It’s not always about getting better. It has a mental aspect as well as a physical side. A ‘growth mindset,’ which believes that hard work is required to improve science and skills, is essential.
Trevor Ragan founded the Train Ugly Project to question and challenge everything we think we know about education, sports, and development. He has had the opportunity to work with many renowned professors, Olympic coaches, professional athletes, best-selling authors, and thousands upon thousands of teachers, coaches, students, and players around the globe. Train Ugly was born out of curiosity about the best methods to learn and upgrade development.
His goal is to bridge the gap between research and practice in science of skill development.
In a nutshell growth mindset is two things. Ragan stated that a growth mindset is about helping people believe in their potential to grow. It sounds easy, but research has shown that the greatest hurdle to becoming a great learner is believing that we can do it. This is a powerful idea that science of skill can be acquired edu science telescope, not learned.
“It is impossible to learn anything if you don’t believe you can.”
A growth mindset is when you believe in yourself and are able to put in the effort to learn a new science of skill. Don’t expect to see results if you don’t do the work and challenge yourself.
“Being good comes from something. We can easily adopt the narrative that “oh, they are natural”, but it doesn’t reflect the hard work and process they went through to acquire that science of skill.
Listening is not enough. Players learn better by doing. Sometimes, practice involves sitting around and listening to instruction. Although this is sometimes necessary, it’s crucial for players to get as many repetitions as possible.
“We do a lot of things in traditional practices that we don’t do, which robs players of their reps.”
Ragan recommends making reps more gamelike to increase their value. Practice time is the most important. It is important that players do meaningful reps and not just follow the rules. This is an essential part of the brain’s learning process.
Learning is a result of struggle and challenges. If we are able to take on a challenge, and when we fail, it is how our brains learn and grow.
You can push yourself beyond your comfort zone and learn new science of skill, as well as experience unfamiliar things.