Athletes and Learning

Learning and Development

Too often we think of ourselves as teacher/coaches and our hockey players as students/athletes without examining what is really at the core of success for both coach and athlete, and that is learning. Learning in its real sense, not trial and error, or incidental learning but planned for learning; an indication that the coach understands both the learner and the learning environment. If learning is planned for, then performance can be optimized and both coach and athlete goals are satisfied.

Learning can be defined as any major change in behaviour that is relatively permanent and is a consequence of practice and / or experience. Learning then has a behavioural or observable side characterized by stability in performance. It is this stability of consistency of a behaviour that shows how much has been learned.

Whether the hockey player is a beginner or an elite performer, all will go through the same stages although the time spent in each stage may differ because of abilities or prior experience. The first stage of learning is called the cognitive stage. In this stage of learning, the athlete must understand what it is you want him or her to do; too often in our haste to progress, not enough time or care is given to this task.

Stages of learning moves into associative stage, temporal patterning, automatic stage. To know more about these stages, you will need to purchase the manual that is specific to your age level.