In this episode, I examine how athletes learn skills by watching others—and why perfect demonstrations may not always be the most effective teaching tool.

I review a research study that explores whether learners benefit more from observing a flawless expert, or from watching someone make mistakes and correct them in real time. The findings have important implications for coaching, teaching, and skill development—particularly in early learning stages.

This episode reviews a study by Anastasia Kitsantas, Barry J. Zimmerman, and Tim Cleary, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology titled The Role of Observation and Emulation in the Development of Athletic Self-Regulation.

• Participants:
  60 ninth-grade students with little to no prior experience in the task

• Task:
  Learning a dart-throwing skill broken down into specific technical components

• Purpose:
  To examine how different types of demonstrations and feedback influence skill learning, confidence, motivation, and self-regulation

Participants were assigned to one of three modeling conditions:

• No model: verbal instruction only

• Mastery model: a demonstrator performing the skill flawlessly

• Coping model: a demonstrator who initially makes errors, then gradually corrects them

Each group was further split based on whether they received simple verbal feedback during practice.

• Learners who observed a coping model:

  • Performed the skill more accurately

  • Reported higher confidence (self-efficacy)

  • Showed greater satisfaction and intrinsic interest

• Learners who observed a mastery model performed better than those with no model—but consistently worse than those who observed coping models.

• Social feedback during practice improved outcomes overall, but did not eliminate the advantage of coping models.

• Most notably, learners who observed coping models were more likely to attribute mistakes to strategy, rather than ability or effort—a pattern strongly associated with better learning and motivation.

The study suggests that:

• Early learning benefits from seeing how mistakes are corrected, not just what “perfect” execution looks like

• Demonstrations shape not only movement patterns, but how athletes interpret success and failure

• Intentional error-and-correction demonstrations may help athletes develop better self-regulation skills

This episode explores how these findings map onto real-world coaching environments, particularly in group settings and early skill acquisition.

Perfect demonstrations can establish standards—but learning how to adjust, correct, and adapt may require seeing imperfection first.