Tom House is a former major league baseball player who became a sought-after coach in baseball and football for teaching throwing mechanics as part of the total development of the athletes he worked with. Tom has worked with many of the biggest names in MLB and the NFL. He also has a PhD in Sport and Performance Psychology.
In his interview with Michael Gervais on the Finding Mastery Podcast House talks about the importance of long-term adaptive learning. He describes it as three stages,
- We learn to learn.
- We learn.
- We learn to relearn.
As a trainer you need to become a long-term adaptive learner and follow the three steps as laid out by House. To help you with the journey of becoming a long-term adaptive learner I recommend you read Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. This must-read book covers the research on how to learn most effectively. In reading the book and applying the strategies you will both learn to learn and learn. It will also challenge some of your assumptions about learning and will likely cause you to rethink some of your currently learning and teaching strategies. In the process, you will relearn how to learn and to teach.
“It is a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”
Bertrand Russell
In the interview House made the point, “Having education and using it properly are two different things.” and shared his philosophy that as trainers and coaches our goal is to inform, instruct, and inspire for ignition. This means being able to teach what you are learning in a way that is appropriate, applicable, engaging and meanigful to your students. As House says, “You need to learn to reframe the material in a way that connects with the learner.” Doing so will enhance understanding, learning, retention, recall and the ability to apply what they are learning and hopefully inspire them to act on what they are learning.
One of Coach House’s other gems of wisdom for trainers and coaches was, “If you are not becoming, you are a has been.” If you are not committed to continually becoming a better trainer and coach, then you will, become irrelevant as you are no longer best serving those you have the privilege to teach, train and coach. If you want to be effective as a teacher, trainer, and coach you need to be a learner first, and a teacher, trainer, coach second. This means committing to small incremental daily learning and improvement and striving to always be a little better tomorrow than you are today.
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
Ernest Hemingway
Commit to becoming a long-term adaptive learner. Learn to learn. Learn. Learn to relearn.
Take care.
Brian Willis
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