A Videotaping Feedback Package for Improving Skills of Youth Competitive Swimmers

Abstract

A videotaping feedback package was developed for improving skills of youth competitive swimmers. Experiment 1 examined the videotaping package for improving freestyle and backstroke racing turns of young competitive swimmers. Positive results were obtained in a multiple-baseline design across subjects. Experiment 2 compared the videotaping feedback package to a group videotaping procedure (that the coach had been using at the time of this research) for improving freestyle swimming strokes of young competitive swimmers. The videotaping feedback package was effective whereas the group videotaping procedure had little or no effect. For most subjects in the two studies, improvements were maintained with minimal prompting and feedback under normal practice conditions. Suggestions for future research are discussed.