The first experiences in learning, the most intense, and certainly the last are remembered with greater intensity but we should also recollect that we can continue to learn because if not, we will be conditioned while facing new arising situations.
To be aware that learning is open-ended is to keep looking with beginner’s eyes, which leads to repeatedly revising and renewing our beliefs and self-teaching practices. Thus, overlearning is practicing a skill even after grasping it to reach mastery. Self-instruction is positive because of the benefits in encouraging and congratulating ourselves. In addition, looking for new solutions to old problems maintains curiosity and enjoyment of skiing; on the other hand, routine leads to boredom.
When we were beginners, we were only aware of our present impulses, therefore learning for us was circumstantial: it was a ‘closed’ task determined to a specific situation. As advanced learners, possessing a capacity for self-improvement, learning is an ‘open’ task in constant expansion because we sense that we will have other needs to satisfy, other goals to achieve in addition to the present ones.
The brain mechanism in a learning situation
On the one hand, there is a brain mechanism that prioritizes the least effort and energy saving. To face a learning context, it is necessary we pay attention, which consumes energy, and this is a resource with a certain limitation. We must generate an effort, that is, an expenditure of energy to pay attention and not everyone is willing to do so.
On the other hand, there is our ability to search, to be curious about what is new and different. In general, it seems that our tendency is to make the least effort and we wonder why we would want to improve if we already know how to ski; but there is always the inquiring side for our own improvement, for our own evolution. If we prefer to save energy we will always find excuses such as: “we don’t want to take risks”, “there are too many obstacles”, or “we don’t have enough time”. Perhaps we need someone to motivate us to take the first steps in facing a new activity or in learning an efficient technique.
Learning to unlearn and relearn
Learning skiing is considered to be the acquisition of a know-how through reflection on our experiences. To unlearn is to stop doing in one way in order to find other ways that have not yet been experienced with the aim of overcoming our own limitations.
If we remain stuck in our technique is because we resist to unlearn, to not leave our comfort zone, to not make the conscious effort to eliminate or modify what is inefficient and acquire new skills through relearning, i.e., discard what is useless to relearn it in a different and efficient way. Relearning means that a second attempt, usually much later than the initial learning, will take less time and effort than the original one. Such is the case if we take up skiing again after having skied just a few days long time ago.
In addition, when we reach a certain level of mastery, it is not pleasant to feel like a beginner again but with the help of an instructor it is easier to bear. A professional can not only indicate us the steps to follow or the shortcuts, but is also useful as a psychologically support, inspiring and making us see our own improvements. Although a facilitator is of great help in guiding how to do and helping to reestablish our illusions and convictions to change, this alone is not enough. Ultimately, it is up to ourselves to make the changes by adopting an attitude of change, a new way of thinking, or a better frame of reference.
Asking ourselves what we are feeling, realizing when it is necessary to distract ourselves when the practice reaches a point of stagnation or the continuous repetition of the same mistake, identifying negative emotions and preventing them from taking hold by minimizing them, recognizing our own mistakes without blaming the equipment, the snow, or the terrain are all aspects that favor self-knowledge.
By remembering that skiing is a continuous process of learning and unlearning we will avoid the unpleasant impression caused by the fact of not having achieved anything…yet.
Progress
Progress restores our skiing because it makes up for mistakes or a plateau. It is like a new beginning that seem to regress first by trying a better way of skiing, that is, experiencing the feeling of regression and feeling like a novice for a short period but in reality this helps us to progress.
Progress extinguishes our past mistakes and thus releases future learning. What we have learned in the beginning serves as the basis for future learning, retaining past experiences which are used to solve new situations. The technique or the tactics we have learned in the past was taught to us because it was convenient at the time, but it does not mean that we should continue to apply it.
Learning something better
Generally, instructors inform at the beginning of each lesson about the ‘new‘ thing they are going to teach so learners create expectations about always learning something they have never seen before. This strategy generates a conditioning, i.e. an ‘addiction to novelty‘ that becomes a momentary ‘possession‘ because, as soon as it is internalized, new expectations are triggered towards the next innovation to come.
In today’s society, this behavior should not come as a surprise since we are always after the latest thing that has just appeared. Instead, if we put the focus were to be on conveying that what is to be learned is something ‘better‘, this could have a positive influence and would be assimilated by us as something that actually contributes effectively.
When we become accustomed to learning something new, attentional stress is generated due to the new elements we are going to learn and the time we are going to need to assimilate and apply them in our own skiing. Anxiety for novelty is produced, that is, always being behind the ‘new’ and thus, never we end up adapting to the old as something new appears creating a dependency: every time we attend a ski lesson we assume that we will learn something new, no matter if it is useful or not, but it is ‘new’. New is not always better. If we learn something better, our anxiety disappears leaving room for motivation to improve.
We can conclude this topic saying that:
- Learning can refer to the education of attention but more important would be the education of intention.
- We learn when giving a meaning to what is about to learn. We do not learn motor responses but a certain technique; just as we should not learn movements per se but the meaning of those movements.
- To really learn it is necessary to develop a commitment to what we want to learn, to determine our needs and to analyze our own blockages.
- Mostly everything that we need to ski we learn it in our initial stages.
- When learning, we may apply the four C’s rule, i.e., the four mental qualities necessary for successful learning: Confidence, Concentration, Commitment, and Control of emotions.
