“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” It’s a metaphoric phrase popularized by business consultant and author Ken Blanchard and, according to him, coined by his professional colleague, Rick Tate.
Feedback is also the desired lunch, dinner, and snack of elite performers.
Just as food nurtures the body, feedback—pleasant and unpleasant—can serve as nourishment for well-being and growth when we allow for it. Every moment of life delivers an assortment of feedback that can provide sustenance for improvement—but only if we are aware and open enough to absorb it effectively.
Awareness, enabling in-the-moment presence, is an essential component of acceptance and commitment training (ACT), based on contextual behavioral science (CBS). ACT is a well-documented and popular approach of mental health and sports/performance professionals. It is also a methodology utilized by the author of this piece.
Metaphors are another staple of ACT. Such figures of speech enable clients to understand concepts by improving the relatability of information. Metaphoric effectiveness is supported by the research conducted in the field of relational frame theory (RFT), the science of language functionality.
Metaphors are a big component of my professional work and for this written piece. Hopefully, that will help to make it more relatable for readers.
There is much to digest regarding the subject of feedback. Time for a closer look.
Where Feedback Comes From
There are two sources of feedback, according to ACT. External origins (information from the outside world) and internal sources (information from the inside world).
A familiar source of external feedback is direct verbal input from coaches, teachers, parents, supervisors, etc. Spoken information from friends, family, and strangers also serve as external sources of feedback—as does the silent body language from other people.
Outside world feedback is received by our senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Eyes detect the body language of coaches, the position of an opponent, or a ball coming directly into the face. Ears receive the verbal wisdom of an instructor or the screaming of frustrated parents at the game. The nose reminds us to bathe after a workout. Tongues issue the signal of a bleeding mouth. Fingers tell baseball players if they have the correct grip on a baseball bat. Feet can let us know if we need to tie our shoes.
Then there’s the inside world feedback generated by our mind and bodily sensations.
Mental input creates judgments, assumptions, and opinions and the feelings that tag along with them. That inside stuff can steer us in the right or wrong direction. It either works or doesn’t as ACT expresses. Those thoughts can turn the quiet of other people’s body language into not-so-silent perceptions, both positive and negative. ACT trains athletes and others to notice thoughts and feelings, to allow for them, and not let them trigger behavior that can steer us in the wrong direction (another metaphor).
Positive feedback has a useful purpose if served with balance. Positive feedback can reinforce workable behavior but won’t help in resolving performance deficiencies. We need the nutritional feedback of constructive criticism.
Criticism can be positively internalized like the healthy food we choose to eat (yet another metaphor), delivering the nutrition necessary for growth, improvement, and well-being.
Body sensations deliver feedback essential for effective performance, health, and living. Our thirst tells us to hydrate during a competition. Proprioception—the sense of body position, movement, and spatial orientation—instructs correct or incorrect rhythm and other information critical for performance. Pain delivers body and life preserving feedback, communicating the need to seek medical assistance. The bladder tells us to head for the bathroom at halftime.
All that internal feedback, if properly ingested, enables effective adjustments in sports, performance, and everything else in life—what ACT terms psychological flexibility.
Utilizing Feedback
All feedback can be useful if effectively processed and applied. It can be useless if it’s ignored, goes unnoticed, or is contorted by our judgments and assumptions. ACT intervention assists in mitigating such ineffective responding.
Sport and Competition Essential Reads
Verbal feedback by a coach, instructor, or teacher intends to improve performance and can be used effectively regardless of whether it’s delivered in a respectful or demeaning manner. Some performers will interpret both as insulting, and respond by ignoring it, sulking, or lashing back. All behavior has a purpose, either short-term or long-term, as ACT instructs. Those responses might give temporary relief by releasing their frustration, anger, etc., but the long-term results can be distracting and destructive to the athlete’s performance and relationships with coaches and teammates.
Corrective feedback can be used productively if the receiving person can get past the internal judgments and unwanted feelings that may show up. The coach is just trying to help the athlete improve. The feedback may or may not be delivered in a respectful manner. Either way, it can still be used effectively if the person on the receiving end understands the purpose and processes the information effectively.
Final Feedback
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism,” observed American clergyman Norman Vincent Peale. I don’t know if it’s ‘most,’ but many of us just want to hear glowing praise. It’s like constantly feeding on cream-filled, frosted donut (yet another metaphor). It’s delicious, but its nutritional value is limited. Criticism can deliver a bad taste, but delivers great nutrition—like vegetables you may not like.
The next post will review the concept of wise feedback (Yeager, 2024). It’s a method for enabling coaches, instructors, teachers, and parents to deliver nutritious feedback to those under their watch.
Meanwhile, please devour the corrective and nutritional feedback thrown on your plate by coaches, parents, instructors, or supervisors. Even if it doesn’t taste good, it can nurture your growth. Enjoy donuts but also consider what would happen if that was the only food you ever received.
And please excuse the metaphors if they don’t resonate for you.