If you’re a coach or player looking to try to make a technical change or simply learn a new movement pattern, using external proximal cues can be very beneficial.
In skill acquisition research, there is a huge body of evidence pointing to the fact that when we tell athletes to focus on parts of their body during movement, performance often suffers. Implements like tape, wrist bands or pieces of rubber allow athletes to focus on something outside (external) of the body. Now instead of saying get your elbow back, you can now say “get the piece of tape as far back behind you as possible”
