Learning to learn

I apologise because I am about to write another post that is unrelated to Triathlon.

Or am I....

Hmmm, cryptic.

The couple of you that read this blog regularly will know that I have been doing a bit of paddling on a standup board of late. I have a few reasons for doing this, good strength work, uses similar muscles to swimming, it is fun etc. All good reasons that have nothing to do with Triathlon (well not much anyway).

However, another reason that I have been doing it is because it is something a little bit new. On the surface this doesn't have much to do with Triathlon either, but bear with me, I think I feel a tenuous link coming on.

Doing something new is always fun for the novelty factor. We all get a bit bored with routine in the end and so doing something new is a way to break with that. Somebody told me the other day that on average people do Triathlon for about 5 years, and I suspect that is probably the norm for a lot of sports. However, the trying something new, getting out of a rut side of things, while valid, isn't what I wanted to talk about today.

What I wanted to type about today was the actual pleasure that comes from learning something new, and the process around that.

You see, I can't deny that part of what I have enjoyed about paddle boarding is learning a new skill. Here is something that I have never done before and I am going to learn how to do it. That is a satisfying process. True expertise takes a very long time and I have not got close to that with triathlon, but fair to say the rate at which you are learning new things does slow down over time. It is refreshing to do something where the learning curve is still steep and hasn't reached a plateau yet. That is part of what has drawn me to paddleboarding.

It was while I was thinking about that learning process today that I was struck by a little revelation.

You just never know where those learnings are going to come from. On the weekend I was in a paddleboard shop and was talking to the owner (who's knowledge I have a lot of respect for) about a particular skill that I was having trouble with. In brief, paddling on waves requires you to move along the board a lot, sort of like you see longboarders do in surf videos. It isn't quite as simple as that though because you are still paddling and so your body position and weight distribution are different to a longboarder. It is hard (but not impossible) to simply walk along the centre line of the board and paddle at the same time. Anyway, he had the most interesting suggestions, you jump, well sort of do a two legged small hop really, but you get the idea. By doing a little bunny hop your weight distribution stays even and you can move quickly along the board.

Huh I said. So the advice is, while riding an inherently tippy object down the face of a wave you would like me to do a little jump? Turns out that is exactly what his advice was. I can safely say that would never have occurred to me. And you know what, when I tried it, it worked like a charm. It was great advice, simple and super effective. Who knew.

Soooo, what is the tenuous link with Triathlon here, some of you have probably seen it already.

There are several things that you need to do to get better at something (including Triathlon). You need to pratice it. That is probably the biggest thing, earnestly, consistently and diligently practice. Most people know that, even all of us aren't that good at it. Sort of a no-brainer.

One of the other things you need to do to improve though is learn. To learn, you need to want to. Sound obvious so far? Well it sort of is, but you would be surprised at the number of people who fall down on that first point. Wanting to learn requires you to acknowledge that you aren't the pinnacle of expertise in an area, which can be hard for some people (just look at all the couch experts in any online forum).

However, once you acknowledge that you don't know everything, you are setting the scene for learning more. After that it is just a case of finding a knowledgeable source that you trust, shutting your mouth and opening your ears. Simple as that

Once you are listening it can be surprising just where the knowledge can come from. Perhaps it is from a coach, perhaps it is from more experience athletes, perhaps it is from a shop owner. The point is this, to improve you need to:

• Want to learn;
• Seek knowledge; and
• Take in the knowledge when it is offered. 

If you can do those things and combine them with consistent training then improvements will come.

Tenuous link complete.