How Athletes Learn: The Role of Intrinsic Feedback in Sport

🚀 How to Coach Hip Extension for Speed – Insights from Stuart McMillan! Are your athletes maximizing their speed potential? 🏃♂️💨 ALTIS CEO Stuart McMillan shares a comprehensive framework for coaching hip extension—focusing on the critical "knee behind butt" pattern that drives acceleration and speed. 🔑 In this article, Stu breaks down his session structure: ✅ Theme: What skill are you developing today? ✅ Objective: What's the practical outcome? ✅ Pattern: The key movement behind the objective. ✅ Strategies: How do you make it happen? ✅ Details: What drills and exercises get the job done? ✅ Tertiary Work: The extras that support overall performance. 💡 Key takeaway: Traditional strength training movements often miss the mark for this pattern. Build force, velocity, and range directly into hip extension drills—and watch your athletes unlock new levels of speed. 🚀 👉 Ready to improve your athletes’ acceleration? Dive into the article and level up your coaching toolbox! 📖 Read here: https://loom.ly/L6XIeuc #SpeedTraining #HipExtension #CoachingTips #ALTIS

🔥 From Coaching Art to Measurable Science – Hip Extension, Speed, and MotionIQ Brilliant breakdown from @StuartMcMillan (ALTIS CEO) on one of the most fundamental — yet misunderstood — aspects of sprint performance: hip extension 🦵💥 The “knee behind butt” pattern isn’t just a coaching cue — it’s a biomechanical signature of acceleration. Executing it with the right force, velocity, range, and control determines whether an athlete projects forward powerfully or leaks energy. As Stuart notes, strength alone doesn’t build speed — we need pattern-specific force and velocity. That’s where MotionIQ, powered by ALTIS + VueMotion, brings the next layer of insight 🚀 🎯 MotionIQ quantifies key acceleration and movement patterns like: Fly Sprint, 10-0-5 COD, and Acceleration performance Left vs Right asymmetries Projection and posture control Real-world movement quality — captured right from your phone This is where great coaching meets great technology. ALTIS defines what to look for. VueMotion shows you how it moves — with data, video, and context combined. 📊 Stop guessing if your athletes are applying the right patterns — start seeing, measuring, and improving them. Read Stuart’s full article 👇 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g45tEgHW And discover how MotionIQ is redefining athlete monitoring 👇 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gsKPxm9U #MotionIQ #VueMotion #ALTIS #SpeedTraining #Biomechanics #Acceleration #CoachingScience #PerformanceTesting #SprintMechanics #HipExtension #SportsTech Ryan Talbot David Klineberg Jason Taudien Damien Mahoney Liam Walker Chad Gerhard Jeroen Vendrig Ralph Mobbs Brejesh Lall

Three Truths I’ve learned training youth athletes. 1️⃣ Their nervous system is a superpower, it adapts fast. This is the window of opportunity. Use it. 2️⃣ Movement quality > fatigue. Don’t chase sloppy reps. Teach the big five: squat, hinge, push, pull, brace. 3️⃣ Sprint often, sprint sharp. Young athletes recover quicker, make the most of it. It’s not about doing more. It’s about doing the right things, at the right time. #YouthAthleteDevelopment #StrengthAndConditioning #Coaching #LongTermAthleteDevelopment #Sprinting #MovementQuality

THE WORLD HAS BEEN BRAINWASHED ABOUT “COACHING.” Somewhere along the way, coaching became about repeating drills… not developing humans. Clipboards replaced intuition. Session plans replaced understanding. And “work harder” became the lazy answer to everything. Modern coaching has sterilised football. It’s creating robots - not players. Here’s the uncomfortable truth 👇 Players don’t need more cones. They need better coaches - ones who understand movement, the body, and the individual in front of them. Most sessions today: 🚫 Ignore how athletes naturally move 🚫 Overload without fixing dysfunction 🚫 Teach patterns, not adaptability 🚫 Chase fitness, not flow This is why so many players plateau early or break down. It’s not bad luck. It’s bad coaching. For thousands of years, athleticism was built through instinct and environment. Now it’s crushed by over structure and ego. Most won’t change. But the few who do? They build players who thrive when others break. ⚡ #FootballPerformance #Coaching #PlayerDevelopment #Athlete #FootballEntangled #MindsetShift #Movement #HighPerformance Football Entangled Omar Jassim

One of the most overlooked aspects of athlete development? Self-talk. We focus on drills, conditioning, and coaching—but if your athlete is silently tearing themselves down after every mistake, no amount of skill will truly stick. Teaching athletes to recognize and redirect negative self-talk isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s foundational. Want to build confidence, improve resilience, and reduce performance anxiety? Start with the inner voice. 👉 This is an area I specialize in with athletes and parents. I’d love to chat and see how I can support your team this season. #YouthAthleteDevelopment #MentalSkillsTraining #PerformanceCoaching #SportsPsychology #ResilientAthletes

💡 What if the key to better practice design isn’t about constraints or drills, but about intentions? Many coaches are familiar with a constraint-led approach, a powerful way of shaping learning. But there’s another step forward that often goes under the radar: the Intention-Led Approach. Instead of telling athletes how to move or only manipulating constraints, the ILA begins with “What are we trying to achieve?”. The athlete’s intention becomes the anchor point for their decisions and actions. For example: rather than prescribing passing patterns, a coach might set the simple intention of “stretch the opponent’s defensive shape.” Suddenly, players are free to explore multiple solutions like timing their runs, adjusting tempo, or shifting positioning, all guided by a meaningful goal. This shift in focus does more than diversify movement solutions. It places the athlete at the centre, fosters deeper adaptability, and mirrors the fluid reality of competitive sport, where intentions guide perception and action in real time. So here’s the reflection point for coaches: 👉 In your practice design, are you over-directing movements, or anchoring athletes in purposeful intentions that let them discover their own solutions? This is just one area I explore further in my upcoming book, Ecological Dynamics for Sport Coaching. #Coaching #EcologicalDynamics #PracticeDesign #SkillAcquisition #CoachDevelopment #NonLinearPedagogy

Here's the 1x question I asked to help a high performing high school athlete work to be a better advocate with his difficult coach. 𝙄𝙛 𝙄 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛, 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙄 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙤 [𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨] 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮? Many high school athletes struggle to present themselves confidently to authority figures, and rather than taking action to assert what they need, they sit in silence while their performance suffers. Rather than focus in on changing the coach, we shift the focus back on the athlete and have them evaluate how they are showing up in their relationships in ways that they can be proud of. This change in perspective makes it all about an internal sense of accomplishment, versus focusing on how the external environment -- the coach -- responds. If your son or daughter is struggling to navigate conversations with their coaches, my team and I at Valiance Counseling and Coaching are here to help -- we'll not only provide them step by step guidance, but prompt them to think critically about who they are, not just as an athlete, but as a person. #MentalPerformance #AthleteMindset #StudentAthlete #RaisingAthletes #ParentOfAthletes #PerformanceCoaching #CharacterOverTalent

"Goal Setting for Athletes: Short-Term vs. Long-Term Goals” 🎯 Are your goals driving your performance or quietly holding you back? Goal setting is one of the most powerful tools in sport psychology, yet many athletes unknowingly set goals that sabotage motivation rather than build it. In my latest blog, I explore the science behind short-term vs. long-term goals, and how the right balance between the two can transform training consistency, focus, and resilience. 🔍 In this post, you’ll learn: Why long-term vision gives direction, but short-term goals fuel momentum. How to apply the SMART framework effectively in sport. The psychology of staying motivated when progress feels slow. Common goal-setting mistakes that limit performance (and how to avoid them). Whether you’re a developing athlete or competing at an elite level, your goal structure is the foundation of your performance mindset. 📘 Read the full article here: [https://lnkd.in/ekbpC8-p] If you’re ready to refine your mental performance strategy and align your goals with your training, let’s connect. I work with athletes to build evidence-based goal systems that turn ambition into consistent, measurable progress. 📩 Message me today to discuss how we can optimise your mindset and goal strategy for the season ahead. #SportPsychology #AthleteDevelopment #GoalSetting #MentalPerformance #SportsScience #Motivation #PerformanceCoaching #SportsPsychologist #HighPerformance #AthleteMindset

Why Young Sporting Athletes Should Reflect with Purpose 🏉🚴⚽️🎾🏏⛳️ In sports, we teach young athletes how to train hard, perform under pressure, and learn from mistakes. But how often do we teach them to reflect? Not just a quick “How did that go?” — but real, thoughtful reflection. As coaches we may ask: ✅ What did you do well today? ✅ What challenged you mentally or physically? ✅ How did you respond to that challenge? ✅ What will you do differently next time? Reflection builds self-awareness, resilience, and growth. It turns every game or training session into a chance to learn, not just perform. At the weekend I decided to use random cue cards (pictures) and asked the players in a group setting to reflect on their season and link the most relevant picture to their season. There were some outstanding powerful reflections but none more so than the player who reflected on this picture and said “The stone being dropped into the water causes ripples and commotion but notes they soon settle and the water quickly becomes calm and still”. He then further linked this to himself, saying “I should have taken more risky chances during the games as even if it may have been a poor decision, he notes the water and ripples soon settle after the stone intially hits and can relate this to mistakes being easy to forget, as everything settles pretty quickly during a game and maybe next year he should take more risky chances with his play options, rather than worry about the consequences of a wrong decision.” When used with purpose, cue cards can guide athletes to explore their experiences from new angles. These small prompts create space for big insights. Over time, they help athletes develop a strong inner voice — one that isn’t only focused on outcomes, but on effort, intention, and mindset. Don’t forget to build the habit of reflecting with purpose and to think outside the box— not just to become better athletes, but more thoughtful, resilient humans. #YouthSports #AthleteDevelopment #MindsetMatters #ReflectWithPurpose #SportsPsychology #GrowthMindset #CoachingTools