The 4 Stages of Learning
This is a fitting opportunity to introduce another fundamental principle of utilizing psychology to enhance your table tennis skills: the 4 stages of learning.
- Unconscious Incompetence: This stage refers to not knowing that you lack a skill. It's akin to the exercises you'll learn from me that you haven't encountered yet - you're unaware of them, hence unable to perform them!
- Conscious Incompetence: Upon learning about a skill, such as my ability to consistently serve exactly where I intend, you enter the realm of conscious incompetence. You're now aware that you can't perform the skill (let's assume you can't!), which may momentarily dent your confidence. Fear not! This is part of progressing through the 4 stages and will resolve as you move to step 3.
- Conscious Competence: At this stage, you've acquired the skill but still need to consciously focus on executing it. Using the example of serving near-perfectly, you can deliver brilliant serves but must actively think about your actions. You're now at the level of conscious competence.
- Unconscious Competence: Picture yourself a few days or weeks later, effortlessly applying the learned principles, and executing magnificent serves. You no longer need to consciously deliberate your actions; they flow naturally.
This marks the attainment of the fourth and final stage: unconscious competence. You've mastered the skill (in our case, serving perfectly) and can progress to the next learning objective.
Understanding these 4 stages prevents you from giving up when faced with challenges.
We tend to perceive failure harshly, but as we've just explored, it's an essential part of acquiring new skills and enhancing our abilities.
Until our next session,
Play right,
Javad