attributes the variability in my shooting to normal, expected and unexplainable performance swings.

One aspect of my technique that does vary from shot to shot is the angle at which I extend my shooting arm. Many of my shots will be nicely arched and fall softly and gently into the basket. These occur when I'm releasing the ball from just infront of and above my forehead. At other times, I release the ball from an arm position that is extended upward and out from my head by about 18 inches. When I shoot from this position there is less arc to the ball and it tends to be hard and fast.

As for technique problems, I would like to achieve consistency in where I release the ball from. My preference is from in front of my forehead. But I can't seem to release the ball from this position on a consistent basis. Further, I would like to be able to solve my current error pattern ie., half the shots going off to the right and half to the left; half short and half long.

4. OUTCOME OF ADVICE

As noted, I have followed up on the advice from fellow players and found it helpful. And yes, I have gone back and forth several times to how I hold the ball and where I release it from. Typically I'll experience some benefit following the switch and then my performance level will fade off again. When it does, I fiddle again until ...and so on. I've also experimented with breaking up my shot sequence with a momentary pause to aim after coming out of my legs and before extending the arm up to release the ball. As well I've varied the degree to which I go into my legs. I guess all of this is merely a reflection of the frustration that I'm experiencing in not being able to solve my riddle: "How to be a consistent free throw shooter where the shot is a smooth, continuous, integrated release of the ball from above the forehead that travels straight to the target gently and softly?"

Golf swing correction and putting technique correction.

Golf swing technique improvement? As an old golf pro once said, “The problem is not learning the new; it’s forgetting (unlearning) the old!”

If you have ever tried to fix a persistent problem with your golf game you will know how true that is.

Like when you last tried to change your grip, correct your putting action or make a swing change, you had to concentrate hard; you made more errors; it took so much time due to mental confusion; and the experience was frustrating and unpleasant.

Thankfully, all those skills coaching sessions appear to be paying off. You practice and practice and your technique on the range shows obvious improvement.

However, as soon as you are out on the golf course and under the stress of competition, your game falls apart and you revert to those old, wrong, ways.

You wanted to change but your brain would not let you change. In the case of your ingrained golf technique problem, you were the prisoner of habit. By a process of psychological interference, your old learning has disabled your new learning.

Cognitive science tells us that whatever we have practiced and learned is protected from change. When the new golf swing you are trying to learn is different from the old swing, your brain instantly detects this conflict and generates habit pattern interference to protect and preserve the old swing.

That's why old habits die hard!

Eventually, you will succeed and make the change over to the new swing but biomechanical experts say that it can take up to 2,000 practices before the new swing consistently replaces the old one. This is called the “adaptation period” and we have all gone through that misery.

Professional golfers are not immune either. In what is known as the dreaded “performance slump”, excellent technique carefully refined through years of hard work is suddenly and inexplicably lost.

Currently available coaching methods do not adequately address the issue of habit pattern errors very well. This is because conventional golf coaching tends to emphasize exclusive practice of the correct knowledge and skill, i.e., via hours of repetition or drills.

Admittedly, practice and drills are an essential element when learning new skills, i.e., when there is no old incorrect way that might interfere with learning. However, practice is much less effective when trying to change an established technique fault because habit pattern interference gets in the way of improvement.

Clearly, we need a better way.

A different approach to learning and improving your golf game, developed in Australia and adopted by a growing number of coaches and sporting professionals at institutes of sport here and overseas, is Old Way/New Way^® Learning.

Old Way/New Way^® Learning is a special way of practicing that greatly reduces the mental interference from old habits and therefore accelerates your learning.

Instead of spending weeks or months of frustrating practice, with Old Way/New Way^® Learning your swing technique can show 80% or better improvement after just one or two concentrated sessions.

This improvement persists and is more or less permanent, depending on how often you practice. Importantly, the new swing will transfer more readily to competition.

Best of all, the entire process is easy to learn, blame- and stress-free and very user friendly.

Become the golfer you always wanted to be!

Quickly improve your golf swing technique and other parts of your game with Old Way/New Way^® Learning. Learn how.

The following two case studies show how Old Way/New Way can improve your golf game.

Golf coaching: Golf pro uses Old Way/New Way^® to overcome an established technique problem

Roger Stephens, the golf pro at South Lakes Golf Club, Goolwa, South Australia, used Old Way/New Way^® to quickly eradicate a flaw in his downswing that had resisted correction for 15 years.

Golf professional Roger Stephens (real name) had always been taught from an early age that the power in your downswing comes from the knees and legs.

So, to give your swing more power you had to drive your right knee towards the ball. However, this movement started a sequence of events that led to the development of a flaw in his downswing.

In his own words, "First, my head would move away from the ball to counter balance my body. This would force forward the swing path of the club head so that it traveled left of target. Furthermore, as my right knee moved towards the ball the downswing path was blocked by my right knee. As a result I would lose 'space' and 'width.' "

"Since the downswing takes only 0.25 second I couldn't 'feel' anything to help me make the required changes to what I was doing wrong."

Roger said he had been trying to correct this technique difficulty for some 15 or more years, without success.

In 1997 Roger heard about a new method for overcoming technique difficulties when he met Harry Lyndon, the developer of Old Way/New Way^®, a new method for accelerating skill correction. Harry's interest in golf and Roger's wealth of professional experience combined to help Roger decide to try Old Way/New Way^® on the long-standing problem with his downswing.

Old Way/New Way^® quickly helped Roger make two important changes in his downswing. The first change was that Roger came to "feel" what his right knee was doing during the downswing. This was something he was unable to be aware of before, despite many attempts at correction.

The second important change Roger experienced was that he was able, through the Old Way/New Way^® procedure, to make his body quickly change from the "old" habitual swing to a "new" swing in which the knee did not get in the way of the balI and his head did not shift position.

"I was able to feel the old swing flaw as never before and then make the change to my preferred new way with a new right knee action and was able to 'feel' my new way as never before, making the change quickly", Roger explained.

Remarkably, these improvements took only 20 minutes to accomplish.

Furthermore, there was no period of adjustment required with the new swing, as you would expect with more conventional skill correction methods and even more importantly the new improved downswing remained a permanent part of Roger's game.

Golf coaching: Young aspiring golfer learns how to manage anger with Old Way/New Way^®

Eddie, aged 15 with a handicap of 5 after two years playing golf, is a rising star but things look bleak because he finds he cannot control his angry outbursts when he plays a bad shot, so he loses both his concentration and the game.

Sports psychologists teach athletes and players useful mental skills and how these can be used to improve sports performance.

As useful as these skills are, it usually takes quite a bit of prolonged, effortful practice to acquire mental skills, especially if you are not used to playing that way. In other words, before you can learn new mental skills you have to change your own, established, habitual ways of playing the "mental" part of the game.

Since old habits die hard we now know that simply "practicing over and over" a mental (or physical) skill will not help you learn it quickly. In fact, it can take you up to 2,000 repetitions (practices) of the new way before it becomes an established part of your game.

Instead of just practice, we need to use Old Way/New Way^® to quickly change our old ways into new and better ways.

An example will illustrate how Old Way/New Way^® can be used to help a player overcome a problem with "anger". The problem I describe and the solution we used applies equally to all sports.

Eddie is a young golfer with excellent potential. After playing only two years he has a handicap of five. At the age of 15 he has been singled out for special advanced coaching and is expected to, "make it big", one day not too far away.

However, this rising star has a serious problem. Whenever he makes a bad mistake in competitive play he "loses it" in a grand way. His language is formidable and while he does not actually throw clubs he pretty well does everything else.

His anger, of course, is directed at himself. His frustration at not being able to perform as he feels he should gets the better of him and explodes into uncontrollable outbursts.

The down side of all this is that Eddie's concentration is affected by his angry outbursts. After such an explosion the rest of his game is in tatters and he is unable to recover.

Eddie has come to believe that he cannot change himself and that the situation is completely beyond his control. His coach and his father who is also his best supporter have tried everything and told him not to be so hard on himself, all without success.

His coach and his father say that he will eventually "grow out of it" but it has got to the stage it is seriously affecting his game and is retarding his progress. Clearly, Eddie knows what he is doing wrong (getting angry); he knows what he should be doing instead (not getting angry and concentrating on his game); but he cannot make the change.

Having failed to control his anger early on and thereby allowing it to happen over and over, he inadvertently "practiced" getting upset and angry. Whatever you practice you will learn, so it soon became a habit pattern.

Eddie is now the prisoner of habit. It will take him quite some time, frustration and expense before he gets over this problem.
Eddie's father called me in to help with this problem and we spent two hours finding out why Eddie gets so angry and then helping him quickly learn some mental skills that would give him more control.

Psychology helps explain how your beliefs about your abilities lead to certain expectations about your performance and, when these are frustrated, how your emotions are aroused to an extent where your concentration suffers and your game falls apart.

Eddie's predicament is a good example of how the "mental side of the game", namely personal beliefs, expectations and emotions all interact to influence physical performance in sport.

During the session it became clear that Eddie believes in his golfing ability. Deep down, he knows he is good; he believes that one day he will be a great golfer. These are all quite realistic beliefs, based on his phenomenal progress to date and the constant reminders from his coach and his father that he will surely make it to the top. They believe in him and it shows, and this reinforces his own beliefs.

These beliefs lead Eddie to have certain expectations about his level of performance. For example, he expects that he should not make serious mistakes. To Eddie, making mistakes means "failure". Mistakes threaten his fast track to success. Mistakes are totally inconsistent with his abilities and general performance. Mistakes are "bad".

Whenever Eddie plays a bad stroke in an important match he sets off this string of negative self talk that triggers his emotions and produces his uncontrolled angry outbursts. His anger then gets the better of him, makes him lose concentration and then his game falls apart.

The fact that his self expectations are totally unrealistic is the crux of Eddie's problem.

Despite the best advice and assistance, he is unable to shake these ingrained misconceptions.

Having identified the problem, we spent the second hour changing Eddie's deep-seated ideas about his "mistakes".
Eddie's (incorrect) "own ways" were identified as:

• "I should not be making a mistake"
• "Mistakes are bad"
• "If I make a mistake I'll lose this game"
• I can't recover from a mistake."

These beliefs and expectations were then labeled, "old ways" of thinking about mistakes.

We then offered Eddie some "new ways" of thinking about mistakes and how to handle them:

• "mistakes happen; it's no big deal";
• "you are supposed to make mistakes - it's part of the learning process and you're still learning";
• "you can recover from a mistake - you know what to do";
• "concentrate on the next thing to do, not on what you just did."

We then developed Eddie's awareness of how he usually responds to a mistake (his old way) by repeatedly having him deliberately mishit from the tee and helping him focus on how this feels.

Using Old Way/New Way^®, we then exchanged Eddie's old ways for new ways. His negative self talk was changed to positive self talk and his unrealistic beliefs and expectations changed to a much more realistic self assessment.

We also taught Eddie some simple, useful techniques for releasing himself from a state of high emotional arousal (anger). He could use this technique whenever he found himself getting too upset about a mistake.

Finally, we taught Eddie how to self-correct on those odd (up to 20% of occasions) when he finds himself doing an "old Way", i.e., getting angry.

Two weeks and several competitions later Eddie's father reported that his son was doing quite well. There had definitely been an improvement. He had achieved the 80% change we predicted, after one session.

It took just one extra session lasting an hour and the problem was completely fixed.

The important things to note from this example are:

• we did not change Eddie - he changed himself. He was empowered by Old Way/New Way^® to change himself.
• this change occurred very quickly - much faster than by conventional coaching methods which do little more than tell the person to "practice, practice, practice" the new way
• after just one short session, Eddie had improved by 80%. After two sessions he had improved 100%
• the change process involved a team effort - to diagnose the problem, to come up with acceptable solutions and to enable the changes to occur
• the change methodology did not require incentives (rewards or punishments) and was uncomplicated and easy to administer
• Eddie has now acquired a learning method he can use any time from now on to improve his technique as well as his mental skills
• finally, Eddie is a much happier player now. He is more confident, much less easily thrown off his game and very much in control.
• Eddie is back on track and his handicap has gone down to 3. His future looks rosy.

Rowing coaching | technique correction | coaching clinics

Rowing coaching clinics

Rowing coaching clinics in Holland. More ...

Rowing Australia listed Old Way/New Way as a coaching resource and described it as follows:

www.coachingwins.com (now SimulatorTraining.net) This site promotes the "old way/new way" method for technique correction. This method, which was developed by a South Australian and is now being picked up by coaches around the world, corrects bad habits in technique in a matter of hours rather than months. As featured in the March 2003 edition of Sports Coach.

Running coaching | technique correction | starting technique

Pat, a professional runner, improved his starting technique.

Pat Henderson, a professional runner in his early twenties, had just completed his 20 minute warm up and stretching routine and was ready to set up his starting blocks.

A teacher by trade, Pat had heard of a new method for quickly overcoming technique faults and agreed to take part in a demonstration of the power of Old Way/New Way^® to change what for him had been a major obstacle to improving his competitive performance, his starting technique.

Bob Spencer, a top South Australian running coach had been trying for 7 years to get Pat to change his starting technique, without success.

Pat knew what the problem was, alright. Instead of pushing off the blocks hard with both legs, he was supposed to push off with only the left leg and simultaneously lift his right knee up into his middle. The required action was similar to the karate exponent who pulls his left fist back while executing a standing forward punch with his right fist, in an equal and opposite reaction.

No amount of encouragement from his coach nor the fact that he was a highly motivated professional runner had enabled Pat to break what for him had become an ingrained habit.

The Old Way/New Way^® originator in Adelaide, Harry Lyndon, spent 20 minutes with Pat, improving his awareness of his technique problem and then overcoming the learning block caused by the interference from the old habit.

By the end of this brief session Pat was amazed to report that after only 20 minutes his new technique now felt so much more comfortable than his old method. "If this new method feels so right for me now, why has it been so difficult for me to change over during the last seven years?" he pondered.

Physical therapy—gait correction

Andrew learns to walk again and overcomes a long standing health problem.

Andrew had a walking problem. His gait was unusual in that he normally threw his right foot toe-outwards on a forward step, instead of pointing it straight forward.

To an uninformed person that might not seem so drastic but the problems that it caused for Andrew, now in middle age, meant that his personalised walking style had to change and change quickly.

His physiotherapist had diagnosed the cause of his swollen achilles tendon, his tight calf muscle and his persistent lower back pain as all due to his unfortunate walking style. The prescribed treatment was that Andrew should actively concentrate and practice a new way of walking. Instead of throwing his right foot out to the side he now had to point it straight forward when walking. In fact, he had to learn how to walk all over again.

The prognosis was dubious at best. Given a lot of effort and sufficient time, Andrew might re-learn how to walk in 6 months, or perhaps longer, or maybe never. He was somewhat pessimistic about his own chances of making the change. Having had the problem for so many years the injurious walking style was deeply ingrained.

Fortunately, Andrew was conversant with Old Way/New Way^® and sought the assistance of the PBA facilitator. A session was scheduled for the next day.

Andrew had paid close attention to his physiotherapist's explanation of the problem and could give the facilitator a detailed description of the problem. After this Andrew spent some 15 minutes walking back and forth in a room, with his shoes on and at other times with them off, and sometimes with his eyes open and at other times with them closed, all the while speaking aloud of his sensations while he was walking in his usual way with his foot thrown outwards.

While walking in his own way he described the sensation of feeling the back of his right heel strike the floor first, followed by a "foot roll" or something he later described as a "rocking motion." He said that there appeared to be a two-stage impact. When asked to walk in his new way he described the sensation of feeling less heel strike, making a flatter impact, having more bend in the foot and in the centre of the foot and feeling more lift-off from the ball of the foot and from the toes. His foot seemed to be "working harder," he added thoughtfully. Andrew also mentioned that he could feel his right knee "working" to keep the foot pointed straight ahead when he walked.

The remaining part of the half-hour session was taken up by Andrew comparing his old and new ways of walking, followed by a short practice session where he walked in his new way. He was given a simple procedure for self-correcting his walking whenever he detected he was walking in his old way and was reminded that his progress would be reviewed in two weeks.

In an informal discussion a few days later Andrew said that the metacognitive treatment appeared to be working and that he had been able to successfully apply the self-correction procedure a few times. He also complained of a new pain in his right knee. The facilitator suggested that he should mention this to his physiotherapist on his next visit that evening and also asked him to explain to the physiotherapist that the Old Way/New Way^® process had now enabled Andrew to exert more conscious control over his walking such that he was actually walking more often in his new way and consequently using his right knee more to maintain the new direction of his right foot. Andrew agreed that this was a likely explanation of the knee pain and said that he would mention this to his physiotherapist.

2 Weeks Later. The knee pain has gone and Andrew's walk is now much improved. He has noticed the improvement himself and so has his physiotherapist. Altogether, its been a very positive outcome for all concerned.

Sports Coaching Protocol Users; Technique Correction

Baseball coaching

All About Pitching (USA)
New South Wales Baseball League Inc (Australia)

Basketball coaching

Dribble Pass Shoot (USA)
Lonestar Basketball Academy (USA)

Bodybuilding coaching

Elouera Gym (Australia)

Cricket coaching

Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy (Australia)

Football coaching

Fremantle Football Club (Australia)
Paul Perrone Kicking, Colgate University (USA)

Golf swing improvement

Asian Canadian Golf Academy (Canada)
Box Hill Golf Club (Australia)
Australian Golf Teachers Federation (Australia)
David Milne Golf Academy (Australia)
Golf Queensland (Australia)
Golf Your Way (Australia)
JK Golf Gmbh (Germany)
Midland Golf (Australia)
PGA (USA)
PGA Australia Ltd (Australia)
Range Riders (Canada)
Regency Park Golf Course (Australia)
Swedish Golf Team (Sweden)
The Farm Golf (USA)
Transformational Golf (Australia)

Gymnastics coaching

Miller's Gymnastic Schools (Australia)

Lawn bowls coaching

Auckland Women's Bowling Club (New Zealand)
Bedford Bowling Club (Australia)
Blackburn Bowls Club (Australia)
Bowls Saskatchewan Inc. (Canada)
Broadwater Bowling Club (Australia)
Geelong Bowls Club (Australia)
Gold Coast-Tweed District Bowls Association
Lakes Krakajack (Australia)
Manly Lawn Bowling Club (Australia)
Middleton Beach Bowling Club (Australia)
NSW Bowls Coach (Australia)
Penygraig and Williamstown Junior Bowls Club (UK)
Royal NSW Bowling Association (Australia)
Turramurra Bowling Club (Australia)
USLBA Instruction Chair (USA)
Windsor Bowls Club (Australia))
Yandina Bowls Club (Australia)

Motor sport

Team Dynamik (Australia)

Rowing coaching

Cairns School Rowing Association (Australia)
Japan Amateur Rowing Association (Japan)
Murwillumbah Rowing Club (Australia)
Roeivereniging De Where (Holland)
Rowing South Australia (Australia)
Rowing World Australia (Australia)
Rowskills.com (USA)
St Catherines Rowing Club (Canada)
Takapuna Grammar School Rowing Club (New Zealand)
U.S. Rowing Association (USA)
Willem II Rowing Club (Holland)

Running coaching

Flyers Track Club Inc. (USA)

Shooting coaching

Army Marksmanship Unit (USA)

Skiing instruction

Alf Engen Ski School (USA)

Softball coaching

Queensland Softball Association (Australia)
Texas Peppers Gold (USA)

Sports coaching, all sports

ACT Academy of Sport (Australia)
Activate Sports (Australia)
ACU National, School of Exercise Science (Vic) (Australia)
ANZ Bank (Australia)
Australian Institute of Sport (Australia)
Coaching Works Ltd (New Zealand)
Curtin University (Australia) Fourth Presbyterian Church (USA)
HS Williams Ent. Inc. (USA)
John Spence Community High School (UK)
Kalang Investments (Australia)
Lebanon Fire District (USA)
Literacy Link - Leamos (USA)
Massey University (New Zealand)
Maximum Potential UK Ltd (UK)
MJ Productions Ltd (UK)
New Zealand Academy of Sport, North (New Zealand)
Newington College (Australia)
Queensland Academy of Sport (Australia)
Redfrog Solutions P/L (Australia)
Research Institute for Olympic Sports (Finland)
School of Human Movement and Exercise Science, UWA (Australia)
Sports Assist P/L (Australia)
Towson University (USA)
University of Puget Sound Athletics (USA)
University of Southern Queensland (Australia)
Unleashing Speed Potential (Australia)
Victoria University of Technology Library (Australia)
Workplace Wellness Consulting (Canada)
Zen Team (USA)
ZGPVC (USA)

Surfing coaching

SurfCoach.com (Australia)

Swimming coaching

Akudae Pty Ltd (Australia)
Darwin Swimming Club (Australia)
Finnish Swimming Assocn, The (Finland)

Tennis coaching

Hince Tennis (Australia)
Hong Kong Tennis Association (Hong Kong)
Smash Tennis and Sports Academy (Belgium)

Tenpin bowling coaching

Rosebud Tenpin Bowl (Australia)
Tenpin Bowling Association of Queensland (Australia)

Volleyball coaching

Australian Sitting Volleyball Team (Australia)

Disclaimer

The organisations listed on this page received training in Old Way/New Way^® Learning Systems. This does not imply that these organisations endorse Old Way/New Way^® Learning Systems or that they endorse Personal Best Academy or SimTrain International. Neither does it mean that Personal Best Academy/SimTrain International endorses these listed organisations. Customers who have indicated that they do not wish to be listed here do not appear on this page.