The aim of the current work was to test the effects of an innovative teaching method in improving motor skills. We evaluated the effectiveness of an error-based instruction method (Method of Amplification of Error, MAE) in increasing the performance of 13-year-old school students in the standing long jump. We compared MAE with direct verbal instruction (DI) and no instruction (Control group). The rationale for the MAE method is that giving a participant the opportunity to experience directly his or her own main movement error will trigger a positive searching strategy that will in turn help him or her to improve performance. The effectiveness of MAE is because of the type of feedback provided, namely the same motor-perceptive language used by the participant. Results showed that for the MAE and DI groups the length of jump increased from pre- to post-instruction, but postinstruction performance of the MAE group was significantly that of both of the other groups. It appears that MAE is an easy-to-use method for rapidly improving motor performance in the school teaching setting.
Milanese and Zancanaro are with the Dept. of Morphological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy. Cesari is with the Dept. of Neurological and Visual Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy. Facci is with the Faculty of Motor Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.