Stop studying, start practicing

Why practice-based learning works

‘Uh, so, I mean, uhm, sorry give me one second,’ I stammered.

I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. With each 'uh' and 'uhm,' the sentence I was longing to utter seemed to slip further away from the tip of my tongue.

‘Uh, what is important about that, uhm, for you?’ I finally blurted out with a sigh of relief.

Moments like this defined the first few months of my coach training.

I constantly found myself stepping out of my comfort zone, still struggling to grasp the nuances of effective coaching. Like learning a new language, I was still carefully considering every word, gesture, and question. It felt like trudging through thick mud, slow, challenging, and labor-intensive.

Looking back, I’m extremely grateful to have found this specific program though. Precisely because it was thorough, immersive, and most importantly, practice-based.

Concept-application-concept-application

Clearly, this wasn’t one of those ‘become a coach over a weekend’ kind of deals.

The whole program took a full year and that’s not even counting the months of practice after the course ended, leading up to the final exam.

But even though my training and certification took a while, the amount of studying that was needed (i.e. reading, reviewing, or worse, memorizing books and course materials) was negligible.

Every week, our instructors explained a small piece of theory, a technique, a specific way of doing or being in a conversation, and as soon as we could, we started practicing that technique. 

Concept-application-concept-application. On repeat. 

We’d practice in breakout rooms with other students. We’d practice ‘in the big room’ during sessions. We’d practice in between sessions with peers. And eventually, we’d practice with ‘real-life’ humans outside of the course. We called them ‘practice clients’.

It was scary, hard work, and often felt like being thrown into the deep end.

But it worked.

Sink or swim

Coaching is all about having conversations with clients to help them unlock their potential and transform their life. Hardly something that can be read once and mastered as soon as you close the book.

The highly practical approach of my coach training was key to the strong start I got in coaching, and it has informed my approach to learning and teaching ever since.

Even though it can feel scary in the beginning, being thrown out of the nest without an extensive flight manual is the most effective way to learn any (craft-based) skill. Especially for something as practical as coaching, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to study the skill from just books.

Going at it and trying, receiving feedback, and experiencing the skill is the only way to really internalize it.

Making music

Think about practicing any craft. Maybe you play or have played a musical instrument, attempted woodwork, or practiced martial arts.

I’m talking about any skill that takes some time to get the hang of. Writing, obviously, is one too.

When you’ve practiced a craft for some time, it feels very different compared to when you were just starting.

Why is this?

When you’re learning something new, you have to actively think about the action you’re performing whereas later, you can do it without thinking. Like when a jazz musician, who only after countless hours practicing her scales eventually graduates to effortless improvisation.

During the practice, the knowledge of the scales is moved from the conscious to the unconscious part of the brain, to be used spontaneously later.

I felt exactly the same while learning how to coach.

At first, I was sweaty, nervous, and embarrassed. Resulting in clunky and awkward sentences at best. 

Later the conscious techniques began to organically weave their way into coaching conversations and I was able to play some jazz here and there.

Where at first you might actively need to think of how to start a sentence (using a specific, prescribed sentence-stem for example), after enough practice, you can just be yourself and pose a strong question off the cuff.

Practicing coaching skills is like a musician ingraining scales into their system. The tools and techniques you learn, shaky at first, eventually lead to an attitude. A way of being that allows you to create the music you want.

You’re in charge

The best way to pick up new skills is through practice

For an intellectually interested person like myself though, it’s too easy to get lost in the theory or the compelling concepts of a given subject.

If it were up to my brain, we’d stay in our armchair all day. Hell, if it wasn’t for practice-based courses, we would stay there all year round.

The best courses minimize theory to the bare minimum and dial up a healthy dose of practice.

Sure, you need a clear, concise, and brief explanation of the main idea, the technique, or the framework, but after that, diving into the practice is what will turn concepts into an attitude.

So when you find yourself, uh, stammering, uhm, realize that’s a good sign.

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P.S. The approach described above is precisely how I'm constructing my new course in coaching skills, currently in development. I'll have more to share in the coming weeks.