Internal vs. External Cueing in Coaching
This is an important topic to cover. Truthfully, it goes far beyond the weight room and the gym. Thinking about how you construct your communication in hopes of creating a connection with others is important in every industry and every facet of life. We know that communication is KEY in all areas, but now we’re going to take a deeper look into the impact of internal vs. external cueing in the coaching setting.
There are a lot of different ways to explain things for others in a coaching context. Different people receive information in different ways (i.e. learning styles), so it’s safe to assume that there are a variety of different methods you could take to help someone understand something clearly, like how to perform a certain exercise in the gym. When it comes to think about internal vs. external cueing, it’s about understanding where you are shifting an individual’s attentional focus to (i.e. either inside or outside the body).
INTERNAL CUEING: Having an individual focus on their body and how it’s moving. Using anaemically-correct terms (joints, muscles, etc).
Example: “Activate your glutes”, “Squeeze your lats as you pull”, “Drive big toe down”
Attentional Focus: INSIDE the body
EXTERNAL LANGUAGE: Having an individual focus on the environment around them. Using analogies and physical objects in the environment.
Example: “Squeeze a penny between butt cheeks”, “Push butt back to wall behind”
Attentional Focus: OUTSIDE the body
Understanding the types of cues we’re delivering and WHO we’re delivering them to is key. If you have an individual with a relatively low training age (total training time/ years of experience with strength training), then using internal cues may be overwhelming for them if they don’t have a good understanding of the human body. I remember hearing Nick Winkelman (a seasoned coach and researcher in this area) speak about internal language/ cueing and reference the importance of certain level of body awareness - meaning, the individual has to have some sort of familiarity with their body and how it moves to effectively use internal cues. Whereas, using external cues draws the attention away from the body and towards things in the physical environment, or things in an individual’s everyday life. I truly think that external cues create accessibility and allow individuals to not only learn how the movement should feel and where they should feel it, but most importantly, give them a tool/ cue that they will actually remember when performing that movement again.
When we think about coaching or instructing an individual through a movement or drill, the true objective is to give them tools they can utilize to remember how to effectively perform that said movement or drill. This could be delivering 1-2 cues that are easy for that person to remember. Because external cues utilize something outside the body/ in the environment, this could be a great tool because you can draw comparisons to things the individual is already familiar with. Our job is to coach in a way that empowers the individual to not need us anymore (or at least the constant coaching and cues). A true sign of understanding and skill acquisition is when an individual can recall a movement or drill without reminders!
Once you’ve established the difference between internal and external language, you can be more selective about the cues and instruction you use with certain individuals. For example, if you have someone who is relatively new to strength training, you may opt for external cues in the first several sessions to ensure that they can perform the movement pattern well. If you have a more seasoned athlete (in sport or in life), then you can start to incorporate more internal language so they start to create more awareness in their own body.
I could honestly write about this topic for pages (and let’s be real, no one has that much patient to read online nowadays😂). So, if you want to dive further into this, you can check out my FREE webinar HERE, OR if you’re really committed to your development and how you coach those that you work with, check out the School of TRAINING2XL Coaching Foundations Course, or Crafted Cueing Course to level up.
Feel free to comment below with questions on cueing because more blog posts are coming your way soon⚡️
Your Coach,
Alena