The expression that a person is a visual learner is gaining in popularity in the sports community. Individuals who say this maintain that they can learn to do an exercise or skill better if they can see it rather than reading about it.
There is some truth in the statement but for the most part, it does not hold water. The main reason for this is that your eyes cannot see everything that occurs and there is little interaction with your brain in terms of learning.
Seeing an action and then duplicating it is beneficial for young children because they cannot comprehend what takes place when told what to do (or if they can read about it). Young children see it and then try to duplicate it.
At this time children need simple, easy to understand verbal cues to make modifications of what they did. This is how they improve their skill execution. More visual presentations may help some but they will not be the key to making corrections and making the execution more effective.
For adult athletes the key to learning and improving movement technique or exercise execution is in the comprehension of what must be done. In addition they must be able to incorporate instructions into the skill. These are mental processes that adult athletes are capable of and should be able to do.
Additional demonstrations are of little value. In many cases it is impossible to have someone execute the skill technique that the athlete must be able to duplicate or incorporate. They must be able to understand what they must do.
At this time seeing more demonstrations or examples of the skill are of little value because you will only be able to see what you saw before. In order to see and comprehend more of what you saw, you must have a good understanding of what is involved in the skill execution.
In other words, adult athletes should have a good understanding of what is involved in the skill and especially in each of the joint actions. This is needed in order to be able to discern any changes or differences over time. Only then can effective changes be made or a better understanding of the skill actions achieved.
This is where viewing a video clip of the athlete’s skill execution frame by frame, can be very useful. When looking at sequential pictures of the skill technique it is possible to identify and see the actions that occur from one frame to the next. This allows for deeper study especially if done under the guidance of a skill technique specialist. In addition, they must read books on the topic.
With this understanding of what is involved in learning, perfecting and teaching exercise and skill execution, is there anyone who is a visual learner truly skilled in the sports skills and exercise area?
For more information read Build a Better Athlete and Biomechanics and Kinesiology of Exercise.