Page 10 - Reinforcement & Feedback Module
P. 10
Thorndike’s Laws (applied to sport)
1. Thorndike’s Law of Readiness:
An athlete must be prepared to learn
Implication: If they are not ready they won’t learn. How do you know if your athletes are ready to learn ?
2. Thorndike’s Law of Exercise
Repeating the stimulus-response connection is likely to result in strengthening the stimulus response bond.
Implication: If a football player learning to shoot,follows through well on a shot, positively reinforce the follow through to increase
the likelihood of it being repeated
3. Thorndike’s Law of Effect
If a response is followed by a reward, then the
stimulus response bond is strengthened.
If the response if followed by a punishment, then the stimulus response bond is weakened.
Implication: The satisfaction of executing a good tackle will make the hurler want to make more good tackles.
