Learning vs. Performance
When working with students it is importance to ask yourself; are having them learn or are you testing their performance. You can often get in fixed approach (or rut) where you are only testing abilities, and not spending enough time working on developing them. This is really apparent with the teaching to the test style approach to education you see quite frequently where we are teaching people to behave like google, not with the ability to think critically and apply principles. I want to help create individuals who can learn and improve through time, not people who are trying to be living search engines.
This is also applicable to training. You can get athletes that are only about testing their abilities, but aren’t putting in the time learning their craft and developing their abilities. I see this often in kids I am coaching where they aren’t interested in putting in reps of perfect practice, instead want to progress to harder skills or just max out each time on the exercise they are doing. Make sure you frame and remind them what it means to really develop an ability and what it means to just test it. Are they focused and refining or are they just trying to get through the work. When they hit the point where they are just trying to get through or survive you need to ask yourself: can they be re-centered where they are going to be able to make progress in that session? Or is it time to move on, since they aren’t going to be able to deliver on a high enough level of focus and deliberate attention where their practice is really going to make them perform any better.
Learning and developing skills take time and it isn’t as much fun as simply progressing to try new and exciting techniques. Ask yourself if you are testing skills or developing them. Testing is a great indicator of progress, but spend most of your time building them. Thanks for taking the time to read this stream of consciousness and have a great day.