Sochi Winter Olympics and Learning Styles

With the Sochi Winter Olympics firmly on everybody's mind, it's worth remembering that the way we get better at sport depends on our own Working Style.

Some style features to consider are:

·         Motivation

·         Perseverance/Persistence

·         Responsibility

·         Teamwork or training alone

·         Time of day

·         Need for structure

·         Need for routine

·         Sequential or simultaneous learning.

A beautiful example of this is golf as Wayne Thomas, a professional golf coach near Melbourne, Australia, describes it:

“I have always recognised that there is something missing with coaching, despite the excellent results many of my students reported receiving. What concerns me most is a person’s inability to sustain new levels of performance and continually falling back into old patterns. My continued pursuit of knowledge about golf swing, human movement, mental approach to oneself, equipment and communication skills wasn’t providing the key that would open the gate to the amazing potential we all possess.

When I first met Barbara Prashnig and she put forward the notion that HOW people learn is more important than WHAT people learn, it sparked for me a new era in coaching: I immediately began changing my coaching style and the learning environment to match the students’ learning styles. This has led to astonishing improvements and sustained playing ability in my golf students.”

What is your working style? Find out. 

Help - my working style is interfering with me exercise routine!

Say the word routine and, depending on your working style, you will experience either a sense of stifling or a wave of well-being. If you have a preference for variety, the idea of an exercise routine, any sort of routine, will be enough to make you want to run a marathon in order to avoid it. It’s no good for your personal trainer to set up an upper body schedule on Monday, leg exercises on Wednesday and abs on Friday, it’s the mere thought that every Monday you work on your biceps and triceps from 6.30 till 7 will be enough o set your teeth on edge.

So how do you stay fit if you hate routine? Make it as un-routine as possible: swim twice one week and do aerobics the next. Jog around the neighbourhood instead of going to the gym. Play squash once a week for a month, choosing a different time slot every time – include weekends in your schedule. Exercise in the morning the one week, at lunchtime the next and before dinner the third week. Go swimming at the local pool. And at the beach. You may not get as much benefit as the person who has an optimal exercise routine, but at least you’ll stay healthy.

Good luck. Do it with your Working Style!

Sport and Your Learning Style

A big part of your school life is probably centred around sport: be it basketball, soccer, rugby, fencing, or skiing.

Just like with anything else in life, the way in which you learn sport techniques and the way in which you play the sport will depend to a large extend on your LearningStyle.

 

Some style features to consider are:

·         Motivation

·         Perseverance/Persistence

·         Responsibility

·         Teamwork or training alone

·         Time of day

·         Need for structure

·         Need for routine

·         Sequential or simultaneous learning.

A beautiful example of this is golf as Wayne Thomas, a professional golf coach near Melbourne, Australia, describes it:

“I have always recognised that there is something missing with coaching, despite the excellent results many of my students reported receiving. What concerns me most is a person’s inability to sustain new levels of performance and continually falling back into old patterns. My continued pursuit of knowledge about golf swing, human movement, mental approach to oneself, equipment and communication skills wasn’t providing the key that would open the gate to the amazing potential we all possess.

When I first met Barbara Prashnig and she put forward the notion that HOW people learn is more important than WHAT people learn, it sparked for me a new era in coaching: I immediately began changing my coaching style and the learning environment to match the students’ learning styles. This has led to astonishing improvements and sustained playing ability in my golf students.”

Do you want to know what your Learning Style is? Click here. 

FIFA 2010 and Learning Styles

With the soccer fever reaching its peak, it's only fair to look at some of the teams and individual players' sport style. Tempting as it is to discuss the benefits of fair play versus "diving", of back kicks versus headers and of goalies who stay put versus goalies who venture beyond the penalty box, the Creative Learning take on soccer is somewhat more unique.

What we are most interested in, includes:

• what learning style allows the players to remain calm and keep performing under the tremendous stress of playing in the World Cup;
• what learning style makes the best soccer players.

In order to stay calm under pressure, your "crocodile brain" style has to be pretty much the same as your "acquired style", because it's the crocodile brain that rules when the going gets tough. Having flexible preferences in your environment and physical needs also helps, because you won't get stressed by the vuvuzelas or the time of day.

When it comes to the learning style best suited for soccer, many styles will be suitable, though people with a strong preference for external kinesthetic learning and movement will naturally feel more inclined to learn physical skills. You will also need a preference for team playing with a coach, a lot of both internal and external motivation, a desire to conform to the rules (woe to the players who think they are above the regulations), high perseverance and responsibility.

Motivation, high perseverance and responsibility are in fact the necessary Learning Style Elements in any recipe for success.

While we cannot offer you a personal analysis of your Soccer Style at present, we do have an LSA Golf for the golfers out there. Please write to us if you'd interested in an LSA Soccer instrument.