Learning Style:
Introduction Auditory Visual
Kinesthetic Sequential Summary
Visual Learners
The majority of individuals are visual processors that learn by seeing. These learners need to see the teacher's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson. They tend to prefer standing in the front of the team to avoid visual obstructions. They may think in pictures and learn best from visual displays.
Common phrases used are:
- I can not quite picture it
- I never forget a face
Common actions used are:
- Love drawing, scribbling and doodling
- Incorporate much imagery into their vocalization
Coaching visual learners:
Visual learning is the most common learning style and should be incorporated into all coaching activities. These learners need to see the coach's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a message. They tend to prefer standing in the front of the circle to avoid visual obstructions (e.g. people's heads).
As mentioned in the auditory learning style, after describing the technique for primary and secondary lead offs, you want someone to demonstrate the technique. The demonstrator can be either an auditory learning player or a coach. For visual learners, the value is seeing the action. If the demonstrator is partially correct, enhance the learning by offering constructive feedback and having him try it again. If after a couple of demonstration attempts you still are not satisfied, then the instructing coach will need to do the demonstration.
I experienced a unique variation of teaching visual learners from a local soccer coach. He would hold parents versus kids scrimmage. The goal of the scrimmage was to get the parents involved and have some fun, but it created a unique opportunity to teach visual learners. He realized that a young athlete would pay "special" attention to how their parent played. After the scrimmage, without the parents around, he would ask the players to constructively critique the parent’s performance. This allowed the players to depersonalize the feedback and learn from their parent's actions.
Next is kinesthetic learning style.
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