# The Role of Verbal Feedback in the Motor Learning of Gymnastic Skills: A Systematic Review
## 3 Results
### The Effects of Verbal Feedback in Learning Gymnastic Tasks  
Of the 13 studies, six [35; 36; 37; 38; 42; 44] investigated the effects of verbal instruction, non-verbal feedback, or combined on the motor learning of gymnastic skills.  
[PERSON] et al. [37] studied whether the verbal augmented feedback, haptic augmented feedback, combined, or no instruction would be greater for improving the learning of the gymnastic task performed on the parallel bars. The subjects with the combination of the verbal and haptic feedback showed significantly higher evaluation performance scores than those with instructions provided alone, both for the acquisition and retention phase.  
[PERSON] and [PERSON] [36] conducted a study in which they compared verbal instruction with visual presentation of the expert model and the combined conditions. In all groups, they found significantly higher values of performance grades after the eight blocks of the learning process. However, the participants in the visual and demonstration groups reached significantly better scores than the verbal group, meaning that the efficiency of learning between the intervention was different.  
These results are partly in line with a study conducted by [PERSON] et al. [44] where the objective was to determine the most effective method for improving the performance of the roll backward to handstand skill. They compared a visual external imagery modality with visualization of their performance to comments and verbal feedback only. Although each group improved the technical execution of the task, there was no significant interaction between groups.  
The effectiveness of the different feedback strategies in learning a motor skill for the performance of the vaulting jump was studied by [PERSON] et al. [35]. They compareda traditionally verbally received instruction with learning by combining verbal cues with an intervention that followed self-modeling and self-modeling with a simulation in addition to verbal feedback for both groups, respectively. The results show a significant enhancement in the technical performance of each group, while the self-modeling group was better than the others.  
In the study of [PERSON] et al. [42], the participants in the experimental group received verbal instructions in addition to visual feedback on their performance, while in the control group subjects were verbally advised only. They found that combining verbal and visual feedback resulted in increased reported outcomes in self-assessment ability and motivation evaluation. A significant change was also seen in the kinematic assessment of the arm-trunk angle values indicating a crucial role of visual aid feedback in the traditional use of verbal instructions in optimizing motor learning.  
The objective of one study [38] was to compare the effects of the different visual observations with verbal feedback. Their study aimed to assess the influence of the visual observation of the real model with or without additional verbal instructions and an animated model with verbal descriptions on motor learning of a gymnastic handstand. The results showed that all three groups improved their performance in the handstand skill from pre-test to the acquisition and retention phases. However, there was no significant difference between groups.