How to Learn Skills Faster and Better—Through Verbalization

by Thomas Kurz

Before I get to the post’s subject, a note on terminology: The words skill and technique are often used interchangeably, and that is fine. For my use, talking about sports, I consider techniques to be building blocks of skills. Thus a boxer’s skill of evasion is built from various techniques of footwork plus bobbing and weaving. In keeping with this naming convention, to learn a skill one first has to learn its component techniques. Now to the stuff you want—how to learn faster and better . . .

Except for reflexes, human actions are preceded by thought programs of these actions. Human thoughts are verbal—some more, some less—so people who name and explain correctly each element of whatever it is they learn, be it a movement, a piece of music, or an image, learn it better than those who don’t. So, whatever you are learning—performing some acrobatic move, playing a piece of music, reading Chinese—knowing the name of each element and the reason for it (or, in the case of reading Chinese, each character’s components) speeds up your learning and improves your retention and consistency of correct performance (Nawrocka 1967, Schunk 1986, Timperman and Miksza 2017).

When teaching a technique, it is important to use its exact name, one that conveys its essence. Clearly and vividly describe each phase of the technique. Explain the rationale behind it, and make sure students understand the differences between similar techniques and the advantages of different versions of the technique—the more associations formed, the better the recall. In sports and martial arts, accurate description and proper nomenclature help students perceive and understand what they do when learning the technique as well as let students quickly and accurately perceive and understand an opponent’s tactics (Czajkowski 1997).

Experiments done on athletes long ago (Nawrocka 1967) determined the optimal sequence for teaching a new sports technique:

1. Name the technique and give a brief description, including the key whys (yes, before a demonstration).

2. Demonstrate the whole technique at full speed.

3. Ask the athlete to describe and explain the technique.

4. The athlete attempts to perform the technique.

Rationale: Listening to a description of a not-yet-seen technique engages an athlete’s mind more than just watching the technique. Listening forces the athlete to imagine the technique by associating the heard concepts with the athlete’s store of previously acquired motor sensations. The thus-formed image is then confronted by the actual properly demonstrated technique. Such confrontation speeds up identifying details of the technique and helps prevent errors that may arise from faults of perception and thinking (Nawrocka 1967, 1968). Verbal description is initially done at the instructor’s direction. In later practice, athletes do it on their own, habitually (Nawrocka 1968). Mindful verbalization of the hows and whys ties them together, improving understanding of the technique—what is understood well is performed well and remembered well.

The sequence above works well for relatively simple techniques, such as a punch or a kick, or a combination of punches and kicks, but even the most complex techniques are but composites of simple ones, mastered earlier.

In case of having to unteach errors in already learned techniques or to improve the technique’s reliability, I use this sequence:

1. Name the technique and give a brief description, including the key whys.

2. Demonstrate the whole technique at full speed.

3. Demonstrate the technique in stop-motion and at slow speed, describing and explaining the rationale for each of its phases or elements.

4. Ask the athlete to describe and explain the technique, with stress on the whys of the technique (whole and each phase).

5. The athlete attempts to perform the technique—with the athlete’s own verbal cues for the whys of each phase, if needed.

The bottom line: If you name it, you can easily recognize it and recall it.

References

Czajkowski, Z. 1997. Istota, znaczenie i wykorzystanie psychologii w dzialanosci sportowej. Sport Wyczynowy no. 11-12/395-396, pp. 49-61.

Nawrocka, W. 1967. Werbalizacja w treningu sportowym. Sport Wyczynowy 9/47, pp. 11-16.

Nawrocka, W. 1968. Intelectualizacja nauczania czynnosci ruchowych w sporcie mlodziezowym. Sport Wyczynowy no. 2-3/50-51, pp. 69-71.

Schunk, D. H. 1986. Verbalization and children’s self-regulated learning.” Contemporary Educational Psychology 11, 347-369.

Timperman, E., and P. Miksza. 2017. Verbalization and musical memory in string players. Musicae Scientiae August.