How to Fix the 4 Hidden Causes of Sport Skill Errors (and Stop Wasting Time)

Have you ever practiced a skill over and over and still can’t seem to fix that one technical flaw?

You’re not alone—and the problem might not be you. The issue is often that we focus on the symptom of an error instead of its cause. That’s like trying to fix a roof leak by repainting the ceiling where the leak appears.

In this post, we’ll dig into the four hidden causes of skill errors—(1) fitness, (2) coordination, (3) movement knowledge, and (4) perception—and show you how to fix them for good. I’ll also share my own journey and the tools that helped me overcome deeply ingrained technical flaws.

Let’s jump in.

1. The Fitness Factor: Can the Athlete Actually Do It?

Before correcting a technique, ask yourself: Is the athlete physically capable of performing the skill?

Sometimes the issue isn’t with technique at all—it’s with the body’s physical limitations. Strength, flexibility, endurance, and other fitness components all play a role in how well someone can perform a skill.

Examples:

• A squatter who rounds their back, lets their knees collapse, or lifts their heels might simply lack strength and flexibility.

  A hurdler with tight hamstrings won’t be able to extend their lead leg properly, no matter how many times they rehearse the motion.

Fix it:

• Identify and train the limiting fitness quality (strength, flexibility, etc.).

• Scale the skill back (air squats, goblet squats, bands) to isolate the issue.

• Train the physical weakness with targeted exercises and stretches.

The purpose of goblet squats is to improve overall squat form, build lower body strength and flexibility, enhance core stability, and correct flaws in sport technique that are caused by a lack of sport fitness.

As legendary Olympic lifter Tommy Kono once said: “You may be fit—but not for your sport.”

2. Coordination Errors: When the Body Can, But the Brain Doesn’t Sync

Even athletes with solid strength and conditioning can struggle due to coordination breakdowns.

Coordination is about timing, sequencing, direction, and smoothness. Often, the mistake you see is a downstream effect of something going wrong much earlier in the movement.

 Examples:

• A power clean that ends with an early arm pull may actually start with a poor setup.

• A discus throw that looks off at the release may trace back to balance issues at the back of the ring.

The starting position in the power clean is often the cause of errors that appear later in the lift. Correcting the set up can improve coordination, weight load, and transfer to similar jumping skills.

 Fix it:

• Use video analysis to trace the error to its source.

• Give precise, cause-based feedback (not just “you’re doing it wrong”).

• Simplify the skill into smaller chunks to correct the root cause.

• Offer cues to guide the athlete’s attention to the correct movement.

3. Movement Knowledge: When the Body Can, But the Brain Doesn’t Know How

Sometimes athletes are physically and coordinatively capable—but they just don’t know how to do the movement.

This is a movement knowledge gap—a lack of awareness about how to position or control their body.

Think of it like this:

• Some kids skip naturally.

• Others struggle—not because they’re unfit, but because they’ve never learned how to combine a hop and step.

These foundational skills—running, skipping, rolling, jumping—are built on movement knowledge (aka movement concepts): body awareness, space, effort, and relationships.

Children discover movement concepts through a variety of guided activities in physical education, classroom games, and discovery play.

But not all students have the chance to experience them. So, understanding how to execute certain movements in training exercises and athletic skills poses challenges for some athletes.

Fix it:

• Identify the misconception.

• Use mirrors or video feedback to help the athlete see and understand the movement.

• Ask them to explain or even teach the skill—they’ll learn it more deeply.

• Pair verbal instruction with temporary hands-on guidance.

4. Perceptual Errors: When the Body and Brain Are Ready, But the Mind Gets Fooled

Perception is how athletes take in information and turn it into action.

Perceptual errors in sport skills are discrepancies between what athlete’s sense about a situation and what’s really happening, leading to inaccurate judgments or actions.

Even with coordination and movement knowledge, errors can happen when an athlete misreads a situation.

Examples:

• A football receiver misjudges the ball’s speed and path and drops it.

• A sprinter slows down before the finish line, thinking the opponent is farther behind than they are.

A sprinter can make a perceptual error by easing up at the finish line.

 Fix it:

• Give targeted sensory feedback (visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic).

• Train visual search strategies—teach athletes where to look and the cues to look for.

• Ask athletes what they felt or thought happened. Then help them connect perception to performance.

• Practice focused attention and teach how to block out distractions.

The Hardest Errors to Fix: Long-Term, Well-Learned Mistakes

Here’s where it gets personal.

I spent much of my athletic career without a coach—and it cost me. I developed technique flaws early on and spent years trying to fix them.

Even when I understood the biomechanics, changing ingrained patterns was tough.

Loren Seagrave, one of the world’s top sprinter coaches, put it perfectly:

 “The biggest disconnect we have found in the 30 years of data collection is a lack of understanding about what is required to change a motor (movement) program to a more efficient one.”

Why is it so hard? Because once a movement becomes automated—even if it’s wrong—it feels smooth. When you try to change it, it feels awkward and messy, and performance gets worse before it gets better. That’s called retroactive negative interference: the old incorrect movement disrupts the new correct one before it’s fully learned.

 Fix it:

• Identify the true cause of the error and how it impacts the movement sequence.

• Use existing movement concepts that transfer to the new skill.

• Try multi-sensory cues until one clicks.

• Focus on feeling the difference—internal cueing may be the key in precise sports like track and field.

• Overlearn the new technique until it becomes your new “automatic.”

My Turning Point

Two cues from elite athletes finally helped me correct the causes of long-standing errors that began at the back of the ring.

• US Olympian Al Feuerbach (shot put—glide):
  “Feel your weight on the ball of your right foot at the back—and again at the front.” That internal cue changed everything. Once I felt it, I could repeat it.

• Canadian Olympian Jane Haist (discus):
  “Imagine moving to your left around a pole before driving out of the back.” That external image improved my balance, coordination, and delivery instantly.

Takeaway:

The earlier an athlete learns correct technique, the fewer bad habits they’ll have to unlearn later. But even deep-rooted errors can be fixed—with the right tools and insights that target the cause.

Final Thoughts

Sport skill errors can be hard to correct, but they almost always come back to one (or more) of these 4 hidden causes:

 1.   Fitness limitations

2.   Coordination breakdowns

3.   Movement knowledge gaps

4.   Perceptual errors

Don’t waste time. If you can diagnose the root cause—not just the symptoms—you can fix errors faster, more permanently, and unlock higher performance.

And if you’ve got some long-standing errors of your own? Don’t give up. You can re-program those patterns. It takes awareness, experimentation, and overlearning—but it can be done.