For those performance coaches, sports physiotherapists and sports chiropractors looking for an exciting challenge, Beijing Yanding company are receiving CV's to consider for work in sport in preparation for multiple upcoming events, including Tokyo Olympics. 

​See the attached pdf's for more information, including a contact email at the bottom of the pdf named by_pt_ad_-23jan18.pdf. 

Looking to get more out of your sessions with clients?

Harnessing the power of the brain is one way to look at what we can do.

Here's a snippet from the Mobility and Stability for Performance Course in Taipei this weekend.

"To change behaviour, first get your client's attention. This will break their current pattern and improve sensory environment. This is one role of mobility interventions (via improved mechanoreceptor sensititivity). Then, create circumstances and challenges to stimulate the sensory environment, towards an external focus. This is done with tasks, auditory cueing, visual cueing, somatosensory (tactile) cueing and play. Use “best practice” feedback and use “best practice” dosage for regaining motor control (different for best practice dosage for improving capacity)."

The type of feedback is important. Let's look at that.

Intrinsic feedback relates to how a person feels. It draws attention to their kinematic performance. For example, when the client performs better, correctly, ask them how that feels or what it looks like to them. Use their words for how it feels. Instruct them to repeat the movement to get that feeling again.

Augmented feedback (that which comes from the instructor) has the goal to change behaviour by alerting the individual to the closeness to the correct result. This gives them knowledge of the result.

The correctness of the result is within the topic of performance bandwidth. The keen eye of the professional uses the process of training movement to look for mistakes that are outside the realm of acceptable. This should be a “performance bandwidth” based on performance parameters of population and task specificity (where they exist) or safety ranges. A movement that has a mistake deemed undesirable or unacceptable is one that reduces the efficiency of the movement; lessens the chance of success; or increases the risk of injury.

Combining intrinsic and augmented feedback is about giving the individual knowledge of the result as well as knowledge of the intrinsic performance. On it's own, knowing about intrinsic performance is not as effective as knowing about intrinsic performance and knowing about the result, or magnitude and direction of error from the correct result.

Augmented intrinsic awareness should occur when the person performs correctly, or more correctly compared to a  previous repetition. This gives them knowledge of their kinematic performance as well as knowledge of the result.  

Augmented feedback has the goal of learning - to change behaviour - to improve understanding, by the client, of how "their feeling" (intrinsic feedback) relates to performance in the "test" situations. When the client performs better, correctly, ask them how that feels or what it looks like to them. Use their words for how it feels. Instruct them to repeat the movement to get that feeling again. 

When an error exceeds a tolerance for being correct, it is outside the bandwidth and should be corrected. By providing a bandwidth with tolerance, retention of learning is improved. It reduces the amount of corrective feedback and balances out corrective feedback to positive comments. Bandwidth feedback limits feedback only to "significant" errors.

In: Chapter 5, Schmidt, R.A. and T.D. Lee, Motor control and learning : a behavioral emphasis. 3rd ed. 1999, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. xvi, 495 p.

Coming up next....the importance of timing your feedback.

If you have ever had dry needling or acupuncture, by any of us clinicians at Virtus, or elsewhere, you might have wondered what it is, and what the difference is.

In this pdf, these answers will be provided in simple and more scientific ways.