7 Tips for Coaches to Improve Player Performance by Using Implicit and Explicit Cues Effectively
Extensive research in motor learning has shown that an external focus of attention often leads to better performance outcomes compared to an internal focus.
In coaching, what you say matters almost as much as drill design.
Rooted in motor learning research, attentional focus (i.e. where players direct their attention) dramatically influences skill execution, retention, and performance under pressure.
Here's how you can use implicit (external) and explicit (internal) cues strategically.
1. Understand the Difference Between Internal and External Cues
Internal/explicit cues direct attention to the athlete’s body mechanics. Examples:
“Drive your elbow up.”
“Contract your core.”
External/implicit cues focus attention on the movement’s outcome or effect on the environment. Examples:
“Push the ground away.”
“Reach for the cookie jar.”
Research across sports consistently shows: external cues outperform internal ones in boosting performance, retention, and fluidity of movement
Even in rehabilitation and resistance training contexts, athletes coached with external instructions perform better and maintain gains longer.
2. Use Explicit Cues When Teaching Anatomy or Awareness—but Quickly Transition
Explicit cues can be valuable for initial body awareness or when athletes lack basic proprioceptive understanding. For example:
“Feel the extension in your hamstring.”
“Engage the glutes before you move.”
But these should not dominate your cueing. Explicit focus often leads to constrained motor control. The brain starts micromanaging joints rather than letting movement flow naturally
Tip: Use them sparingly and follow with an external cue: “Feel that hip tightness? Now use it to explode the floor apart.”
3. Lean Into Implicit (External) Cues: They Produce Results
The science is clear: external cues improve:
Force and power output
Accuracy and consistency
Skill retention and application under pressure
In basketball, cues like:
“Be a pyramid” (for setting screens)
“Shoot out of a telephone booth” (for shooting mechanics)
… prompt automatic coordination that explicit instructions simply slow down.
4. Use Analogies to Support Implicit Learning and Reduce Overthinking
Analogies and imagery are effective because they bypass conscious processing, promoting implicit motor learning
Instead of “extend your spine,” say: “Stand tall like a tree reaching for the sky.”
Replace “plant your pivot foot” with: “your right foot is nailed to the floor”.
Analogies also activate mental models that stick, even under fatigue and stress.
5. Combine Internal and External Cues Intentionally
A hybrid strategy can be powerful when used deliberately:
Start with a brief internal cue to pinpoint a mechanical issue (“Feel the stretch in your hip flexors”).
Immediately follow with a strong external cue to translate that feeling into movement (“Then drive the ground away like you're launching a rocket”).
This approach mimics the best coaches’ nuanced instinct to diagnose explicitly, cue implicitly.
6. Tailor to Athlete Level, Skill Phase, and Context
Not all athletes are the same:
Beginners sometimes need more internal cues to build basic awareness.
Skilled athletes often benefit more from external or analogy cues to refine and automate skills.
In rehab or body-awareness drills, a muted internal cue may be necessary, but always pair it with external reinforcement to encourage neuromotor integration.
Side Note: Coaching cues should be relevant to culture and generation. When I was in the States, “reach for the cookie jar” was a common cue to help shooting. But, in the UK, “shoot out of a telephone booth” was more common.
Both cues painted a picture of a constraint that players would have been familiar with and allowed them to act on instantly. These days, telephone booths are less common, so the cue should be adapted.
I’m currently in Austria coaching the Basket Swans, Gmunden. The local lake, Lake Traunsee, is full of Swans, hence the name. When coaching youth players who speak German, the cue “Extend your hand like a Swan's neck” allows me to instantly paint a picture that bypasses language barriers.
It doesn’t fix everything, but it provides a foundation to build from.
7. Test, Measure, and Iterate Your Cueing
Treat your cueing as a performance tool—measure its impact.
Practice trials with different cue types (internal vs. external vs. analogies).
Measure efficiency (e.g., time to complete, jump height, shooting accuracy).
Observe durability—does performance hold up under fatigue and stress?
Studies suggest that occasional explicit cues can increase players’ conscious rules about movement, but too many lead to overthinking
🔄 Basketball Specific Example
Let’s apply the framework in a shooting context:
A) Shooting Improvement
Diagnosis (explicit): “Feel your elbow tracking behind the ball.”
External cue: “Shoot the ball over the tunnel—like diving through the ceiling.”
Analogy: “Imagine the ball kissing the back of the net softly.”
Iterate: If overthinking continues, lean harder on a simplified external cue (e.g., “through the tunnel”) and dim internal focus.
🎯 Final Takeaways
External cues + analogies = high performance, lower analysis, better retention.
Internal cues serve a purpose, but only when tightly linked to an immediate external outcome.
Adapt to athlete's stage and context. What works for Michael Jordan won’t always help a 12-year-old still developing proprioception.
✅ Closing Thoughts
How you say things is often more important than what you say when you are coaching.
Your words are filters that guide your athlete’s mind. By integrating external, imagery-rich cues that unlock natural movement, you will free your athletes’ minds from overthinking and increase their performance.