I Tried Being My Own Coach For A Year. Here’s How It Went
Just in August of last year, I decided to pick up a new sport that would challenge me physically, technically, and mentally and spark an intense desire to learn. That sport is table tennis.
Now, to most amateurs, table tennis seems like an easy sport that even your grandpa could play. That’s what I thought as well until I started improving and realized the vast complexities of the sport.
The advanced table tennis player must not only be able to recognize and the nine different spins that can be put on a ball but also be able to counter them within a split second due to the lightning-fast speed of the game.
In this article, I will share with you what it took for me to teach myself how to play table tennis and the process you can follow to improve at anything without needing a coach.
The Learning Cycle
So you may be wondering if you don’t have a coach, who is going to tell you what is right and what is wrong?
The learning cycle is simple, and it is as follows:
- Watch
- Try
- Analyze
- Repeat
This cycle is what I like to refer to as observational learning, and it is greatly useful not only in the realm of sports, but also in school, business, and many other disciplines.
Let’s break down the observational learning cycle and walk through each one step by step.
Step 1: Watch
This is the easiest step yet also the hardest. While many people know how to watch a sport, only a few know how to engage in purposeful watching. Purposeful watching, as the name suggests, is watching with the intention of learning something from it.
Where do you go to watch? Who do you watch? What do you watch for?
The best place to watch is in big events or tournaments, where you will be able to find people who are much more skilled than you that you can learn from. I really enjoy going to my local club to observe players who are much better than me.
The internet is also a great place to watch better players. With resources like YouTube tutorials, in-depth blogs, and professional matches, the internet holds seemingly infinite amounts of information that you can use to your benefit.
You know where to watch, but who do you watch? Everyone has their own way of doing things, and if you try to learn from a million people you might get confused as to what is right and what is wrong.
The answer to this is that there is no right or wrong, just different styles. So choose one and be consistent with it, whether it be following one professional closely or one YouTube channel as your dedicated learning source.
Once you have chosen that, you have to understand what you need to watch for. Instead of just observing someone as a whole, focus only on one aspect of their skill.
During my table tennis journey, I was intrigued by how professional players used footwork to optimize their power and consistency. So instead of just watching pro matches, I would only look at the players’ feet to understand what they were doing that was different from me.
By focusing on one specific aspect, you can hone in on your weaknesses and improve as much as possible.
Step 2: Try
Now that you’ve finished watching, it’s time to try.
Take that one specific aspect you were looking for and apply it to yourself. Treat each time you go out there as an opportunity to experiment with what you have learned.
Taking note of the movement of the feet during the serve and immediately after, I had a goal to replicate the same in practice. As I practiced, I focused only on my feet and nothing else and I was able to improve that part of my game drastically.
Putting what you have learned into practice requires not only a lot of focus but also the willingness to experiment. When you have both, however, you will be able to learn at an amazing speed by improving yourself bit by bit.
Step 3: Analyze
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” — Albert Einstein
It’s time to analyze.
There are three scenarios that occur when you try to implement something you have learned by watching:
- Your experiment failed — back to the drawing board
- Your experiment was okay but could be better — back to the drawing board but this time focus on what could be better
- Your experiment was a success — congratulations! Keep doing it until it becomes natural
In any case, analyzing what went right or wrong in an experiment is the most crucial step to improving.
A Word On Becoming Your Own Coach
Teaching yourself how to play a new sport is not difficult, but it requires a willingness to try and fail. Without this willingness, there is no hope of improvement and learning will become futile.
So the best advice I can give you on how to be your own coach? Try, fail, and try again. There is no other way, so embrace it.
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