24/08/2026
Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
A great day with Team Evolution at Swadlincote.
After a warm-up and a few slalom runs, we were filmed and given specific areas to work on. For the rest of the day, I felt a bit like one of the golfers in my bay. Everything felt slightly uncomfortable as I tried to make changes, some turns were good, some weren’t.
As the day went on, I started to improve. Some runs were better than others and I began linking good turns together. Then the timing gates came out...
Suddenly, I was hopeless! I was overthinking, my timing disappeared, and I struggled to complete the course.
As frustrating as it was, it reminded me of the four stages of learning:
1 Unconscious incompetence
2 Conscious incompetence
3 Conscious competence
4 Unconscious competence
I started the day unaware of what needed improving (stage 1). Once I understood what needed to change, I became consciously incompetent (stage 2). As the day progressed, I started producing some good turns and moved towards conscious competence (stage 3), but I never quite put together a complete run.
When the timing gates appeared, the equivalent of teeing it up in competition, my new skills weren’t yet ingrained enough to hold up under pressure.
So how do we move from conscious incompetence to unconscious competence?
The answer is always the same: purposeful practice.
Whether it’s skiing, golf, or any other skill, improvement comes from consistently working on the right things until they become second nature.
Learning isn’t always comfortable and never a smooth journey, but that’s usually a sign that progress is happening.
