Karl Eagleman - The Whiteboard Daily Book of Cues

Food and Drug Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Full medical clearance from a licensed physician should be obtained before beginning or modifying any diet, exercise, or lifestyle program, and physicians should be informed of all nutritional changes. The author/owner claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein. Cover design by Karl Eagleman Interior design by Kat Lannom Illustrations by Karl Eagleman Printed in Canada TC 0122 In 2010, I distinctly remember being on the platform during an Olympic weightlifting session at Force Fitness in Bloomington, Indiana. Wil Fleming, my coach at the time, shared a cue with me to help me with my push jerk: Down like a rock, up like a rocket. This mental visualization helped increase my understanding of the movement pattern and the explosive change of direction for the bar path.

I thought, Wouldnt it be cool if there was a massive book of cuesa giant comprehensive collection of cuesthat could help both athletes and coaches communicate and understand movement? I kept this thought in the back of my mind for years, always hoping that I would someday get around to putting it together. However, I was always daunted by the size of the project. How in the world could someone create a massive list of coaching cues, and what would it look like? In August 2017, I created the Instagram account @whiteboard_daily to share the significant amount of knowledge Id gained throughout my years of being an athlete and coach. At the time, I was in Ontario, Canada, traveling for work. During my travels, I sometimes carried a small square of whiteboard in my luggage. I used it to write up my workouts when exercising in hotel gyms, and my first post on @whiteboard_daily was the workout that I did in the parking lot of the hotel where I was staying.

At the time I made the first post, I didnt know exactly what I wanted WBD to be. I just knew I wanted to share my knowledge with others, and I felt like this account could be an outlet for me to do that. For the first few weeks, my content primarily consisted of workouts and motivational quotes, two things that are extremely common on social media. There was nothing special about this content, and the engagement on these posts was a clear indication of this. The posts garnered very few likes and comments. However, I kept with it.

Considering the name of the account was Whiteboard Daily, I had locked myself into providing new content every twenty-four hours. After a couple months of posting workouts and quotes, I realized that there was nothing unique about what I was sharing. People who arent family and friends of account owners follow accounts on social media for primarily two reasons: education or entertainment. WBD was really not providing much in either category. I decided to map out a month of content ahead of time: Monday: Motivational quote Tuesday: Technique tip (coaching cue) Wednesday: Workout Thursday: Question for discussion in the comments Friday: Fitness tip Saturday: Coaching quote Sunday: Trivia After sticking with this agenda for a few weeks, I quickly realized that the posts featuring coaching cues were by far the most engaging; they received more likes and comments compared to my other posts. Thankfully, these were the types of posts that I also enjoyed doing the most.

Throughout my years of being an athlete and more than a decade of training CrossFit, I had mentally collected a small library of coaching cues that would be perfect to start sharing on WBD. From that point on, I began focusing the content that I posted on WBD to be more about coaching cues, and it has continued to grow from there. More than anything, I created WBD because I simply wanted to help others get better at teaching and understanding movement. Now, that idea of creating a book to present the cues and education Ive compiled over the years is coming to fruition! In this book, the whiteboards are categorized as Coaching Cues, Skill Transfer, Movement Library, Coaching Education, and Coaching Perspective. The information on each whiteboard should be helpful regardless of whether youre a coach whos trying to help others or an athlete whos trying to improve on your own. And when it comes to the Coaching Education and Coaching Perspective tidbits, you may even find that theyre applicable to your life outside of the gym.

Every good coach learns from other coaches, and by no means are all of the cues in this book my original ideas. Youll find a lot of hat tips (h/t) throughout the book, and I encourage you to check out the work of those coaches as well! WHAT IS A CUE? Cues are directions to improve movement. They give a body part a direction: chest up, knees out, flex your butt. They should be specific, actionable, and short. This makes them easier to remember and quickly applicable. Cues fall into four primary categories: Verbal cues: Using your voice to communicate movementJUMP! Visual cues: Using your body to demonstrate movementstanding in front of your athlete and performing an air squat.

Mental cues: Using imagery to describe movementImagine you are screwing your feet into the ground. Tactile cues: Using touch or physical feedback to communicate what the athlete needs to dosquatting to a box. A FEW THINGS TO CONSIDER There is no such thing as a golden cue. No cue works for every person every time. Since all athletes are unique and learn in different ways, its important to have a variety of cues to address an issue. A larger mental toolbox gives you the potential to be an even better coach.

Give one cue at a time. When you watch a novice athlete move, they will likely display a number of movement inefficiencies. Rather than providing the athlete with a laundry list of items to fix, focus on the one that addresses their safety first and then triage from there. Hint: Work from the ground up when it comes to fixing movement. Most issues start with balance in the feet. Cues should address the positive, not the negative.

Saying, Dont lower your elbows, doesnt provide specific instruction. The athlete may think, Okay, then where do I put my elbows? Tell the athlete what they should do, not the opposite. Demonstrate the cue when you deliver it. Just as some people talk with their hands, you should use your body to show what you mean when you say the cue. Avoid using the same cue over and over again. If you do not see an improvement in the athletes movement after you have provided a cue, try using a different cue or a combination of cuese.g., tactile cue + verbal cue.