Nick Winkelman shows that the words you cue with change how well an athlete moves. Here's how to cue for learning.
Most coaches cue by naming body parts - "squeeze your glutes", "extend your knee" - and get stiff, over-controlled movement for it. Nick Winkelman's work on the language of coaching shows that an external focus - cueing the outcome or effect, plus a vivid analogy - generally produces better learning and performance. This breakdown covers his case in our own words, adds our take for cueing online, and turns it into a swap-your-cues checklist.
By Markus Evers · September 2026 · a Coachway video breakdown
the short version
Winkelman's case is that how you word a cue changes how well an athlete learns and performs: an external focus of attention - cueing the effect or outcome ("drive the floor away") rather than a body part ("squeeze your glutes") - generally produces better, more fluid movement, and analogies help by giving the athlete a picture to move toward. The one thing a coach should do about it: default to fewer, external, outcome-focused cues and analogies instead of a checklist of body-part instructions - you change the words, not the exercise, and the movement improves.
Nick Winkelman - Using Forward Language When Cueing Your Athletes (Nick Winkelman)
Source: Human Kinetics on YouTube - "Using Forward Language When Cueing Your Athletes (Nick Winkelman)", an interview with Nick Winkelman published by Human Kinetics. Watch on YouTube. We embed the public video and summarise it in our own words; the video and channel belong to Human Kinetics and the ideas to Nick Winkelman, and nothing here implies their endorsement of Coachway.
Who is Nick Winkelman, and why coaches watch
Nick Winkelman is a well-known strength and performance coach and the author of The Language of Coaching, a book that brought the motor-learning research on cueing and attentional focus to a wide coaching audience. His whole focus is the part of coaching that happens through words - how the way you phrase a cue changes what the athlete's body actually does. Coaches watch him because cueing is something everyone does constantly and almost no one is taught, and the research-backed shift from internal to external cues is one of the highest-return, lowest-cost upgrades available. This interview on cueing language is a clear window into that work, which is the lens this page is written for.
What Winkelman actually argues (our summary)
This is our summary of the ideas he presents, in our own words - not a transcript. Watch the original for his exact framing and examples.
- 1
The cue is part of the coaching. How you word an instruction changes how the athlete learns and performs - it's a real decision, not filler.
- 2
External beats internal focus. Cueing the effect or outcome ("drive the floor away") generally produces better movement than cueing a body part ("squeeze your glutes").
- 3
Let the movement self-organise. Focusing outward frees the nervous system to find an efficient solution; focusing on body parts often makes movement stiff and over-controlled.
- 4
Analogies give a picture. A vivid, outcome-oriented analogy hands the athlete an image to move toward, which usually works better than technical body-part detail.
- 5
Fewer, better cues. One clear external cue beats a checklist of internal instructions the athlete can't hold in mind while moving.
Coachway's take
We think this is one of the cheapest, highest-return upgrades a coach can make, because it costs nothing and applies to literally every rep you'll ever coach. Most coaches default to a stream of internal, body-part cues and unknowingly make movement worse - the athlete tenses and over-thinks. Switching to external, outcome-focused cues and analogies is a change of words, not of programming, and it tends to make people move better immediately. Even a coach who ignores everything else about motor learning should steal this one.
Where we'd add nuance: external-by-default doesn't mean never internal. A beginner sometimes needs to be shown a position, and a specific fault occasionally needs a targeted internal cue. The skill is not to eliminate internal cues but to stop reaching for them first - lead with the external cue and the analogy, and use an internal one only when it's genuinely the best tool. And keep it to one cue at a time; the coach who lists five things to think about has cued nothing at all.
For online coaching this is especially high-leverage, because so much of your cueing is written. Text strips out the timing and demonstration that carry a cue in person, so the words carry more load - and a paragraph of body-part instructions is exactly the wrong thing to send. One clear external cue plus a vivid analogy, ideally with a short video showing the effect you want, travels far better into a client's app than "keep your chest up, brace your core, push through your heels, drive your knees out."
So our version of his approach is: default to external, outcome-focused cues and analogies, use fewer of them - one at a time - reserve internal cues for when they're genuinely the right tool, and online, write the cue precisely or deliver it as a short demo video so the athlete gets a clear picture to move toward.
Write one external cue, show the effect
Online, your cue is usually text, so the platform's job is to help you deliver it well. In Coachway you attach one clear external cue and analogy to each exercise in the workout builder - the outcome to chase, not a list of body parts - so the client reads a picture they can act on rather than a checklist they can't. Where a cue is easier shown than written, a short video demonstrating the effect carries it far better than a paragraph of internal instructions. The science is Winkelman's; the platform just keeps the cue clear and the demonstration attached to the movement it's for.
For the wider skill-and-communication side, the companion breakdowns on Greg Souders on constraints-led coaching and Brett Bartholomew on coaching communication cover designing practice and delivering feedback.
The cue upgrade (swap internal for external)
A short swap-table for turning common internal, body-part cues into external, outcome-focused ones. The examples are starting points - adapt the analogy to your client and the movement.
Internal -> external cue swap
| Instead of (internal) | Try (external / analogy) | Movement |
|---|---|---|
| "Extend your hips / squeeze glutes" | "Drive the floor away" / "stand up tall and fast" | Jump, deadlift, swing |
| "Push through your heels" | "Press the earth down and apart" | Squat |
| "Extend your elbow / triceps" | "Throw the bar at the ceiling" | Press, throw |
| "Pull your knee through" | "Run over the ground like it's hot" | Sprint |
| A checklist of 5 body parts | ONE clear external cue at a time | Any |
How to use it: default to the external / analogy column, give one cue at a time, and keep the internal cue only for a beginner's setup or a specific fault they can't feel. Online, write the external cue precisely or show the effect with a short video rather than sending a paragraph of body-part instructions.
CUE UPGRADE - swap INTERNAL (body-part) cues for EXTERNAL (outcome/analogy) ones; one cue at a time - INSTEAD OF "extend your hips / squeeze glutes" -> TRY "drive the floor away" / "stand up tall and fast" | jump, deadlift, swing - INSTEAD OF "push through your heels" -> TRY "press the earth down and apart" | squat - INSTEAD OF "extend your elbow / triceps" -> TRY "throw the bar at the ceiling" | press, throw - INSTEAD OF "pull your knee through" -> TRY "run over the ground like it's hot" | sprint - INSTEAD OF a checklist of 5 body parts -> TRY ONE clear external cue at a time | any HOW TO USE: DEFAULT to the external/analogy option, give ONE cue at a time, and keep an internal cue only for a beginner's setup or a specific fault they cannot feel. External focus (the outcome/effect) generally beats internal focus (the body part) for learning and performance - you change the WORDS, not the exercise. Online, write the external cue precisely or show the effect with a short video, not a paragraph of body-part instructions.
Coaching cues and attentional focus - FAQ
What is the difference between an internal and an external cue?
An internal cue directs the athlete's attention to a body part or a body movement - 'squeeze your glutes', 'extend your knee', 'pull with your elbow'. An external cue directs attention to the effect of the movement or something in the environment - 'drive the floor away', 'explode toward the cone', 'throw the bar to the ceiling'. Same movement, different focus: internal points inside at the body, external points outside at the outcome. Winkelman's work draws on a large body of motor-learning research showing this distinction matters a lot for how well athletes learn and perform, which is why the wording of a cue is a real coaching decision, not a throwaway.
Why is an external focus usually better?
Because attention to the outcome tends to let the movement self-organise, while attention to a body part can make it stiff and over-controlled. When an athlete focuses on the effect they want - projecting the bar, driving the ground away, hitting a target - the nervous system tends to find an efficient solution automatically. When they focus internally on individual body parts, they often interfere with the coordination they already have, moving more consciously and less fluidly. Across a wide range of studies the external focus generally produces better performance and better retention of the skill, which is a striking, low-cost upgrade: you change the words, not the exercise.
Are internal cues ever useful?
Yes - it's a default, not an absolute. Some internal or setup instruction has a place, especially early on when a beginner needs to understand a position, for safety, or to fix a specific fault they genuinely can't feel. The point is that internal, body-part cueing is massively overused - most coaches default to it - so the practical shift is to lean external, use analogies, and reserve internal cues for when they're truly the right tool. As the athlete progresses, move further toward external, outcome-focused cues, because that's where the performance and learning benefit sits.
How do you cue well online, where a cue is often just text?
It matters more, because text strips the timing, tone and demonstration that carry a cue in person. So the wording has to do more work: write one clear, external, outcome-focused cue rather than a paragraph of body-part instructions, and lean on a vivid analogy that paints a picture the athlete can act on. Where you can, attach a short video that shows the effect you're after - a demonstration plus one external cue beats a wall of internal text almost every time. Fewer, better, external cues, delivered so the athlete has a clear picture, is the online version of Winkelman's message.
More coaching-craft breakdowns
- · Greg Souders on constraints-led coaching - designing practice so skill emerges.
- · Joe Bennett on exercise execution - the movement detail your cues point at.
- · The full library: fitness creator coaching breakdowns.
Coach through better words
all guidesGreg Souders on Constraints-Led Coaching (Coach Breakdown)
Greg Souders on the constraints-led / ecological approach, broken down for coaches: design representative constrained practice the athlete must solve, scaled to challenge, so skill transfers - a general skill-acquisition method, not just for grappling.
Read the guideBrett Bartholomew on Coaching Communication (Coach Breakdown)
Brett Bartholomew on lowering a client's defensiveness before feedback, broken down for coaches: open with a permission or framing question so the correction lands - a trainable skill that matters even more in async online coaching.
Read the guideJoe Bennett on Exercise Execution: Resistance Profile vs Strength Curve (Coach Breakdown)
Joe Bennett's biomechanics approach to hypertrophy, broken down for coaches: why execution and matching an exercise's resistance profile to the muscle's strength curve beat chasing load, and how to make it travel with the program.
Read the guideFree tools for this: Protein Calculator · Weekly Training Volume Calculator · Calorie Deficit Calculator
Deliver cues that actually land
Online, your cue is usually text - so it has to be one clear external cue, not a checklist of body parts. In Coachway you attach the cue and a short demo video to each exercise in the workout builder, so the client gets a picture to move toward. Start your 14-day free trial and coach movement through better words.
