https://www.rifton.com/resources/webinars/2018/progressive-gait-training

Also interesting: https://gmb.io/motor-learning/

Vocab

• Discrete Skills - skills with a beginning and end - e.g. going from sitting to standing
• Complex Skills - skills that combine many discrete skills - e.g. getting out of bed
• Continuous Skills - skills that have no defined beginning or end - e.g. walking through a crowded cafeteria
• Massed Practice - Practicing different skills for a long period of time without rest
• Distributive Practice - Practicing different skills for short periods interspersed by rest
• Variability - Differing the action, environment, difficulty, etc of practice
• Block Practice - Practicing the same skill for a long period of time without rest
• Random Practice - Practicing the same skill for short periods interspersed by rest
• Contextual Interference - Essentially the components of variability
• Part-Whole Practice - Practicing a task by either breaking it down into parts and practicing those parts individually, or by practicing the whole task as one
• Feedback - Intrinsic or extrinsic, guides a learner on whether or not their execution of a task falls within the bounds that determine success

Notes

• Stages of learning
  • Acquiring - inaccurate, slow, conscious effort
  • Fluency - precise, fast, effortless, automatic
  • Generalizing/Adapting - Taking the skill you know and applying it in new situations
• Skills
  • Discrete - clear beginning and end - e.g. sitting to standing
  • Complex - group of discrete skills
  • Continuous - no recognizable beginning or end
• Environmental context
  • Predictable environment
  • Unpredictable environment
• Feedback
  • Full physical assistance
  • Partial physical assistance
  • Tactile cue
  • Modeling
  • Direct verbal
  • Indirect verbal
  • Gesture
  • Independent
• Practice
  • What is practiced?
    • Specificity - practicing the specific movement or action is the thing that produces better outcomes - practicing related movements does not tend to produce better outcomes
      • "Gait practice improves gait speed. Strength training does not."
    • Salience
      • The importance/relevance to the person. Why are we practicing? Motivation.
  • When is it practiced?
    • Frequency (how much, how often?)
      • Lots of practice!
      • Practice should be time-distributed and variable in their context and regimen
    • Practice scheduling
      • Massed Practice - Practice the skill in one big block
      • Distributed Practice - Practice the skill and space it out between periods of rest. Requires more total time.
      • For discrete tasks (i.e. tasks with a clear beginning and end), the difference in outcomes between massed and distributed practice is not clear. Massed practice may be better for discrete tasks.
      • Distributed practice is probably better for complex or continuous tasks.
  • How is it practiced?
    • Variability - task variation, environment variation.
      • Constant practice - not variable e.g. taking steps on a treadmill
      • Blocked practice - drill one skill for many repetitions (before practicing another). This is most useful during the Acquisition stage of learning.
      • Random practice - randomly alternate between different skills during practice. This is most useful during the Retention/Transfer stage of learning.
      • Variable practice improves transfer of learning - performance in a new situation is better.
      • Contextual interference - another term for task variability
      • For beginners, less variability is appropriate. For highly skilled individuals, more variability is appropriate.
    • Difficulty
      • skill, difficulty of task, environment
      • An optimal level of difficulty results in learning.
        • Too easy - no learning
        • Too hard - can't complete task successfully
        • "maximize learning and yet minimize detriment to performance during practice"
        • In order to make progress, you have to be comfortable with effort. The only time you are growing is when you're uncomfortable.
          • "Just manageable difficulty"
          • Goldilocks Rule
    • Part/Whole practice
      • Part - learn parts of motor skill; then integrate to practice whole task
        • Experience early success to increase motivation
        • Focus time on problematic components without wasting time on those already mastered
        • Helpful during early stages
      • Whole - learn entire skill at once
        • Helpful during later stages, is the final goal
      • How to break task down into parts?
        • Segmentation - separate segments to practice, then combine into sequences
        • Fractionalization - separate segments to practice, then combine to practice simultaneously
        • Simplification - reduce level of difficulty of task
  • Transfer appropriate training
    • Taking a skill learned in isolation and bringing it into real life contexts
• Feedback
  • Explicit vs implicit learning
    • Implicit learning does not require a certain age, intelligence, or motor ability.
  • Types of feedback
    • Intrinsic (from your own body) - promotes implicit learning
    • Verbal
    • Modeling
    • Physical guidance
    • Knowledge of performance vs knowledge of results
      • movement pattern characteristics vs outcome of movement
  • Is it better to point out errors or to praise correct performance?
    • In early stages of learning, it is better to point out errors and reduce their incidence
    • praise brings motivation
  • Give feedback about tasks and not about ability
    • e.g. "those kicks were great" vs "you are a great soccer player"
    • focusing on task implies that task is learnable, focusing on ability implies that task is not learnable
  • Giving feedback after every action is detrimental to learning (more so with Adults, more so with simple tasks)
    • Perhaps because this promotes reliance on feedback and discourages ability to detect error intrinsically
    • Delay feedback a few seconds after task is complete so that the learner can 1. think while their doing the task 2. process internal feedback after task is complete
    • After feedback, pause for a bit until next practice attempt. Allows learning to plan future actions.

Applied to drumming

Stages of learning

• Acquiring - inaccurate, slow, conscious effort
• Fluency - precise, fast, effortless, automatic
• Generalizing/Adapting - Taking the skill you know and applying it in new situations

How to learn drumming

Start with a beat or fill. Play it slowly. Break it down into its parts - learn each limb separately. Learn each drum separately. Combine parts.

Initially practice rudiments (e.g. simple movements) in blocks of time where the rudiment is the only thing you're practicing. Remember to take breaks - you can either rest or practice something else during the breaks. Remember to rest eventually - learning happens while you're resting too.

As you're practicing, take time and pay attention to whether or not you're producing the right sounds. If not, try to be intentional and correct that. If you find you can't correct it just by concentrating on the sounds/output you make, concentrate on your movements and the feeling of playing the drums and make sure those are correct before working on the sounds.

If you're looking to learn and improve on the drums, make sure the things you're playing are just manageable in their difficulty.

After you feel like you've learned a particular task, apply it in varied scenarios and contexts. This will help you retain what you've learned.