Feedback That Fuels Growth
This course is a specialized professional development resource for Course Facilitators operating within the high-performance sports instruction / coaching sectors.
The Challenge Many sports organizations struggle with a lack of diversity (gender, age, and culture) in leadership roles.
Through a comprehensive Systems Analysis, I identified a critical friction point: traditional feedback delivery styles were inadvertently contributing to the attrition of diverse talent.
The Solution I designed this course to transform how facilitators deliver feedback, shifting the focus from high-stakes evaluation to a Task-Mastery Learning Environment.
Learning Activity: AI Role-Play
Practice delivering clear, actionable, and motivating feedback to a candidate who just failed their exam. You’ll choose a persona (Jordan—confused, Miles—angry, Olivia—sad) and coach them toward resolution. This is a safe sandbox: experiment, iterate, and notice how your wording shifts their emotional state.
Instructions
- Pick a persona from the menu. Read the short scene setup.
- Type your feedback as the Course Conductor. Use plain, respectful language.
- Watch the response and note their emotion (angry/tense/calm, confused/hopeful, sad/re-engaged).
- Adjust and continue—be specific, link feedback to controllable actions, and offer a next step.
- Aim for resolution—when they acknowledge the plan (e.g., “got it—I’ll try X”), you’ve succeeded. Refresh your browser to restart.
Disclaimer: This AI role-play is a beta learning prototype developed for educational use. All personas are fictional and generated by artificial intelligence to simulate realistic learner responses. While no personal data is intentionally collected or stored, AI systems may process the text you enter to generate replies. For your privacy, please do not share personal information such as your full name, email address, or identifying details in the chat.
Reflection
What specific feedback phrases or strategies helped your candidate move towards resolution?
This is a transcript from a chat with the persona Miles who is angry. I did not get to a resolution and I think I know why. I deliberately started really vague and insensitive to experiment with how I could recover. My reflection on this exchange was that being incredibly detailed about exactly what Miles needs to change, even though he was asking for that, was not enough to get to a resolution. I needed to apply more empathy, simplify what he could do to small measurable activities. At one point Miles said something that gave me chills. He said “Do you think there’s a way to balance providing detailed feedback without overwhelming them? I want to make sure I’m not just throwing too much at them all at once.” It was like it was giving me a hint about where I was going wrong.
Who would you want to talk to?
Miles (Angry)
Miles was the strongest skier in the group however, it was clear that he does not teach often. He was unable to use the five skills framework when teaching his fellow candidates.
He approaches from across the room. His jaw is tight, you can tell he is upset. Even though you invite him to sit down he says he would prefer to stay standing.
Miles
“Can you explain how Shirley passed and I didn’t? I am a way better skier than her!”
Type your answer below
Shirley was a better teacher.
Miles
I’m angry. Why are you comparing me to Shirley? That’s not fair. I need specifics on where I fell short, not some vague comparison. I put in a lot of work, and I deserve to know exactly what parts of the exam process didn’t align with my skills.
Me
I’m sorry Miles, let me try again. Specifically what you need to work on is your understanding of the five skills framework.
Miles
Alright, I hear you. I know the five skills framework is important, but I thought I had a solid grasp of it. Can you break it down for me a bit more? What exactly did I miss in demonstrating that understanding during the exam? I’m trying to wrap my head around what needs to change.
Me
the five skills are balance, rotary, edging, pressure control, and coordination. When you give your student a task it must be related to one of those skills. For example you could tell shirley that she needs to bend more in her hip to increase the amount of edging she get to better control her speed. When you gave feedback you didn’t relate any of your suggested changes to a skill.
Miles
I understand what you’re saying about connecting feedback to the five skills. It’s just that in the moment, I thought I was addressing what the student needed based on their performance. Can you help me see how I can make that connection more clear in real scenarios? I’m open to suggestions, but I need something practical I can apply when I’m out there teaching.
Me
It is good to base feedback on performance. We use the five skills as descriptions of movements that create specific skiing outcomes. For example, we turn the upper leg bones in the hip socket we redirect the skis across the fall line and this increases friction to help the skier change direction and speed. The five skills describe how to achieve the skiing outcome that the student wants.
Miles
I get what you’re saying about the five skills, but I still don’t see how that connects to where I went wrong. Can you help me understand specifically which of those skills I wasn’t demonstrating well enough during the exam? I’m open to working on this, but I need to know what exactly I need to improve. It feels like I’m missing something here, and I want to make sure I’m focusing on the right things.
Me
You specifically needed to help one of your students improve their edging skills. The correct feedback would have been to say something to the effect of, tip the skis more onto edge by pronating your outside foot earlier in the turn so that you can get the skis design to help you make the turn. This description is grounded in the skill the student needs to improve which is edging. It tells the student the part of the body (the foot) the part of the turn (early) and how to make the movement (pronation). By giving the student a clear description of what move to make, how, and where in the turn you increase their chance of getting it right.
Miles
Okay, I see where you’re coming from. But, I was trying to simplify things for my student, thinking about their overall progress. Maybe I didn’t break it down enough in that moment. Do you think there’s a way to balance providing detailed feedback without overwhelming them? I want to make sure I’m not just throwing too much at them all at once.
Me
This is very insightful Miles. It is a delicate balance to provide clarity without overwhelming the student with to much information. The structure you can use when delivering feedback is to describe the part of the body, the part of the turn, and how you want them to move to achieve the desired skiing outcome. Does that make sense?
Miles
I see what you’re saying, but I’m still not sure how I got it wrong during the exam. When you talk about describing body parts and parts of the turn, it sounds straightforward, but I thought I was doing that. Can you point out a specific instance where my approach didn’t align with what you’re looking for? I want to make sure I’m not missing something crucial here.
End of Chat.