LEARN HOW TO ACTUALLY LEARN

Some time ago I came across some writings from Olympian track coach Stuart McMillan who coaches Andre De Gassi, the soon to be fastest man in the world (not ever though!).

This year he introduced a weekly collection of random thoughts of his titled "A Very Stable Idiot" which includes topics from athletics to learning to politics to whatever else you can think of.

A lot of the stuff is over my head but I still look forward to this every week.

A couple of weeks ago in the week 13 edition and he discussed a podcast called The Art of Manliness by Dr. Peter Brown on learning how to learn.

I haven't exactly nailed down how this can be related back to football but if you;re a coach who something who wants to learn about anything, then this stuff should interest you.

Here were the points I made from this part of the blog:

#1 - The learning strategies that we drawn to are low-yield strategies like reading and re-reading or doing things over and over again which only feeds short term memory so they're great for cramming before an exam but as soon as you;re done then the information easily falls out so it's ordinary fr long term memory which is what skill aquistion is.

#2 - Constantly making material/skills easier and clearer to learn seems like it;s working but the brain isn't really being challenged enough to learn anything new, or a new way of learning and if it's an easier learning method then what you're accustomed to then learning via easier methods don't always stick.

#3 - Even if you intend to learn something and make it a priority this also won't guarantee learning as new learning needs to be connected to some existing knowledge or you won't learn it

#4 - There's also no evidence that a personally preferred method of learning is optimal but it will result in you sticking to the learning process for longer, giving you more chance for the information for the be sent to the memory bank.

#5 - If you want to make learning stick then practice getting it out of the brain and not into the brain, so after you're read it a time or 2 then put it aside and asl yourself what are the main idea's of this, how does it relate to what I already know and then out it in your own words

NOTE - This is what I've been doing for 15yrs!

#6 - Practice recalling the information later when it's harder to recall which strengthens the connection of that material in the brain and your ability to recall it.

#7 - When it feels like you;re not making progress then that's probably when you are.

#8 - Moving learning from short to long term memory occurs during sleep and long term learning is an actual physical change in the brain which is why it takes time

Let me know tour thoughts on this.