Lesson
Cognitive Phase - What to Expect
– The beginning phase of skill learning
– A player’s focus is on gaining understanding of how skill is to be performed
– The coach describes the skill’s key elements, and provides demonstrations, films,
charts, other visual cues to help learners “picture” the new skill
– Player begins to develop a motor program (an abstract internal representation)
that skill
– Initially the program is very crude, with minimum detail, a “ball park” response
– Program revised and refined with practice and feedback from player’s sensory
systems and from coach
– Conscious attention is directed towards movement details, player does not focus
on external details such as wind condition, lie of golf ball
– Movements lack synchronization, are very deliberate and also inconsistent
– Player cannot determine exact cause of error
– Vision is the dominant sensory system