Seven Simple Steps to Getting the Most from Your Parkour Training Sessions

By Karin Coyne and Abigail Curtis DVM

Let’s do some simple math to start. Don’t be scared, I promise it is simple! You have a structured class once a week, which leaves how many days a week without a class? Six! Very good! Wouldn’t it be great if there was some way for you to make progress in those six days in between classes? Yeah, that would be quite awesome. Luckily, there are some things we have discovered through practice that will help you to get the most use out of each of your lessons.

Find a Training Partner! 
Two minds (or even three!) are better than one. Ideally, this training partner excels at different things than you do. They don’t have to be MORE skilled than you, often it will actually be to your benefit to be of similar skill level. That way you explain things in terms you both can understand.

Pay Attention
Watch the instructor, but also watch your classmates who can do the skill. See what works. Make note of the little things. Pay attention to their hand position, foot position, where they are looking and what the rest of the body is doing. If you are doing a skill one at a time, each person’s turn is an opportunity to learn something important about the movement. You are looking for movements that are smooth and effortless. Those are the ones you want to model. If you can, come up with tag points you think might be helpful later DURING your lesson or practice session.

Read more about how to create great tag points that will accelerate your learning.

YouTube! Use It
Class can teach you the basic skills and what you need to focus on outside of class. YouTube can help you refine them and come up with tag points to make them better. If you find yourself really struggling to figure out a movement, watch several different people perform that movement on video. Pay particular attention to the components that are similar between different people and where there seems to be some “play” in the performance. Things that are often key elements are often: foot placements, foot order, hand placements, and core body position.

Keep it Simple
Focus on one section of a skill at a time. This is where TAGteach is a HUGE help. Decide on a skill that you want to focus on and then break it into small components. You might have to hunt for specific obstacles that let you practice one component. Height is often the easiest and most useful element to remove. For example: when practicing vaults, find a place where the railing only has a drop on one side and gradually increase the drop on the other side.

Video! 
Take video of your training sessions and use it DURING that session. Watch what seems to work and what doesn’t. The more you watch people move, the easier it will be for you to figure out how a particular muscle group contributes to a movement and how these movements will fit together into a fluidly performed skill. Don’t be afraid to experiment as the video will tell you if something is working well before you will see it on a larger scale. Find something you are struggling with, come up with a tag point you think might help, practice it a few times, and then check the video to see if you see ANY signs of improvement. If you do, great! If not, the new way you moved in this video will likely give you an idea for a new tag point. Use that.

Ask Questions
If you don’t know something, ask! If you are struggling with a specific skill, ask. Ask your coach for one thing that you could do to make the skill better. Just one. Make this into a focus point during the session, only focus on this one aspect of the skill (for example, legs straight in lazy vault). If your coach struggles with giving you just one thing, try to pick out what you think is the key point and ask specifically if that is a good thing to focus on. When you are on own, use this focus point to guide your practice! Even better, have someone tag you. They don’t even have to know the skill. You should be able to explain it clearly enough that they can tag you with no outside knowledge.

Get Stronger
Know when something is a strength issue and when it is a technique issue. Practicing climb-ups 8 million times does you no good if you just aren’t strong enough to do good climb ups. It simply starts building movements into your muscle memory that will be difficult to fade later.  Conditioning to increase your strength is as important (if not more so for some movements) than just training techniques and movements.

Watch this video of a practice Parkour training session using TAGteach to focus and improve skills and reduce fear:

Learn More About the Extraordinary Power of TAGteach

Now available is a recorded webinar presented by Karin Coyne and Abigail Curtis along with TAGteach co-founders Joan Orr and Theresa McKeon on the topic of TAGteach for sport coaching. Sport coaching is where TAGteach got its start and where it truly excels. If you are a coach or an athlete this is must have information and a low cost way to learn about TAGteach.

Click here for more information or to register

Use the code ILOVETAGTEACH for 50% off until Thurs Nov 7, 2013 (price will be $9.97)

100% money back satisfaction guarantee

Because we want to get this information into the hands of more coaches, we will give you a discount code for you to give to your coach or your child's coach to access the recorded webinar for free. Coaches need to know this stuff! You will get an email with the free discount code after you register for the recorded webinar.

More Sports Posts

7 Simple Steps to Getting the Most from Your Training Sessions

Sport Coaches: 4 Things Your Athletes Wish You Knew

What are You Afraid Of?

Learning to Swim with TAGteach (includes our most favorite TAGteach video)

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TAGteacher Tale: Out With the Rules, In With the Tag Points!

By Gwen Hunter

I recently convinced staff at a new program for families with children who present with a gamut of behavioral challenges (ADHD, OD, autism spectrum, etc.) to try TAGteach. After a few telephone conversations they invited me to come and observe their most challenging class of 6 kids. Wow, it was chaotic and, frankly, dangerous. The following week I met with staff after school for a couple of hours, passed out info on TAGteach. They were excited. This class was the following day so I asked them to make a list of the behaviors they didn't like below each student's name. Then we went over each item, added an = sign next to each, and came up with behaviors they'd like instead (what a helpful tool this is! Thanks for teaching it.) These became tag points. I gave them taggers and we decided on tictacs for primary reinforcers. They then split up the kids so that each of us would have two to tag. I was really nervous about this as in the past I'd only tagged when working one-on-one with a student plus I didn't know these kids, but we decided to approach this as a learning experience - which it certainly was!

Only two kids showed up - two were on a camping trip and the other two, twins, were at an appointment with their mom. The boy who showed up had only one 'negative' behavior on his list: "he hates to move," so his tag point was "adventure try." The girl who attended had several behaviors on her list: "launches herself," "unsafe," "interrupts," "loud voice." We did not come up for tag points for unsafe and body launching, but "raise hand to talk" and "level 3 voice" were tag points.

The teacher did a beautiful job of describing TAGteach and tag points. The girl was tagged for raising her hand and darn, it didn't feel right to not tag the boy who was sitting listening, so he was tagged for 'eyes on teacher.' This was a good way to deal with a possible inequity, where the child who has behavior issues gets lots of tags, while the child sitting quietly gets none. After explaining and demonstrating tag, the teacher asked the kids what they wanted to do. The boy was tagged for suggesting setting up an obstacle course (the kid who hates to move!), and he and the girl brainstormed ideas. The girl got lots of tags for "level 3 voice" and together and under their direction, we set up a challenging 10-part course involving pillows, swings, hammocks, a squeeze cow that shoots balls, a target, and a slide. WOW! The boy demonstrated the route first, which involved lots of moving! Tag points for the girl that addressed safety became obvious during this activity: "feet first," "ask adult for help," "warn when starting," "wait until B has finished." At the end of the hour, the boy reached into his pocket, pulled out a large handful of tictacs, looked up and me and said, "Look at all the tags I got!"

There were no behavior problems during this class, and after the kids left the staff was incredibly excited about the effectiveness of TAGteach! I pointed out the 'rules' list on the wall and suggested they change it (it was called Rules and involved lots of 'NO…."). Staff immediately took it down and replaced it with a list called TAG POINTS!

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The Cousin Tag Point - It's All Related

By Theresa McKeon

A cousin tag point is a tag point that holds up an alternative route to success.

A cousin is a relative descended from a common ancestor. A cousin tag point comes from a common goal but can be used to arc around a particular point of stress or distraction while still encouraging success and the completion of the original desired behavior.

Example: 
A child is able, but still cautious about touching a horse. The most obvious tag point “touch horse” may still be a little scary. A cousin tag point could carry student past any lingering fear and help drive focus to the subsequent non-stressful point of success.

The instructions are: after touching the horse, touch my hand
The tag point is: touch my hand

Now the focus is deflected off the part we know to be stressful (touch the horse) and placed on an easy point of success, (touch my hand). “Touch the horse” is still part of the instructions, but positioned as a casual behavior before the exciting and reinforced tag point.

Example:
A psychiatrist working with a patient with agoraphobia had a brilliant example of a cousin tag point.
The patient was able to leave her apartment but was very stressed when doing so. The psychiatrist wanted her to practice taking one step beyond the door. The obvious “take one step out” did qualify as a tag point under the WOOF criteria, but funneled all of the client’s focus onto the very behavior that was most challenging. Instead, the doctor created a cousin tag point.

The instructions are: step outside the apartment and then step back in the apartment
The tag point is: step back into apartment

The easier task of “step back into apartment” (which cannot be completed without first stepping out of the apartment) was repositioned as the highlighted and reinforced behavior. The patient was pleased to focus on returning to safety and was less stressed about taking the step out.

Before you create your next tag point, spend a moment and decide if a cousin tag point might just be the “relative” you want to have around!

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Bad Hair Day? Not at A Dancer's Dream!

by Beth Wheeler

We noticed our dancers were showing up for class less than properly prepared recently. Nag them? Nah, there's an easier way = Tag them! Without saying anything I began taking photos of our daily "Hair Heroes" and posting them to our studio facebook page (A Dancer's Dream). Literally THE NEXT DAY we started seeing the girls line up to be considered for the day's Hair Heroes. By the end of the week everyone was arriving prepared and polished = worked like a charm ;o)

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How to Turn Criticism into Smiles

By Beth Wheeler


Our dancers receive adjudications at competition often in the form of audio files - so the girls literally listen to the judges comment about their dancing. Many judges are very positive but just as many are "critics" and some can be quite negative.

There's no way I have the time to listen and edit each tape from each judge for each dance at each competition. For years I just didn't have the kids listen -such a shame as we WANT the kids to get input from these other teachers. Once we began tagging we realized that translating negative language would be an important skill to learn and so here's what we do.

As we listen to the tapes, our dancers use tally marks or stickers to note each "good" or "yay" comment as a tag. In another column our dancers write the negative comments translating to tag points. If a judge says "pretty costume" = Tag! "nice smile" = Tag! "Your knee is bent in your leap" = tag point is... Stretch knee. "You shouldn't be looking at the floor" = tag point is... Look at the audience.

The dancers have gotten so quick and comfortable at translation that they do it subconsciously. So much so that it's not uncommon for them to smile if I get grumpy at them. When I slip and use a negative, they're smiling cuz they're hearing the tag point! Not an excuse to get grumpy of course - just really nice to know that where ever they are in the world, they're translating.

More about A Dancer's Dream

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Check List Epiphany

By Carly Champion Fleming

I want to share a realization that I had. Maybe it will help someone else, too. Check lists work very well with TAGteach, and I'm sure a lot of people already use them. I had tried so hard to use check lists to help me be more productive, but it never seemed to work. What I realized is this: I find writing lists rewarding, not checking off items. So essentially I was rewarded before I actually did anything. Not only that, but I felt like a failure when I got to the end of the day and there were still items that didn't get checked off.

What I have started doing instead is keeping a running tally of everything I do during the day. Now after each thing I accomplish, I get rewarded by adding that item to my list. At the end of the day I have a page full of things that I've done. My productivity has sky-rocketed. I actually seek out things to do just so I can add it to my list.

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How to Use Targets - A Gymnastics Example

We love targets at TAGteach! Whenever we can use a physical or visual target to help a learner find the right position we do it.

Here is an example of using targets to help teach a front roll. There are two hand targets to show where the hands should go. The first tag point is "hands to hands".  Repeat this several times until the athlete places her hands reliably and confidently on the target every time.

The next tag point is "head to circle". Tag only when the head is correctly placed on the circle. Repeat this a few times until the athlete places her head reliably and confidently on the target every time.

Once the head placement is correct, allow the rest of the front roll to happen. This is being done on a inclined soft mat and so the roll with happen easily.

Remove the hand targets and continue with the "head to circle" tag point a few more times. Remove the head target and move on to working on other aspects of the skill

If the hand or head placement becomes incorrect then replace the required targets and go back to practicing with the target-related tag points.


Get creative! You can use targets in many different ways and lots of things can be targets. Send us photos to show us how you are using targets to improve efficiency in your teaching.

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Update from Niabi Zoo

This excerpt is posted with permission from the KPCT blog. Click here to see the entire article

By Laura Monaco-Torelli

Progress in both animal and human training

Twiga with her calf, Zuri

We are delighted to share a third installment of the Niabi Zoo story. This “Anniversary update” describes the exciting progress the zoo training programs have made this year. In order to grow and improve, modify and enhance, every training program should be evaluated on a regular basis. It’s important to revisit and revise goals, and assess and celebrate achievements. At Niabi Zoo we do that regularly, looking ahead to see what the possibilities are, and making plans to ensure those possibilities are realized. We continue to build collaborations with others in our field, collaborations that emphasize the varied facets of our shared expertise.

This past year has been full of growth and excitement at Niabi Zoo! Two healthy reticulated giraffe calves were born, and the colobus troop has grown by one new baby, too—all while the zoo was under renovation. Through it all, we augmented and advanced our animal training programs to start fresh in 2011.

To help move our programs forward, we looked at the human end of training. After all, we experience day-to-day interactions with more than just the animals in our care; we have frequent interactions and conversations with our colleagues and zoo patrons. As great trainers know, good people skills only enhance and improve any work surroundings. Our goals in the human area include helping others know what is expected of them without nagging, and focusing training beyond the animals and toward zookeeper continuing education and professional growth.

Time for TAGteach!

In 2008, while I was a student in the Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) Dog Trainer Program, I learned about Theresa McKeon and TAGteach International. When Niabi Zoo heard that I attended Theresa’s TAGteach seminar in Chicago to earn primary certification, they offered to host her at the zoo in March 2010. Theresa invited TAGteach Level 3 instructor Eva Bertilsson from Sweden to join us as well. We were very lucky to have both women teaching a two-day seminar at the zoo, working with us toward several of our goals. TAGteach lessons helped staff members achieve even more success clicker training the zoo animals. The lessons also helped staff members feel upbeat about themselves and their many workday interactions.

We received very positive comments from keepers who attended the seminar:

“Clicker training has opened my eyes to a new perspective of zookeeping. I have been able to do daily husbandry and vet visits with so much less stress on the animals. In the last two years I have seen animals go from not wanting any interaction to waiting to be trained on a daily basis. Clicker training and TAGteach have had nothing but a positive effect in my life and on the animals at Niabi Zoo.” ~Jessi Lench Porter

“The clicker provided our team with an effective tool of communication that transformed the behaviors of a variety of species such as giraffe, gibbon, lion, and jaguar. Clicker training brought our overall animal management to the highest level of care.

To enhance and expand the communication skills of our staff, we were introduced to the principles of TAGteach by Theresa McKeon. Theresa's contagious enthusiasm about TAG brought to light how we all process information in a variety of ways, which sometimes leads to different interpretations in our everyday communications. Using the concepts of TAG, we were able to clearly set criteria and offer positive feedback to each other. We can all benefit from this type of teaching, which focuses on what is correct rather than the opposite.” ~Colleen Stalf

“Clicker training has made me so much more aware of my interactions with animals (and people), has taught me patience, and has helped me understand that effective communication can work wonders. Training a lion or having a positive interaction with a coworker, the skills have been invaluable. Such a warm feeling of accomplishment to realize that small, positive steps can lead to a finished behavior that will reduce stress levels during veterinary procedures. Clicker training can deepen the relationship and create trust between trainer and animal. When you start training animals and practice that positive spin on life, it becomes second-nature and is so much easier to transfer to your human relationships.” ~Mandy Turnbull

Observing Theresa and Eva while they taught was extremely reinforcing for me. I knew that the keepers would gain first-rate information easily translatable and applicable to their daily interactions with people and with animals. We all learned how to be more effective, proactive, and positive with our communication skills. We had a lot of fun with this process!

TAGteach in action: using food tools

One of the safety goals we worked on with the keepers during Theresa’s workshop was feeding the large cats (lion, tigers, cougars, leopards, jaguar, and bobcats) with tongs, spoons, or feed poles. These tools keep zookeepers’ hands safe. For the keepers, learning how to mark the desired behavior with the clicker and then move the hand to load the primary reinforcer can prove challenging! We found it helpful to practice clicker mechanics before we actually trained and fed any animal, and made that step part of a fun training game. But the keepers’ biggest challenge was to replace a previous behavior (feeding the large cats with their hands), especially since the behavior had a strong reinforcement history.

In this video (view the original article to see the video), keepers Colleen, Mandy, and Jessi practice feeding techniques using TAGteach. To determine their focus they used the Focus Funnel, a strategy for organizing and delivering verbal lessons and instructions to a learner.

It begins with: The Lesson is…

Follows with: The Directions are…

And ends with a tag point of 5 words or less: The TAG point is:

Using the focus funnel reduces the amount of language that must be processed by a learner right before attempting a behavior.

Lesson: The hand that delivers the treat needs to go to a neutral place immediately after delivering the reinforcement. This way the lion will turn his direction back to you instead of following the feeding stick. We call that neutral place “home.”

Directions: Move your feeding hand back to home position immediately after delivery.

tag point: Initiate hand to home.

Training sequence: Mandy cues mouth open behavior-> Jessi offers mouth open behavior-> Mandy marks behavior-> Mandy moves reinforcement hand to place food onto pole-> Mandy places food into Jessi’s hand-> Mandy initiates hand to home (tag point).

Watch Colleen in the background as she observes the sequence. She is observing the series of behaviors patiently without talking and without giving extra verbal information to Mandy. The tag point was discussed ahead of time. Each time Mandy offers the tag point (initiate hand to home) successfully, Colleen marks that behavior with a clicker.

Later, as I worked on earning TAGteach Level 1 certification, we focused on Jessi’s tag point: feed with tongs. At ~36 seconds into the video loop, you can see Jessi self-assess as she reaches for the food with her bare hand, only to correct herself and then reach behind her with the tongs. My role was to mark with the clicker each time she offered the tag point successfully.



Theresa McKeon was as positive as the Niabi keepers and I were about the TAGteach learning experience. She saw that we all understood the connections between the human and the animal training, and worked hard to benefit from the positive principles in action. She shared some of her thoughts about the Niabi seminar:

“When I was asked to present a TAGteach workshop to the keepers at Niabi Zoo, I was beyond thrilled. Not only for the opportunity to work with Laura, but to see the clicker training technology come full circle. Laura had already been teaching the keepers that optimal animal learning occurs when information is delivered in finite bits, immediately marked, and followed up with reinforcement. She also wanted them to experience how the principles of clicker training hold true for any learner—including people.

Because of our reliance on verbal language, people need a bit of practice when transferring clicker training skill to other people. People teachers can quickly progress from using language to abusing it. Important points get buried in long lists of criteria and even longer explanations. Social responses divert concentration. We resort to nagging and escalate from there. Nagging doesn’t work on cougars and it doesn’t work on people.

The TAGteach workshop demonstrated to the Niabi staff that we can learn and teach each other with the same respectful process they use with their animal learners. Deliver information in finite bits, immediately mark an acquired behavior, and follow up with something that is reinforcing for the learner (usually success). I can’t think of a better gauge of an application’s power than its flexibility. This clicker ‘stuff’ can bend all the way around in a full circle.”

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Rehearsing Polite Manners with TAGteach

One of the things we learned early on with TAGteach is that the principles we have been developing are brilliant for allowing the rehearsal of specific small pieces of behavior. In our work with children and with adults in occupational and management training we have used a lot of role playing with tag points for specific areas of focus. The role playing allows us to set up situations that are non-threatening and allow the learner a chance to practice and succeed while gaining the skills required to accomplish a specific task in a real situation.

In his excellent book "The Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child with no pills, no therapy, no contest of wills", Dr. Alan Kazdin explains that children need to practice desirable behaviors in a no-stress simulated situation so that they have the skills available to offer these behaviors in a real situation. Building a strong alternative behavior is the best way to eliminate unwanted behavior. For example, if a child has trouble sharing, he is more likely to be able to share in a real situation if he has practiced sharing in a simulated role-playing situation. If a child has never had the opportunity to practice the behaviors associated with sharing, and any time he has been exposed to a sharing scenario it has ended in stress and frustration, he will never develop the skills required and will become even less likely to share. Giving a child (or an adult) the opportunity to succeed by applying a new skill in a low stress simulation, increases the likelihood that he will employ these skills in a real-life situation.

We have posted a video that illustrates how we insert a tag point into a simulated situation to help Lear (who is four) practice polite manners. We want him to ask permission before opening the fridge. The tag point is "ask to open the fridge". We have provided motivation for him to open the fridge by providing a bowl of melon pieces. This keeps the game going as long as he wants some melon. The tag comes when he asks, and the primary reinforcer is a plastic sea creature.

You may wonder why we don't just let opening the fridge and getting the melon be the primary reinforcer after the tag. The main reason for this is that we want to be in control of the primary reinforcer. He wants a sea creature more than he wants a piece of melon (or perhaps he is smart enough to know that he can get both!). He is free to open the fridge and take a piece of melon when ever he feels like it. If he did that without asking there would be no tag and no sea creature. We do not want to have to hold the fridge closed or otherwise use force if he does not ask permission. This would ruin our tag session and would result in a tantrum and no learning is possible in this state of mind. In fact he never did just take a piece of melon, he asked every time. In this session Lear asked permission to open the fridge many times. This increases the chance of him asking in the future under similar circumstances. The more practice a child has with polite behaviors, and the  more these are reinforced with a positive outcome the more likely he is to use these habitually.





This video was submitted by Anne Wormald as part of her Level 1 Certification project.

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TAGTeacher Tale: Fun with Studying for a Test

By Jane Jackson

I just had to share a little feedback from some tagging experience today. I tried out my pony part  memorization exercise with a group of 4-6 kids, aged 10-12. One sat with a book with the drawing of a pony (parts labeled) and the tagger. The other four sat across from her and a large chalk drawing of a pony on the barn floor. One of the four would take a turn by looking at chalk drawing and thinking of the name of a part they thought they could find- the various kids had different backgrounds of learning and knew different parts. When she thought of a part, she would tell the tagger girl. That girl would then find the part on the chart in front of her and say '"ok", then the learner would touch the part on the chalk drawing and get tagged if it matched the drawing in the book. After two rounds, the book and tagger got passed to another girl and the previous tagger joined the others. After several rounds of this, we pulled a real pony out of a stall to do it all again.

My feedback quote of the day? This book was "required reading" and all the kids have them. When one of the girls was doing the tagging, she looked down at the book and said "this is really neat- I've never really looked at this before. I should study it". It felt like a victory to me because even though she is one of the ones being tested tomorrow, and knows she should know the parts, she hadn't looked at the chart - until she got to play this game. And that game with the tagger made the chart fun and interesting. The learning was occurring in the girl doing the tagging, not necessarily the others. They were picking parts they already knew....the girl doing the tagging had to find the part on the drawing (visual reference #1), then watch the other girl touch it on the floor chalking (visual reference #2) and then TAG....auditory marker.

I had to pull them away from this to get lunch (yes, pull them away from studying to eat!).


Link to Jane's blog

Link to Bookends Farm

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TAGteach and Handwriting

Writing is a basic skill and something all kids struggle with to one degree or another. Every parent has seen the frustration of a child trying to make the letters look right, but not quite managing it, the inexplicable repetition of the same error over and over. The child knows it is not quite right, yet can't seem to change what he is doing. Drawing attention to the error in order to help correct it often results in floods of tears.

TAGteacher Madeline Gabriel sent us two short videos that illustrate how she used TAGteach to help her sons with their writing. In the first clip, the tag point is "pencil to the line" and the child is self-tagging. This is a great way for him to develop increased focus and interest in the task. He knows exactly what he has to do and he can see when he does it right. This is a good tag point.



In the second video we see another tag point, this one to help with letter formation. Andrew was creating e's with a big loop and becoming very frustrated. Here's what Madeline had to say about the situation:

The thing we worked on was lower case "e". I was amazed that we were able to come up with a tag point of "that way" to help him feel how to draw his straight line across and then immediately go "that way" (up and to the left) vs. the little tiny extra poofing out to the right he was doing.

It's hardly any difference in pencil movement, but it makes ALL the difference in keeping the shape of the letter in proportion. We did it by me holding over his hand holding the pencil and making the movement together with a tag as the pencil went "that way."

Andrew could articulate to his dad exactly what the tag point was and I could clearly see him move his pencil very deliberately.

Just FYI, I'm really not a terribly picky mother! I know to some people this may look like nitpicking, but I meant it to show how precision doesn't have to be hard. It's just as easy for him to do it "correctly" with TAG and he's very confident and proud about his e's now.

I mostly leave him alone to do his own thing, but I had to start tagging again when he started saying, "I hate e's! I'm really bad at them!" and he had ten pages with lots and lots of e's. I was seeing hours of erasing and crying stretching out before me and I'm definitely not into THAT!

See the images below to see the problem with the "poofing" out to the right that was causing misshapen e's:

Together they decided on the tag point "that way" which means "move to the left right away after drawing the horizontal line". This is a great tag point because it causes the movement that results in a correctly drawn e. There is no point in using the tag point, "draw a good e" because if Andrew could do this he would, he just doesn't know how. We discussed tag points that "make it happen" in a previous blog post.



The above provide two good examples of creativity and good tag points that help the learner focus on one thing and be successful.

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Tagging for Creativity

It's 2:45pm and the dancers are descending - their giggles ring in the stairwell. My 9yr old Intermediate Jazz Class starts in 15 minutes and as I'm rushing to pull myself together for class, the phone rings. Our Ballet teacher is having car trouble and won't make it in today to teach her scheduled Tween Ballet class (which runs in our adjacent studio at the same time as my class). It's too late to try to find a sub. So, looks like I'm taking both classes - NOW. That's 28 dancers in one studio with li'l ole me - oh, and the two groups are not anywhere near the same level. I'm either looking at mayhem, martial law or..... you guessed it, TAG!

So, into the studio the dancers bounce and I begin the warm-up - throughout which I'm thinking fast and furiously to try to come up with something unique. But nothing is hitting me. We've done so many versions of our traditional TAG exercises and, since this is the week following our Holiday Performance for which they've all worked very hard, I really want to come up with something extra fun and special and then it hits me...

Our dancers LOVE to choreograph and, in fact, we often use it as a reinforcer. But I find that many of the dancers struggle with the creative aspect. Many dance styles, especially Ballet, and even Jazz to a large extent, have a set vocabulary and dancers are trained to perform them "just so". So, when asked to switch their behavior and suddenly "be creative" they can feel unsure of how to proceed. As a result they tend to regurgitate the "steps" we have presented in class, sometimes verbatim, sometimes rearranged a bit, but most often very identifiablly - as opposed to creating new shapes and connections which is the essence of true choreography. But, how to TAG for this???

"Tap, tap, tap" - nope, no one's tap dancing today, that's the tapping of my dog, Eevee, at the door signaling with her paw on the glass that she wants to come in to watch class. As I ignore her she begins to throw every trick in the book to get my attention and is coming up with new things I haven't ever seen. And, it hits me... "101 things to do with a box" the fabulous clicker training method of inspiring creativity in animals. That's what I need to try with the dancers today! And I'm off...

I break the dancers up into pairs: one older dancer with one younger. "The tag point is: make a new shape or connection. Once you have 8 tags (new moves) that we've never seen - switch and your partner will begin." The kids dove in. They were immediately having a blast AND coming up with some really interesting movements - fantastic!

After they all succeeded in getting their 8 tags, I encouraged them to work with their partner to combine all of their "new moves" into a short piece. Years ago Theresa (our TAGteach originator) had taught me the theatre game "yes, and" which has ever since been a staple here at the studio. The game instructs that when a partner has an idea the response must always be "yes, and" (as opposed to "no" or "I don't want to do that" or "that's stupid"). This way, instead of a partner's idea being thwarted, thereby inhibiting creativity, confidence and participation, each idea is validated and built upon. Naturally, the tag point for the collaboration portion of today's activity was "yes, and".

The pieces were amazing, the kids were all completely involved and the class productive. When I asked the older girls if they'd minded dancing with the younger kids today they replied "Are you kidding? That was awesome!" And, so, from a potential disaster of a teaching day came, instead, a new post Holiday Performance tradition. TAG!

Questions about how to use TAG in a dance environment? Contact: beth@tagteach.com OR beth@tagdance.net

A Dancer's Dream

222 Beacon Street

Marblehead, MA 01945

director@adancersdream.net

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TAGteach and Autism - Skill and Faith

There are two things that a TAGteacher needs to be successful. These are skill in applying the technology and faith in the technology. The skill comes from having a good understanding of the principles underlying the science of behaviour, having a good understanding of the principles of TAGteach and lots of tagging practice. The faith comes from experience and seeing it work again and again and just knowing that it works.

Denise Blackman posted a story to our TAGteach Yahoo group that gives a perfect illustration of the combination of skill and faith resulting in a successful outcome.

Here is Denise's post (reposted with permission):

I don't normally post, but I had a fun experience today and want to share it.

I work as a consultant to a preschool program for children with autism. Yesterday we were discussing one of the kids, "Robert", an almost 4-year-old boy who does not currently speak, make eye contact, imitate, play with others, or follow most directions.

One of the many things "Robert" is working on is writing. His writing goal is to draw a vertical line. Unfortunately he wasn't making any progress on the goal. Rather than trying to copy the line, he just scribbled on the paper. We decided to try TAGteach with him.

To prepare I made a stencil of a vertical line. The opening for the pen was big enough for two swipes with a thick marker. The stencil material was slightly thicker than a file folder. It was just thick enough to give a bit of direction to the tip of a marker but not much. I covered all but the opening of the stencil with laminating plastic so I could clean off stray ink marks. The idea was to use the stencil over white construction paper in order to provide good contrast between the stencil, the pen marks, and the paper.

My plan was to tag Robert for 1) touching the marker, 2) holding the marker, 3) holding the marker in a writing position, 4) touching the tip of the marker anywhere within the opening of the stencil, 5) moving the tip of the marker within the stencil, and then (hopefully, eventually), drawing a line within the stencil. Progression from there would involve fading the stencil. I was hoping to get to a pen touch within the stencil for the first session but would have been happy with less than that.

Today did not seem like a great day to give the procedure a try. Robert was not in a good mood. He kept crying and throwing things, and it wasn't clear what he was upset about. But I decided to try anyway. At one point he tried to take a juice container from the counter so I knew I had access to something he wanted.

So: I gave Robert a sip of juice and tagged him. Then I showed him the marker which he took and threw across the room. I tagged him as soon as he touched it, ignored the throw, and gave him a sip of juice. I offered the marker again, tagged a slight touch, and reinforced again. This first bit (reinforcing for any touch, ignoring tantrums) probably lasted less than a minute but it felt long. Then he took the marker by himself and held it in a writing position. Tag! Then he scribbled on the paper and stencil: I tagged when the tip of the marker landed inside the stencil.

After 2-3 tags for inadvertent touches inside the stencil Robert started deliberately marking inside the stencil. Tag! Then he made a deliberate line inside the stencil. Tag! After 2-3 tags for that, he took the stencil from me, moved it to a clear place on the page, and drew a full length line inside the stencil. Tag! And he did it again. Tag! And again. At that point we stopped the lesson. The entire session took less than five minutes. It was extremely, extremely cool to get that much progress so fast.

I can't predict where Robert's learning will go from here, but we sure found a teaching technique that works for him. I'm feeling excited about it and wanted to share.

Denise showed skill in the way she broke the skill down into manageable pieces, set up the learner for success and tagged and reinforced appropriately. The faith came into play when things did not go as expected at first and the child displayed undesirable behaviour after being tagged. Denise just carried on, ignoring the undesirable behaviour, sticking to her teaching plan and tagging the successes.

Thanks Denise, for sharing this terrific story!

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High Jump video

We have posted our classic high jump video to YouTube. This illustrates some of the basic principles of TAGteach. Note the self assessment and absence of frustration when they miss the tag point. This video shows rapid learning of a complex skill without ever pointing out mistakes. It also provides a good example of backchaining... starting with the last part of the skill and gradually adding pieces to move toward the completed skill.

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Introducing TAGteach: Lessons Learned

Theresa has gone off to Japan and abandoned us. I am bereft. So you will have to get by with a post from me today. Well, it's technically not really from me since I copied both the text and the photos from others (with their permission of course).

Maggie Ouillette who is a clicker trainer and TAGteacher has kindly provided this excerpt from a summary of a project she is working on for further TAGteach certification. Maggie's project involves implementing TAGteach in the teaching of shelter volunteers to clicker train the dogs.

Shelter Volunteer TAGteach Project - Some Things I've Learned

Implementing TAGteach into a training program was a learning process for me as well as for the shelter volunteers. Understanding the TAGteach methodology was just the beginning. It took some time to become comfortable actually using the process to teach dog training. The first step was to identify the skills needed to work with the dogs successfully. They fall into categories of:

• Leash/dog handling
• Timing of reward marker
• Timing and placement of reward delivery
• Ability to observe and shape behaviors

The tag points that I came up with were designed to break these skills down into the smallest denominator. Whenever possible I used `value-added' tag points which prevented undesirable behaviors as well as identifying a skill point.

Things I've Learned Through TAGteaching

Start small

My initial impulse was to jump in with both feet, using multiple tag points. The first training session was less than perfect because of that impulse. I started out wanting to tag everything. Over time I realized that using a limited number of well chosen tag points was most effective. I learned how important it was to introduce this new concept gradually.

Begin with the basics


I developed a set of introductory tag points which dealt with the skills needed from each of the four categories. For example, a set of tap points dealt with the basics of clicking and then delivering the reward. Each training session began with these tag points before we ever introduced the dogs. The learners practiced the exercises without a dog, then with a stuffed dog, then with a shelter dog. The learners were often a bit bemused about the simplicity of the introductory exercises. One teenaged learner remarked jokingly "Oh, we're in Kindergarten! She mastered the intro exercises easily. When we added the dog she was the first to comment "Oh, yeah, it's harder when you have the dog!"

When in doubt, break it down

In the past when I was working with dog training students, when they were having trouble performing a skill correctly, I would gently take the leash, saying, "Let me just show you how to do it". That may give the learner an opportunity to observe the skill in its completed form, but it doesn't teach them how to do it themselves. Now when those moments happen, I stop and say to myself "This would be a great place for a tag point!"

Verbal markers are problematic

When the program began, I tried using a verbal marker such as `yes' or `good' . I was teaching the volunteers to use a clicker as the dogs' reward marker, and needed a different marker for the humans. Theoretically, it should have worked. After viewing some video footage of my efforts, it was clear that I was having trouble maintaining a consistent signal. I also tried using the word `tag' to avoid conveying emotion, but that word sounded harsh. My solution was to use clickers for the humans when possible (no dogs present) and used an inexpensive child's toy that created a chunk-chunk noise when the volunteers were working with the dogs.

Let the tagger do the talking

This project taught me to talk less and tag more. There are times when I need to give an explanation of how and/or why something is done in a certain way. I still spend time talking about the exercises. The difference is that there is a separation of lecture time and hands-on practice. I explain the basics of an exercise, then give the tag/focus point, then the learner works on the skill. When I observe off-point errors, I don't do any talking while the learner is working. I make a mental note to add a tag point to address the off-point error.

Post-its and tape are my best friends

A target is worth a thousand words. Even clear instructions to "hold your hand like this" or "take a step" sometimes gets lost in translation. Giving the learner a specific location for hand/foot/treat placement sets the learner up for success. It feels great to get it right. It has been my observation that adult learners find it hugely rewarding to be successful. I found that material rewards or even praise were not necessary for the volunteers. Because they mastered the basic clicker training skills early in the process, they saw the dogs catch on very quickly. This was immensely rewarding to everyone involved.

Maggie Ouillette
Whitmore Lake Michigan

Thanks to Oliver Beverly of C.L.E.A.R Dog Training in Australia for the photos

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