Sports links page

Personal Best Academy

When practice doesn't make perfect

"The problem is not learning the new; it's forgetting the old." Flight Instructor

"Old habits die hard." Proverb

"Practice makes permanent, not perfect." Warren Buffett

"Practising differences makes perfect." Harry Lyndon

Trainers, teachers, instructors and sports coaches try to get it right the first time with their students, trainees and athletes but invariably end up spending a lot of time trying to correct errors, misconceptions, non-compliance, technique faults and bad habits that somehow develop.

Because these errors were not corrected early, and were inadvertently repeated over and over (i.e., practised), many error patterns are actually learned, habitual and automatic and therefore much harder to eradicate.

For example, John always writes "recieve" instead of "receive"; Mike always has to be reminded to wear his safety goggles; Mary always slices her golf swing; Susan always follow cars too closely when driving; and Geoff is mentally still following the previous aircraft’s pre-flight checklist even though he's converted to another aircraft.

We all know that old habits die hard and many habit patterns are resistant to conventional change methods.

These limitations of traditional teaching and training programs are apparent in all settings including sport, workplace training, education, therapy and personal development.

Re-training or re-education, the typical solution to these problems, improves things only slowly, if at all.

Although learners may appear to pay attention during instruction and practice their new, correct, skills and knowledge over and over, the next day when placed under pressure or when unsupervised and left to their own devices, they seem to have forgotten what they’ve learned and the same habit pattern errors (old entrenched attitudes, beliefs, misunderstandings, work practices and routines, faulty procedures, poor techniques and unsafe behaviours) resurface.

A prolonged adjustment period and poor transfer of learning are the two most typical outcomes of education, training and coaching efforts worldwide.

All this wastes talent and resources and makes change and transition programs so much less cost-effective. There’s got to be a better way.

Fortunately, a cognitive science discovery called Old Way/New Way Learning offers:

1. A new perspective on the transfer of training problem.

2. A fast and practical method of transition training.

3. A cost-effective and user-friendly method for rapid skill and technique correction, and habit eradication.

This website introduces Old Way/New Way^® Learning, including the basic theory underpinning the method, and available training programs in this unique approach to behaviour change and continuous improvement.