Group-Based Computer-Assisted Training
Engaging in the Science of Skills and the Art of Learning
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Carving figures out of marble can be painful and frustrating if you haven't learned the right skills the right way. Unfortunately, growth and learning often arrive the hard way, through experience, as we say, at times merely through mistakes. Skills have to be learned properly, and this calls for careful study.
Athletes in particular have to be very cautious in how they go about learning their skills. For the novice a bad start can cause serious damage, including injuries and bad habits. Even for the professional athlete, attempts to improve further can be very risky.
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The Group Approach to Learning
A computer-assisted group perspective for study and training can be helpful here. Using tennis as an example, this learning tool consists of two complementary and interactive ingredients:
Each component is meant to provide feedback to the other. Court-based measurements are intended to fine-tune the theoretical model. And theoretical studies are meant to guide the player's trial-based understanding of trajectories.
My Select 'n Shoot games exemplify the use of the theoretical approach to build simulations to resemble actions at the court and can be used to learn what it takes to hit the ball. The ideas can then be combined with live practice at the court. Together, the combination of theory and on-court practice should yield better results than either part taken separately.
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Computer-based simulation alone can be helpful, because it facilitates meaningful action and mitigates risk. Simulation makes it possible to run trials in the operational environment to try to learn exactly what is best (optimal) for you to do before taking action
In tennis, for instance, before even hitting the ball, you can work out problems and find solutions for situations you might encounter at the court. This reduces the chances of making errors and developing poor habits, not to mention that you can minimize injuries. It also makes training at the court easier and more effective.
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Still with the tennis example, we can use computer simulation as an assistive tool at the real tennis court for studies. Now, though, adopting the group approach, the members of the group can operate special feedback equipment at different stations at the court to help conduct training. There would have to be a hitter, of course -- i.e., the trainee -- and someone to deliver the ball to be hit, either by means of a ball machine or by means of a racket. And someone at the sideline, say, would conduct appropriate studies to support and guide the hitter on each shot to be taken.
In other contexts, similar stations might be set up. My new book looks at a wide variety of possibilities.
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Decisions as to how to proceed with the training would be thought out in advance by the group. You have to work out station assignments and rotation tactics and the length of time to be spent at each station. During a training session, all group members should be linked together audibly by a portable conference phone hookup. Finding answers to the technical problems would almost always be the responsibility of the group. The studies together with practice could be very effective. But it's not easy.
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