In the book The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance, author Timothy Gallwey describes a one-on-one lesson he had once with an adult tennis student. The student was aware of a problem with his serve, as several other teachers had pointed it out to him, and he could describe it in great detail, and what he needed to do to fix it.

So Timothy decided to try a different approach.

He observed the man serve a few times, then, instead of trying to find a new, better way to explain the problem that the student already knew he had, he simply instructed him to practice his serve in front of a large window that functioned as a mirror. Almost instantly, the student recognized the problem in his own serve—he saw it with his own eyes for the first time—and made the necessary corrections to relax his arm.

The man thanked Timothy profusely and told him that he had taught him more than all the other teachers he had had in the past. But Timothy said, “What did I actually teach you?” The man was quiet for a few seconds as he thought and he said, “Well I guess I don’t really know! But you helped me so much. In 15 minutes, you made more of an impact than the hours of private lessons I’ve had.”

There’s a difference between facilitating and teaching; that's what we're going to talk about today.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance (Timothy Gallwey)

“Piano Class for the Real World”: Exploring Experiential Learning with a Collaborative Inquiry Group in a Creative Musicianship Lab (Ashley Danyew)

“Bridging the gap: Informal learning practices as a pedagogy of integration” (Heloisa Feichas)

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