Would you like to learn two skills at once? Here’s how. Part 1

Can you really learn two skills at once? It might sound impossible but the answer is yes. And to show you, we’ll look at someone learning to play table tennis. We’ll then move on to how you too can learn two skills at once in all sorts of endeavours, not just sport.

Samantha couldn’t master a particular shot

I was at my local table tennis club watching a beginner we’ll call Samantha. She was trying to learn a topspin forehand. But she couldn’t get it. Try as she might, she could only hit a flat forehand.

Her struggle was typical of most beginners. Topspin, where your bat moves upwards in a more or less vertical path to make contact with a ball travelling horizontally, requires a precision most beginners don’t have.

She moved onto something a little different

Anyway, I was asked to help. However, as much as I tried, Samantha could still only hit a flat forehand. She was unable to get the ‘feel’ of a topspin stroke. It looked like it just wasn’t going to happen.

So I left Samantha’s topspin forehand alone and moved onto a topspin backhand. It’s a much simpler stroke than a forehand which has the added complications of body rotation. Pretty much straight away Samantha was onto this backhand shot. Hitting topspin was somehow no longer a problem.

She reaps the rewards

I decided to go back and have another go at Samantha’s topspin forehand. And to my great surprise, Samantha could now hit the topspin forehand that was previously beyond her. All without further instruction or practice.

Somehow, Samantha, in practising a backhand topspin had also learnt something that was useful in hitting a topspin forehand. By practising one shot, she’d actually been developing a skill for two different shots.

It’s not magic

Now this wasn’t magic. It happened because of what’s called ‘learning transfer’. And it can happen not only in table tennis but in other sports, the workplace and the classroom.

In Part 2, we’ll find out why it works and how you can use this to your advantage in your own coaching, training or teaching.

Roger Wheller

‘I read the research so you don’t have to.’