7 Sport Memory Techniques to Accelerate Skill Learning

by: - March 6th, 2010   Filed under: Verbal Learning

Sport skill memory is developed when athletes learn and remember motor skills. Motor memory techniques can accelerate the skill acquisition process so athletes can progress to higher levels of sport performance more quickly.

Motor learning principles are drawn from psychology and applied to sports training. Coaches can use the following sport memory techniques to speed up skill learning and retention for athletes of any age:
 
1.  Help athletes learn skills correctly the first time. Initial learning is most impressionable. A skill learned incorrectly is often difficult to re-pattern.  Coaches should monitor and guide athletes to learn proper technique when athletes are still in the early stages of learning.

2.  Teach skill rhythms first, then refine the movements. Athletes can learn and recall rhythmic movements more quickly than isolated movements, just as rhymes are more readily remembered in verbal learning.

3.  Chunk movements. Movements can be learned and processed if they are “chunked”, or grouped, into larger movements. This grouping technique increases an athlete’s capacity to learn and perform sport skills. Break skills down only as much as necessary. Overanalysis causes paralysis. 

4.  Make new skills meaningful. Explain and demonstrate new skills so that the athlete understands what the skill requires and why it is executed that way. Also make clear how a skill, movement, or strategy will help the athlete improve sport performance.

5.  Associate new skills and concepts with well learned skills. Athletes learn new skills more quickly if key movements make sense to them.  A coach can capitalize on an athlete’s previous experience and maturity level by suggesting mental images that associate new skill concepts and features with familiar ones.

6.  Point out specific cues that require the athlete’s attention. Intention to remember alerts an athlete to important aspects of a skill or game situation. An athlete’s ability to focus and remember key cues distinguishes beginners from skilled performers.

7.  Overlearn skills to correct errors.  Overlearning means practicing skills beyond what is necessary to perform them properly. It is effective for correcting previously learned errors and for reinforcing properly coordinated movements.

Sport memory techniques such as these can streamline training, saving valuable time and effort.   These are just a few of the many tools used for how to effectively convey what skills and strategies athletes need to know.

Dr. Denise K. Wood is an educator and sport and fitness training consultant from Knoxville, TN and creator of www.sports-training-adviser.com She is an inspirational motivator with an extensive toolbox of training techniques based in science and delivered to accelerate the learning curve. Dr. Wood is a former USA Track and Field champion and member of more than 20 USA National Teams. She has trained a wide range of clients from beginners with special needs to Olympians. She has been recognized as an outstanding professor in exercise science and research/statistics.


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Arts Integrated And Learning Styles Go Hand-In-Hand In Oklahoma City Schools

by: - March 6th, 2010   Filed under: Intrapersonal Learning

Many people understand the importance of exposure to the arts. We love art; it is a necessary part of our society. In fact, for every culture and every society, art in some form or another is critical to how we live. For many, many years, arts programs have been cut in Oklahoma City Schools in efforts to divert funds to “more pressing” subject areas like reading and mathematics. While these are indeed necessary subjects for Oklahoma City Schools students to master, including an arts education in a student’s learning experiences can do nothing but improve their time attending Oklahoma City Schools, as well as contribute to the amount of success they see as a whole.

Most Oklahoma City Public Schools concentrate on teaching students in three ways; by showing them how to do things, by telling them the information they need, or by giving them opportunities to try things themselves (also known as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles).

There are, in fact, many learning styles as identified by Howard Gardner, psychologist and noted pedagogical theorist:

- Linguistic – “word-smart”
- Interpersonal – “people smart”
- Bodily-kinesthetic – “body smart”
- Logical-mathematical – “math smart”
- Naturalist – “nature smart”
- Spatial – “picture smart”
- Musical – “music smart”
- Intrapersonal – “self smart”

More than ever, schools are realizing the importance of addressing all of these learning styles. Students attending certain Oklahoma City Schools are reaping the benefits of the commitment to providing educational experiences via these learning styles.

In efforts to give more and more students an education that addresses their specific learning style(s), some Oklahoma City Schools are integrating the arts into their programs. Following an “A+” model originally begun in North Carolina, Oklahoma City Schools are instituting their own arts integration programs. Originally a project of the DaVinci Institute, it is currently administered by the University of Central Oklahoma.

The model being used by Oklahoma City Schools looks at 8 different areas to improve arts integration in their schools:

1) Arts;
2) Curriculum;
3) Multiple intelligences;
4) Experiential learning;
5) Enriched assessment;
6) Collaboration;
7) Infrastructure; and
8) Climate

For teachers employed with Oklahoma City Schools, the program has been a godsend. All educators strive to “light the spark” and desperately want to reach all – 100% – of their students. For the instructional staff, of the Oklahoma City Schools using this model, discovering how to appeal to the different ways children learn has been exactly what they have been looking for.

Another impressive aspect of the program is the Oklahoma City Schools professional development that goes along with it. Instead of giving newly trained teaches the manual with the expectation that they follow the model, the A+ model provides extensive and ongoing training and support to all teachers new to the program. Oklahoma City Schools’ teachers focus on learning to work together, using research-based practices to establish curriculum that includes interdisciplinary themes that foster arts integration across classes as well as use Gardner’s various learning styles.

Clearly, Oklahoma City Schools are working to improve learning, one style at a time.

Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more information please visit Oklahoma City Public Schools.


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Learning How to Discipline Difficult Children Without Punishment- Guiding Children’s Behavior

by: - March 6th, 2010   Filed under: Behavioral Learning

Getting Positive Attention in public when you are with your children is a remarkable feeling. When people look and see how well behaved a child is they are always smiling and complimenting you in the grocery line. Children love positive attention once they get into it. It must begin early on. When learning how to discipline difficult children without punisment, it can get to be pretty tricky; but with the right tools and information, once you do it you will find it simple. Once you learn how to guide children’s behavior by letting them feel as though they are guiding themselves it simply becomes a matter of keeping up on it.

The only way you can really change your child around is by identifiying with them. The world has changed drastically since we were children.  There is an internet in the hands of ordinary everyday people now. Life is moving at a much faster rate and information is changing things for the better every where you look. If you are going to relate to your children’s behavior you will need to be involved in their culture, and I mean full force.

Know the lingo of your child, know the mannerisms, really get to Know them. When you become more a part of their life you ultimately become more a positive influence. They (and You) can learn to see things from other points of view. When children are activ out it is not always what we think it is.

On the “Inside”, you will learn so MUCH MORE than you ever could about your child any other way.

You are the role model for your children. The whole concept of learning how to “Discipline Difficult Children without Punishment”,  does not mean there are not consequences for misbehaving. It just has to be something that becomes a given when the children’s behavior is inappropriate, then the whole family sits and talks about it for an hour. Or something like that.

The basic idea is constant support of positive behavior and negative reinforcement of bad behavior. Guiding children in their every day life is a large responsibility and there will be times when you are stressed and might even get angry. Never cover it up when your child observes your mistakes. Simply apologize and take responsibility openly with them. Know matter how small they are.

Every one is human and we all are emotional beings. Frustrastion is a fact of life sometimes, but it does not need to take control of us. When children notice we have to control our frustrations too, this gives them added encouragement to do the same.

By demonstrating yourself to your child that you understand how difficult it becomes for them in situations requiring flexibility and a tolerance for frustration, you will help them to maintain coherence in the midst of similar situations so they can think through and learn how to discuss potential solutions with you before hand.

Keeping them a part of their own solution gets them more involved emotionally. It brings them more self respect and they invest more into it. So keep these things in mind when trying to gain control over your children. instead, try and help them to learn and want to learn to control themselves and you will both be a lot happier.

Learning the proper way to handle discipline and corrective behaviors is your responsibility as a parent. This is also an insurance policy for your future together as a family. Learning the most beneficial and current methods and techniques are crucial to your progress and success. Having a plan in place is a great way to start. Being prepared increases your success By 120% easy.

All the links here are to the most comprehensive and easiest program that is getting wild feedback and is still relatively new. The program WORKS!  In short, learning and identifying with the behaviors children flaunt and test us with is learning to be a better parent. It is also key to correcting Children’s Behavior and learning how to Discipline Difficult Children without Punishment, unnecessary medication, and discipline that often puts you at an undesirable distance from your child.

Understanding, compassion, and firm control are required to provide the right discipline difficult children need and without punishmen. Having a program, the best information and the right tools can and will make things much easier for you as well as more effective.

Learning the truth about Children’s Behavior can be a frustration all its own, there is so much out there. A lot of it is conflicting information. Misbehavior to Great behavior is making a lot of waves in many parenting communities. It is very, Very effective.
Handling outbursts and severe expressions of anger is not easy for any parent. It is important to learn how to Discipline Difficult Children without Punishment as early as possible. No amount of delay will be at all helpful or make it any easier. The longer you wait, the longer and more deeply ingrained the bad behavior will be. This will obviously make it more of a challenge to remove and prevent the misbehavior.


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