Friday, May 18, 2018

FlyingBrainBlogg#8 - Vill du lära dig åka MonoSki?


nja ...kanske inte ...men HUR man lär sig saker påverkas definitivt av vårt sätt att TÄNKA kring själva inlärning. Nedan följer en sida ur min booklet vid namnet "Introduction to MonoSki Carving" skriven på engelska för all världens passionerade MonoSki-riders... det är bara att byta ut MonoSki till den sport eller den utmaning då står inför eller har, så hoppas jag att jag kan påverka din mentala bild (se även Post-it Thinking! -link )

senaste versionen av "Introduction to MonoSki Carving" hittar du här 

... så nu switchar jag till engelska :-)

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Next chapter in the intro to monoski carving will be about "freedom" and
"esprit de glisse
the mindset and state of mind and learning level when no rules are applied (or rather : all principles are internalized and "forgotten" and have become habits)
...so that you are 110% monoski-ZEN and do not need to think at all! 

If you have not seen MonoSki in action
check out this short clip:

How to Monoski with 110% feeling!
Theory and reality are two very different things for sure, but if you come to a pool table without any knowledge of “tips & trix” and best practices and with no plan for the shot, you will have a much harder time to become a really good pool player. It is not 10 000 hours of practice that will make you great, it is the PERFECT practice in which you constantly challenge yourself and your assumptions, learn and 
re-learn, that will lead to mastery. A lot of research shows that the way you THINK about learning is VERY important for the end result…so let us look at the 4 stages of learning for monoski.

It is not 10 000 hours of practice that will make you great,
it is the
PERFECT practice in which you constantly challenge yourself
and your assumptions, learn and re-learn, that will lead to mastery


The 4 stages of learning for monoski.

There are no RULES in monoski!

But at the same time there are some basic principles that if you do not understand them or work against them, you will have a hard time progressing to mastery.

In the learning model we distinguish
competence, when you can do something, and incompetence, when you can not. Then this knowledge is either conscious (you are well aware of what you know and do not know) or subconscious (like “under the surface”, you have already learnt it, but forgot that you actually had to learn it) or unconscious, which basically means that you are unaware of not knowing. 

When you arrive at 110% feeling you are in the quadrant subconscious - competence: ”you can monoski without thinking and can enjoy every sense in the situation, you are relaxed and your breathing is natural and the brain is ”empty” and your whole body is in ”flow”. This is the state of ”esprit de glisse”! You are one with the snow, the ski and the gravitational pull and you are not ”fighting the ski” but riding along in perfect harmony with the elements and the tools.
Have I ever been there? Probably not, as I am thinking too much and because I spend a lot of time trying to understand things in my profession, I have a hard time letting go. But my goal is to forget everything and let the muscle memory be my only guide.


The interesting thing happens when you have experienced (or you are very close to) mastery in a specific situation with a specific set of tools. For example, you are sooo good in powder on your pintail that you have used soo many hours since 1983. Then you buy a carving monoski and start to use it in the pist. Per definition the change is so big that you have to get back to ”the drawing board”, re-learn the parts, the new set of tips & trix, the new behaviour and tap into the ”soul” of the new ski. You basically have to be humble enough to be in the state ”Conscious - Incompetence”, trying out new techniques and testing the limits of the new environment and tools. Then you have to focus on the new details and practice a new behaviour so it becomes second nature and a new habit, reprogramming the muscles to NOT use pintail behaviour when riding a carving ski.


1: the re-learn from Mastery (Subconscious-Competence) to “beginner”  (Conscious-Incompetence)
2: the understanding of new concepts to starting to control them more and mor in practice
3: finding that the practice is not optimal – go back to “the parts” and re-think!
4: the perfect practice leads to mastery …again!

Being a true master is also to be able to have a ”beginners mind” to see things with new eyes, to re-learn and to practice again like being a ”beginner”. Of course this can take less than an hour if you are a real master. Sadly some people who are masters in one specific domain do not want to re-learn and rather continue with old habits on new and in different situations or avoid the new situations all together. A master in pist carving can be like a beginner in off-pist powder, and vice versa.
It is not that one is better than the other, it is just different domains!
In a way the ”Master Master” could be defined as a master that has re-educated and re-learnt every new situation and tool and can adapt to all changes in an instant without thinking.

Another situation that is very common for quality athletes and riders is change after an accident.If you brake a leg and go through rehab and have to get back on track and maybe adjust to a "new body" ...your "curious mind" has to figure it out all over again (yes..it is faster this time than the first round of learning ...but NOT re-learning when the context is changing is ...."stupid" ... or nicer said: "not optimal") 







and a longer MonoSki clip with my MonoSki friends