Reflections on being an adult beginner

Being an adult learner is a humbling experience.

In my quest to find a new place in the world having retired from international rugby, I tried my hand at several sports. If I was to quantify the results in educational terms, I would land firmly in the ‘lower than expected progress’ category.

I like to think I am an attentive student; my attendance is good, and I regularly seek out feedback. Despite these positives, it just takes a long time for some of the learning to really sink in.

Sound familiar?

My most recent failure came in the form of a calamitous fall on a skiing holiday, forcing me to sit out the last few days of action. With my ego and shoulder mending slowly, I had a lot of time to think about my experiences as a learner. It also served as a timely reminder about some of the things that are most important when working with beginners.

Personalised feedback

My worst experiences as an adult learner have come in the form of large groups. I think I’m on task and following the instructions and I’m pretty sure my body is doing what the coach wants it to, but I can’t self-correct. The best coaches make time for everyone, they move quickly through the group and manually correct at pace. Feeling the group move on when I hadn’t cemented a skill or knowledge base was panic inducing!

A chance to express what I’m thinking and feeling

The best rugby coaches I worked with made time for everyone to speak. Of course, there were times where we had to listen, but there was a forum to express worries and contribute with questions. When you have a strong relationship with trust and understanding, the ability to safely express doubt and uncertainty or utter the magic words ‘I don’t understand’ is massive. When the stigma around pretending to understand is eliminated, things get better for everyone.

Modelling

I was fortunate to work with a professional boxing coach in a 1-1 environment recently and his ability to model his thought process was incredible. As I encountered new situations, he walked me through his thought process, helping to guide mine. He intervened with questions to check my understanding and highlighted misconceptions and at times, my lack of thought. He quickly built an impressive understanding of my strengths and weaknesses and my progress was rapid.

Positive and negative re-enforcement

So much of adult learning focusses on what you can’t do, instead of what you can. It really made me think about how much time I devote to highlighting what people are doing well and how often I seek out opportunities to praise the positives. I so often found myself compiling long mental lists of what not to do but lacking guidance on what to do.

There are no revolutionary concepts in there, just reminders of things that are easy to forget. The common theme amongst them all is that I was trying to learn these things for self-improvement and enjoyment, which is the reason most of us start in the first place. Some of them were positive, but some really left me with a deflated sense of self-worth, wondering what the point was anyway.

No matter how far you go, never forget how difficult the first step can be for some people.