Vicarious Training

(This blog was originally posted on August 6, 2014)

   Training clinics are great opportunities to learn tips and techniques from celebrated athletes in your sport. Similarly, you can improve your skill by watching and critiquing video-recordings of yourself training and/or discussing your observations with your coach. Finally, you can also learn a lot observing other members of your team when they are training or competing, and listening to the coach’s advice or instruction to the other athlete.

    One benefit of this kind of vicarious training is that you can observe what the athlete is doing and how he or she is doing it, in terms of what the instructor is asking for. You will also have a firsthand look at how the technique looks when it is done correctly or incorrectly, accompanied by the trainer’s feedback to the athlete without the pressure of being in the spotlight, yourself. You can focus on and mentally process these instructions and corrections in the context their being a (hopefully) supportive critique of that athlete’s technical performance. You can then incorporate what you learned during this “lesson” into visualization and imagery exercises to improve your own execution of that or a similar technique.

    Another benefit of vicarious training is that you can test your skill at identifying those minute technical movements that facilitate the successful execution of a technique or an error. If the student makes similar mistakes that your coach has also previously called you on, listen closely to his or her suggestions to correct that error. Hypnotherapist and Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D. explained why suggestibility can be a game-changer in how you perceive and process information no matter how clear and concise these instructions are. For example, a physical suggestible person learns best from direct and literal instructions or cues from the environment. This athlete will take in the instruction at the moment it is given during the training session when learning how to do the technique or correct a previous mistake. However, an emotional suggestible learns from metaphor and inference. In addition to taking in the literal instructions, this athlete truly learns by projecting the coach’s corrections and tips for the other student onto his or her own athletic performance. This is one reason why vicarious learning opportunities such as viewing training videos, auditing clinics and watching peers practice or compete in the sport are so effective in improving athletic performance. 

    Finally, you are also likely to glean additional information about the sport, in general, and the specific technique or movement being practiced, during conversations between the instructor and the athlete. Even if you have heard it all before, as it were, it is beneficial to listen to this information again to reinforce the information you have learned about the techniques you are or will be working on. Furthermore, the coach may use different phrases or expression to clarify what he or she wants the student to learn. You never know, but this slight variation in the instructor’s language or communication technique may also resonate with you and deepen your own understanding of the skill you have been training and vicariously learning more about.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

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