Understanding Skill Acquisition
If I ask: “Do you wish to increase your skill levels so that you can improve your scores?”, the answer would probably be “yes”. If I ask: “Have travelled to the range and practiced either on your own or with a training partner?”, the chances are that you will say “yes”. If I ask: “Have you ever asked your training partner for feedback?”, the answer once again is probably “yes”. So here you are eager to learn and committed to developing your skill level through practice. You may yourself have excellent knowledge on technique and perhaps your training partner also understands the technical components of shooting and is able to give you excellent feedback in regards to your shooting. But the question I will pose to you is: Do you or your training partner understand the process of acquiring a skill?
A thorough understanding of this process is imperative in understanding how good technical changes will lead to sustained improved performance against the initial decrease in performance experienced by shooters.
Stages of learning
In 1967, researchers Fitts and Posner came up with the three stages of skill acquisition that is currently regarded by sports scientists as the way athletes acquire a skill. Understanding this model will assist you in understanding how you ultimately improve your skill from beginner (novice) to expert level.
Can you remember your first time you shot duelling? You had to talk to yourself and think yourself through the timing process of the targets and you probably ended up making a significant number of errors. Like sometimes missing the target altogether! This is regarded as the verbal-cognitive stage, where you are learning a new skill. You are consciously thinking about executing a skilled performance.
The next stage is called the motor-associative stage, where you become more effective in your duelling movement patterns. This stage is usually characterised by improved accuracy and consistency, increased speed and improved timing, and decreased self talk. This is where you seldom miscalculate the timing of the targets.
The final stage is called the autonomous stage, where duelling becomes second nature and the task of duelling becomes so automatic that it does not take attention away from your sight picture. This stage is usually characterised through your duelling performance with little conscious effort and being able to execute a high level of skill in the competitive situation. You are now operating subconsciously and you are on your way to becoming an expert.
By investigating this model you can see that it moves along a continuum:
This is the path that most shooters wish to undertake and the path that they believe practice will be able to deliver to them. Many also associate this learning continuum with performance. However, performance and its relationship to the three stages of learning is often misunderstood by athletes and sports scientists alike.
To explain this let’s look at how learning and performance are defined.
Motor Learning and Performance
Motor learning is a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent change in the capability for skilled performance. It is the results of practice and experience. What is interesting to note is that learning is not directly observable. Instead it is the products of practice that are seen (an increase in stimulus identification, an increases in response selection and an increase in response programming). So what does all of this mean?
Simply because I observed you shooting a series of five perfect 10’s does not mean that you have learnt the skill of shooting perfect dueling scores. You may have simply fluked it! However, if you continue to shoot a series of perfect 10’s, then one could accept that learning has occurred. This is because learning adaptations are inferred from relative permanent performance changes. In other words they are not transitory.
So performance is a temporary occurrence that could fluctuate from time to time because of many potential variables. In contrast, learning is more permanent and is an ongoing process that is probably never completed.
To become an expert you need to let the subconscious mind take over your conscious thought patterns. Just like if I asked you can you remember the gear changes you had to make in your car driving to the range? The answer probably is that you would be unable to remember. However, if you are a beginner you will be operating consciously just like when you first tried to drive a manual car. The idea is that with practise we will move in a straight line continuum from beginner (conscious: verbal-cognitive) stage to expert (subconscious: autonomous) stage. But is this so?
Have you ever been frustrated by trying a sure fire technique fully knowing that it should improve your skill level but your performances are suffering? In fact, you get so frustrated that you simply give up! This is when you need to understand how skill acquisition actually works. If you work on some new aspect of technique you are working on it consciously. If this happens then you are back to the verbal cognitive stage with the associated errors and the direct consequence of a reduction in performance. If you persist with the new technique a little longer you may reach the associative stage and the corresponding increase in performance. Ultimately with persistence you may even have reached the autonomous stage where your subconscious mind brings expert results.
So the model is actually a loop. Regardless of skill level, any shooter who practices a new skill will find they move backwards within this loop. An expert shooter may revert back to the associative stage, whilst an intermediate shooter may decline even further back to the cognitive stage.
So be aware that your performances will initially decrease when you are working on your technique. For example, this is why Tiger Woods was not winning early in the year. He was working on technique and his performances suffered. However, his new skills have now become autonomous and he is back bigger than ever. Just like your scores I hope!
Good shooting
Dieter Wilhelmi