Augmented Information and The Coach

Firstly I would like to begin by apologising on not keeping up with my blog posts. I have been quite busy lately with my own training and other very urgent study commitments, that I have missed updating my learning experiences for the past fortnight.

During week 5 of SCP Keith put forward this idea of augmented information. It was a term I wasn’t very familiar with but upon further research I have discovered that to augment means ‘to make something greater by adding to it; increase’. Keith defined augmented information in the context of coaching as ‘information outside the sensory cortex of the athlete’. This made sense to me as it provided in increase or ‘augment’ of information to the athlete than what they may have experienced themselves.

This is something as a coach I have not been experienced in. However, in retrospect my coach has augmented information in his observation and feedback to myself, without me even putting a title or name to this phenomenon.

The best example I can think of this is watching a video of one performing a skill. You may feel (in your sensory cortex) that the skill was performed in the correct manner, however, upon watching a replay you realise that the skill you performed looked different to how it felt maybe. This is a great example of augmented information being implemented into a program, as once this information has been replayed, the athlete may visualise the correction better and alter the technique and therefore the outcome.

This is now something that I will endeavour to introduce to athlete(s) that I coach. That is, this idea of increase the athlete’s information that is outside the sensory cortex. This may prove effective as a tool to predict and improve performance.