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NETWORK

Generating feedback

How does feedback support learning?

The Importance of generating feedback

Feedback is essential for sailors to successfully learn and perform skills. Without feedback, sailors will have limited understanding of the environment around them and how it is affecting the performance of the boat. Sailor learning experiences can be influenced by several factors which generate different sources of feedback. Factors such as the coach, the environment, the activity, and the sailors. 

Coaches can provide feedback verbally throughout the activity or during the review. This feedback is often direct and might immediately solve a problem for the sailor by providing an answer, but it does not support the sailor to become a better self-learner and if overused is likely to make the sailor dependent on the coach to support their learning. More resourceful feedback can come from other learners, through discussion, shadowing and the sharing of experiences.  

There are many opportunities in sailing to use sensory feedback. For example, how the boat, board or rig is performing and what the wind, waves and currents are doing and the effects they are having.   

Coaches can identify feedback from many sources. The skill of a coach is to consider which source of feedback will best support the learner and the learning experience they are aiming to create.   

Planning

Part of a coach’s planning process is to recognise the source of feedback that the design of the activity will generate and how this supports the learning outcome.  

Planning questions to answer:

  1. What is the goal?
  2. What feedback should the exercise generate to support the goal?
  3. How will the sailor receive this feedback?
  4. How will the sailor use the feedback to deepen their understanding and support them to achieve the goal? 

The GROW model is a useful tool to help agree a learning goal and can be used to support both the planning and review process.

  • Goal – What needs to be learnt?
  • Reality – consider the skill level the sailor is starting with.
  • Options / Opportunity – what techniques need to be developed?
  • Way forward – how will the learning happen?

An example activity - 'Explore the course'

The activity explained in this video demonstrates how a well-designed training exercise can easily generate feedback for sailors to notice and learn from. The video captures real-time learning experiences and provides an example of peer learning in practice. 

A group of ten junior topper sailors are split into three groups, 4-3-3. The coach sets an upwind course using a start line and windward mark. Two marks are placed on either side of the course, approximately 1/3 of the way upwind from the start line. These are used to identify three sections across the course; right – middle - left.

Initially, three starts are organised by the coach. For each start, the coach constraints each group by tasking them to sail upwind using a specific section of the course, either having to pass to the right or left of the marks set or using only the middle of the course. With each start, the groups rotate, so after three rounds they will have sailed on each section of the course. In between each start, the sailors are encouraged to discuss with each other what they notice about the wind shift pattern, wind strength and the effects these have on the positioning of boats across the course. The coach can support these discussions by coming alongside and asking sailors to explain what they are noticing.

Once each group has experienced sailing on all three sections of the course, the coach then runs a fourth round of the activity without the constraint marks. The sailors are free to sail where they choose on the course. This fourth round allows the sailors to further test their understanding and then make sense of what they have noticed about the wind and the effect it has on the course.

Once ashore, the coach continues to use peer learning techniques to help sailors review the activity and make sense of learning outcomes.

A Challenge

Sources of feedback exist for every skill that is taught through RYA programmes and courses. The challenge for coaches and instructors is to recognise what source of feedback will be most beneficial to support each individual learning experience and the level the learner is at. We finish by offering you questions to consider, where is the feedback generated as students learn to…

  • Gybe a windsurfer?
  • Come alongside a pontoon in a powerboat?
  • Sail downwind under spinnaker?
  • Practically apply the racing rules of sailing?

For more instructor resources and ideas, visit the CPD Hub on the Training Support Site.