Take Control of the Replay

Your phone is propped against your bag, recording a few throws. Afterwards, you pick it up and watch yourself back.

It’s easy to start with your arm, notice something about your feet, then rewind to check your wrist. By the time you put the phone down, you can have several things to think about and no clear idea what to try.

Before opening the clip, choose what you want to check. Did the boule land where you intended? Did your arm move as quickly as it felt?

A 2026 study with beginners throwing darts made me think about who makes those decisions when we use video.

Who controlled the replay?

Aïmen Khacharem gave 64 beginners 120 dart throws each, spread across two sessions. They were split into four groups: some chose when to watch their video, while others had that moment chosen for them. Some could pause, rewind and slow the replay down; others watched it from beginning to end.

The group with control over both when and how they watched had the strongest results across accuracy, consistency, technique and how capable they felt. Everyone was tested before practice and again 24 and 72 hours later. The advantages were still there at the final test, three days later.

The comparison that interested me was with the group who had the same playback controls but couldn’t choose when the feedback arrived. They didn’t do as well. Having a say in when to look seemed to matter too.

What I take from it

This was one exploratory study with beginners throwing darts. It didn’t test experienced pétanque players, competition or whether the benefits lasted several weeks. The practice idea below wasn’t tested either. It’s my suggestion, prompted by the players having a say in when and how they watched.

Start with what you want to find out, then decide what might help. That could be a coach, a teammate, a book or a replay. Each can help you notice something you might have missed, while leaving you to decide what to make of it.

Start with one question

Train as you normally would. When something happens that you’d like another look at, decide what you want to check before opening the clip.

You might want to know whether your hand continued along the line after release, or whether your arm moved as quickly as it felt. You might be checking where the boule landed or what the terrain did after it came down. Choose one question for now.

Watch at normal speed first. If you need another look, pause, rewind or slow it down. Once you can answer the question, put the phone down and say what you saw in your own words.

For example: “My arm sped up earlier than I thought.” Or: “It felt rushed, but the movement looked quite smooth.”

If you watch again, you now have something specific to check. Without that pause, it’s easy to keep replaying the clip until you find something that looks wrong.

Feeling and seeing won’t always agree

Your arm might move faster than it felt. You might think the boule landed on your spot, then see that it missed it. That difference gives you something specific to explore on the next few boules.

Sometimes the replay confirms what you thought happened, or shows nothing you want to change. That’s useful too. You can put the phone away without finding a fault.

It also helps to stay with the question you brought to the clip. If you started by checking the follow-through, a new detail about your feet or wrist can wait. Otherwise you can end up carrying several instructions back into the circle.

Use slow motion when it helps you see the part you’re asking about. A movement that happens naturally in a fraction of a second can look strange when you freeze it into tiny pieces. Go back to normal speed to see how it fits into the whole throw.

Then throw a few more boules

Put the phone away and return to the exercise. If you noticed something useful, try one change and see what happens. Perhaps your arm was rushing, or the boule hadn’t landed where you thought it had. If the replay confirmed what you felt, there may be nothing to change.

Elsewhere in the Journal I use no phone on the terrain as an example constraint. I still like it: reaching for the phone whenever practice becomes uncomfortable can take you away from what you’re doing. Going to it with a question gives you a reason to use it, and a reason to put it down again.

You already felt the throw and saw what the boule did. The video adds another view to that.

Something to keep

If you noticed something worth keeping, write it in the Pétanque Performance Journal while you still remember the throw. A few words about what you saw, and anything you want to try next, are enough.

At the start of the six weeks, you choose what you want to work on. Notes like these give you something to look back at when you reach the end: what you tried, what you noticed and what you’re still using.

For now, take what you saw back to the next few boules and see how it feels.

Research

Khacharem, A. (2026). Not just when, but how: An exploratory dual-control approach to video feedback in motor learning. Human Movement Science, 109, 103506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2026.103506