PDFE #13

For this PDFE assignment, I observed a cross country practice for the Berry cross country team. At the practice I observed, the team was working on speed work at the track. For this, each team member first did a warm-up, stretched, ran 5 miles, did a cool-down, and then stretched again. The 5 miles were split up into 1 mile time trials where each team member was given a time to do their miles in. I found examples of both intrinsic and extrinsic feedback throughout the practice. The examples that I used came from the workout itself.

The following are the categories of feedback observed and a couple of examples in each category:
~Intrinsic - 1) runners look at their watches to let themselves know if they are going to be on time for each lap; 2) if runners were assigned the same mile times, they worked in groups…if a runner began to fall behind the group, they knew by observing the other runners in their group that they are slowing down too much.
~Extrinsic - 1) The coach told a couple runners after their first timed mile that they ran too fast and that they need to slow down in order to save energy for the following miles and be able to run the last couple of miles on time; 2) Runners on the side that could not participate in the activity would often say to the groups of runners with the same mile times “Way to work together”.
~KR - 1) The person recording the mile times would call out times after every mile; 2)There was another couple of people of the side of the track that would call out times every time a runner passed.
~KP - 1) The coach said “That lap was right on time”; 2) A runner not participating said “Stay with your group so you don’t fall behind” during the second lap of the second to last mile.
~Descriptive - 1) The coach said “You are going too fast the first couple of laps…its going to tire you out and you won’t finish the mile on time”; 2) The coach said “You are shortening your stride.”
~Prescriptive - 1) The coach instructed a runner to lengthen their stride; 2) A runner not participating told one of the girls in the activity to tighten their form back up.

The following are some functions of extrinsic feedback. For each function, there is an example from my observations of the Berry cross country team’s practice and a comment on how that example of feedback served the function:
~Motivation - Example: Runners on the side that could not participate in the activity would often say to the groups of runners with the same mile times “Way to work together.” Comments: When the runners heard someone commenting on something good they were doing, they may feel a little better about their performance and be more confident in themselves to keep working hard and staying within their assigned mile time.
~Reinforcement - Example: The coach said “That lap was right on time.” Comments: By a runner hearing the coach basically saying they did perfect that lap, they can try to do the same the next lap. In running, you can tell when you have found a good pace in an activity like this. The coach reinforced the correct pace for the runner so they can try to get the feel for the right pace and reproduce their good performance in the following laps.
~Information - Example: The coach said “You are going too fast the first couple of laps…its going to tire you out and you won’t finish the mile on time.” Comments: Hearing information like this from the coach helps the runners adjust their pace accordingly. The runner may have felt really good the first couple of laps and gone too fast, then felt tired the last couple of laps and gone too slow. They may have finished on time, but their pace is fluctuating too much. The coach observing the runner can pass on this information that the runner may or may not already know to let them know how important it is to keep a constant pace throughout the run…it won’t tire you out near as much.
~Dependence - Example: On every lap, a runner not participating in the activity would tell someone that was running “Good job”, “Keep it up”, or some other kind of motivational feedback. Comments: Although this may seem like a good idea to the observer, the runner may come to depend on that external motivation to finish their miles on time. The runners will not always be around people telling them good job in a race, so they should not constantly hear someone say it during an activity like this. If they do hear that motivation from someone else constantly, they may lose their internal motivation and personal drive to finish each lap on time or do well in a race.