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LEARNING

The Performance Benefits Of A “Can-Do” Attitude

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Any time we learn something new, it can be easy to get discouraged by the level of our performance in the early going. It’s not fun when our ego takes a hit, and if we are accustomed to being good at what we do, and picking things up pretty easily, it can be tempting to give up on ourselves a bit prematurely.

But how quickly you learn a skill in the beginning stages is not necessarily predictive of how well you will be able to perform that skill in the end. So, whether it’s tackling a new genre of music (like joining a baroque ensemble and being flummoxed by the lack of chinrest), or exploring a new facet of your skillset (like improvisation, whether it be in classical or jazz), focusing less on how well you’re doing, and more on simply doing a little better next time seems like it could be a much better strategy for success both in the short term, and in the long run.

So yes, it turns out there is something to that line from the classic children’s book after all. Saying “I think I can” really does seem to help improve performance!

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Research Suggests That You Can Learn to Perform Well Even When You’re Nervous

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Dutch basketball

One study involved two comparable Dutch national-level basketball teams.

Both teams started off with a baseline test of their free throw shooting abilities, with 20 free throw attempts under regular practice conditions (i.e. no pressure).

Then, they repeated the test – but with some pressure thrown in. To induce some anxiety, each team was split into two sub-teams, which competed against each other for a prize of €25. Their shooting performance was also videotaped, and they were told that experts would be reviewing the footage to evaluate their shooting technique. They were asked to imagine that each pair of free throws were the decisive points in a close game. And the coach and other players watched each shooter throughout the test.

During the next five weeks, over nine practice sessions, both teams took an additional 96 practice shots (which worked out to basically a few extra free throws after warmups, and again at the end of practice).

The only difference between the two teams, is that one of them (the anxiety-practice group), practiced their free throws under the same anxiety-producing conditions as their baseline test. While the other team (the regular-practice group), practiced their free throws in normal practice-like settings.

Then, the athletes retook the shooting test – 20 shots without any pressure. And then another 20 shots with the competition, videotaping, and other anxiety-producing elements added back in.

Does practicing with anxiety help?

During their baseline test, both teams performed worse when anxious. The regular practice team regressed from 75.4 points to 70.2 points1, and the anxiety practice team went from 77.1 points to 72.7 points.

After five weeks of training, however, things changed. The regular practice team again performed more poorly under pressure (73.1 with no anxiety; 67.9 with anxiety). But the team which practiced free throws under anxiety-provoking conditions not only didn’t regress under pressure; they performed even better. Specifically, 71.3 points with no anxiety, compared to 78.0 points with anxiety.

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The Surprising Truth about Learning Styles

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Thing #1: Learning preferences vs. Learning styles hypothesis

It is true that we do have study preferences. When given a choice, most of us will prefer receiving instruction in certain ways (e.g. I’ll always prefer reading something to listening to a lecture of the same material). And research does bears this out.

However, the learning styles hypothesis doesn’t just say that we have preferences for how we receive information. It goes a step further and predicts that our learning will be enhanced if instruction is tailored to our preferred style (or compromised, if we don’t receive instruction in our preferred style). Which takes us to the second thing.

Thing #2: What learning is and isn’t

It’s important to note that there is a fundamental difference between how quickly we pick up things (performance), and how much of those gains actually stick and can be retrieved a day or week later (learning). The learning-performance distinction as it is sometimes called.

What does the research actually show?

The researchers did an exhaustive search, but found surprisingly few studies which were set up this way. And the few that were…well, let’s take a look.

A 2006 study compared the performance of verbal and visual learners who were taught a lesson in either a visual-based or verbal-based style. It was a sophisticated, well-designed study, and they undertook a pretty exhaustive statistical analysis in search of some effect, but couldn’t find any difference between the performance of those whose training was matched to their preferred style, and those who were mismatched.

And then there’s a 2009 study of medical residents, where researchers thought that those with a “sensing” learning style might learn more effectively if presented with the problem to be solvedbefore receiving the information or instruction they would need to solve it. Conversely, they hypothesized that those with an “intuitive” style would do better if they received the lesson first, before being presented with the problem. But here too, there was no difference in performance.

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Why Mediocre Intonation May Not Be a Practice Issue, But a Focus Issue

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Have you ever found yourself worrying about a tricky passage a couple lines in advance? And totally flubbing it when you got to it, precisely because you started thinking about it?

An external focus of attention is not universally helpful. The research in this area also suggests that beginners or less advanced individuals, may perform better when using an internal focus.

In addition, and this is true at all skill or experience levels, there will be plenty of times when adopting an internal focus is more effective for learning. If you need to break down a skill, figure out what’s going on, and make technical adjustments, an internal focus often makes more sense than an external focus. Because if there’s a fundamental technical reason why your intonation or sound or rhythm is unstable, simply shifting your focus is probably not going to be an effective or stable long-term solution.

So an external focus is not a one-size-fits-all panacea – but then again, what is? Take a few days to experiment with different levels of external focus, and see what changes in the consistency, fluidity, and accuracy of your technical execution!

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Detect The Details – Reworking Technique In Class

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Green-Dance-Pic-1

How can we create a greater focus on plié in class?

Texture. We can play with different speed, rhythms and texture with plié in class. A slow, continuous, four count plié that has a melting quality will feel very different than a quick and light two count plié that has a bouncing quality. A dancer who understands the physicality of each will understand the reason why one might be better served than the other depending on the movement or circumstance.

Core Strength. To feel comfortable working in a deeper plié, dancers need to develop their core strength to easily maintain their posture. Once the dancer is connected to their core, they will have an easier and more enjoyable time working through transition steps with ease. They will also be more likely to take risks in how much they travel through the space and play with level changes.

Feel Their Feet On The Floor. The more a dancer can feel an even weight distribution between their feet, the more they will pay attention to the connection they feel from their core through their leg. The dancer who pliés while feeling their feet spread and open on the floor will have a different connection to their entire leg line through plié than the dancer who is gripping their toes. The dancer that can open their feet will also become more aware of how they are using them in other transitioning movements through plié.

Finding Opposition. A plié is a movement that expands in all directions, but many dancers think a plié simply goesdown. If the dancer has an understanding of the contrasting directions of a plié, they will find more length throughout their entire body to support their movement. By finding more length, they will be able to feel their lines differently and find more release and grounding.

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Notes On Getting Your Leg Up

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developpe-poster-1

a-b. From passé, you rotate slight forward to an attitude position and lift your knee as high as it can go while your hips stay square. You have to seperate your femoral head while rotating it to get to this position. then you just have to extend the heel forward till your leg is fully extended.

c-e. I teach my students to start shifting their weight into their standing leg, and aligning the opposing hip. I tell them to use the full power of the backs of their leg to rotate forward, bring the leg even more slightly infront of their body allow the look of maximum turnout. Then bring the knee into the front of your armpit using your psoas, and pressing down through the student’s core to get the maximum stability and correct tension saving the hips. Then guiding through the heel, like the later part of a ron de jambe en l’iar. So instead of thinking of extension as a line, you have to think of it as a circular motion… like turnout… like everything in ballet. Use your hamstring to supply the support needed. But the higher your leg gets, the easier it should feel. It is simply physics, as the weight is now all shifted into your standing leg, freeing up your working leg.

f. Then, for those students who are hypermobile, and have mastered the ability to rotate the extension upwards, I let my students shift their weight even more into their standing leg, and then like a teetertotter shift their hips even more to get those last six inches of extension. Unfortunately, this puts a lot of pressure on the lower back, so you have to be strong and pretty advanced to achieve it.

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A Clever Practice Technique To Get A Tricky Passage Up To Tempo

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Short-term vs long-term development

These results suggest that in the early stages of learning a skill, emphasizing accuracy can absolutely lead to more accurate results in the short term – but this may come at the expense of long-term development.  Which actually makes a lot of sense.

Because whether you play the harp, guitar, piano, or harmonica, when you play a passage slowly, the efficiency of your motor movements doesn’t matter so much. You can still play pretty accurately even if you’re doing things with your hands/fingers/arms that won’t work at faster tempos. Maybe that means you are using excessive finger pressure, or lifting your fingers higher than necessary, but either way, you may be developing “slow habits” that will hold you back as you begin to increase the speed. Habits and mechanics that will eventually have to be discarded or unlearned, in favor of more efficient and speed-friendly mechanics which do work at the final tempo.

But…only engaging in fast practice and missing all the notes can’t possibly build great habits either, right? Indeed…being able to play something super fast is great, but not if it sounds like a hot mess.

So what are we to do?

Well, musicians have actually had an answer to this for some time – and it’s quite clever.

Rhythm practice – or note groupings

Sometimes this is called rhythm or dotted rhythm practice, but trying to explain it in words makes it seem way more complicated than it really is.

So rather than listening to me fumble my way through it, I’m going to defer to Nathan Cole, the First Associate Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who will show you how it’s done.

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