4 Stages of Learning (how to swim)

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist ahead of his time.  While his peers examined illness and abnormalcy, he chose to study aspects of health, wellness & peak performance.  He came up with a learning theory know as Maslow’s 4 Stages of learning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow)

Unconscious Incompetence
The individual neither understands nor knows how to do something, nor recognizes the deficit, nor has a desire to address it.

Conscious Incompetence
Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, without yet addressing it.

Conscious Competence
The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires a great deal of consciousness or concentration.

Unconscious Competence
The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it becomes "second nature" and can be performed easily (often without concentrating too deeply). He or she may or may not be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned.

In regards to swimming, most of us are in stages 2 & 3 the majority of the time.  If you were not already at least in stage 2, you would not be reading this post.   There are so many different fine points to swimming well, that you may be in stage 1 for some skills, stage 2 for other skills, stage 3 for a few more and maybe stage 4 if you’ve been focusing on swimming with good technique for awhile.

As you continue to practice your swimming, you’ll find yourself slipping back and forth between these different stages.  Again, don’t let self-judgement or frustration get in the way of your learning and practice.  Choose a focus and choose a focus threshold (one superman glide, 4-6 non-breathing strokes, a single length of the pool) and see if you can complete that task.  

Some focuses you’ll find more challenging than others. If it’s too easy, perhaps you’ve reached stage 3 or 4 of Maslow’s learning matrix!  if its too hard, perhaps you are deeply entrenched in Stage 2 and don’t quite know how to climb out.  IN swimming at any level, from novice to elite, choosing a task that is challenging and remaining mentally engaged in order to accomplish that task can help you reach a "peak" performance in nearly every swim practice.