Teaching Strategy- Retrieval and Spaced Repetition

How recalling information helps us remember it long term.

As a coach or teacher, you have surely encountered games where you wonder if your players remembered any of the concepts you worked on practice earlier on in the week and have grown increasingly frustrated when they don’t use what was practiced in games.

One of the simpler ways to alleviate this stress is by regularly going back to the same concepts or “retrieving” the information over the course of a week or month and stretching out the time in between each retrieval. By doing this and letting the athletes “forget” the information over the course of a week or month and then asking them to recall the information, strengthens the connection to the information which tells the brain that this information is important so it should move it to long term memory.

Another way to boost the effectiveness of using retrievals in practice is by not priming your athletes before hand on what you are asking them to remember. So instead of telling your athletes immediately that you are wanting them to remember a specific skill or concept, put them to the test right away. Throw them into a game and see if they are able to recall the information, if they are able to, you know they understand the concept and will be more likely to use it in a game. If they aren’t able to recall the information, then your job as a coach is to give them small reminders on what we’re trying to accomplish.

We remember information better when it comes to us implicitly or when we mentally struggle to come up with the answer. When we struggle, our brains devote more mental processing power which in turn causes us to remember the information better. When players need to be reminded of things explicitly, that should clue the coaches in that their players don’t yet fully understand the information.

Here is a short animated video demonstrating this concept.

So next time you get frustrated that your players aren’t remembering what you asked of them, first ask yourself, did I give my players multiple opportunities over a long period of time to interact with the information?