The WEIRD Feedback Hack Proven to Speed Up Learning

Why the Way You Give Feedback Matters

If you’ve been coaching a while, you already know feedback matters. But did you know there's a cheat code to maximise it's impact?

According to coaching research, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you frame it that can change how quickly, and how well, someone improves.

Dr Nick Winkelman, head of athletic performance and science at Irish Rugby, and one of the go-to voices in skill acquisition, has been hammering this point for years.

The gist of his work goes like this: if we want our students to move better, we need to stop talking so much about their bodies; and start talking more about the effect they’re trying to create. In other words, trade the overload of internal mechanics for an external picture they can chase.

The Problem with “Internal” Cues

Most of us (yep, me included) default to what’s called internal focus feedback.
That’s the “bend your knees, keep your elbows in, relax your shoulders” stuff.
It feels logical. Kendo is technical, so we coach the technical.

But here’s the rub: those cues pull an athlete’s attention inward, forcing them to consciously juggle joint angles, muscle tension, and timing while reacting to an opponent. That’s cognitive overload.

It’s like asking someone to pat their head, rub their stomach and solve a maths problem all at once. When working memory is jammed full of “bend here, snap that, twist this,” there’s no room left for reading the opponent or adapting mid-exchange. The result is slower, stiffer, less adaptable movement.

Shift Their Focus “Out There”

Winkelman’s research points the other way: get their attention out there, not in here.
That’s external focus feedback: painting a picture of the effect they need to create, instead of dictating the mechanics to get there.

The approach suggests that the more we drag an athlete’s attention inside their own body, the more we risk getting in the way of the brain’s natural movement control systems. So, when we give internal cues like “snap your wrists” or “drive your knee,” we’re forcing conscious control over something the body already coordinates subconsciously. When we do this, the skill can become clunkier, slower, and less efficient, because the conscious mind is busy micromanaging joints and muscles instead of letting the body self-organise.

Motor learning research backs this idea up: in study after study, athletes taught with external focus outperform those given internal focus cues. They learn faster, retain skills longer, and move with more accuracy and efficiency.

By the way, if you really wanted to nerd-out about this stuff, the research shows something else interesting about internal vs. external feedback: it seems that internal cues can sometimes make an athlete look better right now, but that effect often fades when you see them again in a later session or under competition pressure. External cues, on the other hand, are far more likely to stick, transfer, and hold up when it matters most.

The Three Ingredients of a Great Cue

According to Winkelman, the best external cues tend to have:

Direction – They point the student somewhere specific
Distance – They give a sense of how far or how much movement is needed
Description – They use vivid, sensory language that the athlete can picture and act on right away

You don’t need all three in one cue, but if you can hit one or two, you’re in business.

Here are a few gems I’ve either used myself or shamelessly stolen from other great kendo coaches:

Posture & head position – “Stand tall and keep your chin back (Direction) so the sun hits your chest (Description).
Elbows in – “Pin a sheet of paper with your left armpit (Direction) and cradle a raw egg with your right (Description, Distance).
Fumikomi trajectory – “Step across a wide puddle (Direction, Distance, Description) — you don’t want to ruin your new shoes (Description).

The beauty of external cues is that they tap into the brain’s natural preference for goals and effects over mechanical instructions. And you don’t need to be a poet to do it; just wrap your feedback in something visual, directional, and concrete.

What It Looks Like in Kendo

Let’s say you’re working with the club’s “heavy hitter”... you know the one. His tenouchi is basically a rumour, and being motodachi for him feels like you’re catching baseball bats with your kote.

If you stick with internal cues like: “Loosen your grip,” “Snap your wrists at the end,” or “Relax your shoulders,” you’ll be fighting uphill.

But with an external cue, you bypass all that overthinking.

Instead, try: “Move your wrists like flicking water droplets off your fingertips and onto my kote.”

Now he’s got an image in his head. He can see the flick. He knows where it’s going. He can feel the distance to the target. And you’ve triggered the exact movement pattern you wanted without once mentioning the wrists, fingers, or elbows. His mind is on the outcome, and his body self-organises to make it happen.

(If you’ve got a few heavy hitters (or just want some plug-and-play sessions for your beginners and kids), please check out the Kendo Fundamentals resource I put together. It’s a full session plan built to teach core skills through engaging, game-like activities that actually stick.)

The big takeaway here is this: the right cue does the heavy lifting for you. It locks in attention, strips away clutter, and frees athletes to move with purpose instead of piecing themselves together mid-action. Keep feedback external, and give them an image to work towards. Because if they can picture it, they’re already halfway there.