These challenges or interferences to reaching and performing at your potential can come in many forms.  One such interference that I became very aware of three years ago presented itself when I went skiing for the first time.  If you have ever skied you will know only to well the interference of which I talk.  FEAR!!!  Faced with an edge with what looked like a shear drop on the other side I experienced a great deal of interference.  Standing at this edge even the basics of balance and coordination were not as they once seemed.  Fear was definitely interfering with my ability to move accurately or even at all.

So how did I progress?  How did I overcome this paralysing fear which seemed to make any movement impossible?  I modified the challenge to one which seemed easier and eased my fear.  I didn’t ski, I skidded.  I skidded on my skis for a brief second or two and then stopped, using not the tried and tested method known as the, ‘snow plough’ which I couldn’t do, but the tried and tested method of flinging myself to the floor before my pace became too speedy.  Perhaps my method was not exactly an orthodox learning strategy for skiing, it was effective  nonetheless.  Skidding and falling was not that comfortable, but it was bearable as it turned out that the previously mentioned, ‘shear drop’ was in fact the slight slope of a nursery run.  After making this start, with my skid / fall technique and continuing to practise, I learned to fall more easily and more accurately.  I realised I was managing to do this by shifting my weight and turning.  So with this reduced fear, a lesson had been learned; shift the body weight to turn.  As I practised more, the turn and fall turned into a sharp turn and stop. With further practise, the length of my efforts between stops became longer, speeds increased and stopping and remaining upright became more and more certain.  As I stopped more easily so my fear continued to become less.  This complex skill of skiing started to become progressively simpler.  Performance improved until I was ready for greater things.  A ‘Green’ (easy) run.  I was heading towards steeper slopes, new fears and more lessons from that great teacher, experience.

In the world of coaching, this approach of simplifying the challenge (from skiing to skid / fall) and then gradually increasing the complexity as performance improves is known as, ‘Shaping’.  Let’s take the event of hurdling.  A common experience that many athletes will have had starts with a phrase, spoken by a well meaning coach along the lines of, “Why don’t you have a go?  See if you can get over those hurdles”.  Many young athletes have then set off with great gusto only to come clattering down to the floor after hitting the first hurdle.  If there wasn’t fear before, there certainly was afterwards.  Maybe so much so that that young athlete never tried hurdles again or soon left athletics altogether.  Could this have been managed differently?  By ‘Shaping’, the whole skill of hurdling could have been made easier, less fear and more learning could have taken place.  Shaping an athletics skill and thus making it easier just like my skiing, involves doing the skill with less speed, less height, less distance or less weight.  Shaping hurdling can be achieved by lowering the height of the hurdles.  However often this is still too high for the novice hurdler.  Using just the lines on the track to stride over could be a starting point from which progress can be quickly made.  Progressing this learning experience can be achieved by gradually raising the height of the barriers.  If the barriers are also light and soft the interference of fear can be reduced further still as should there be a collision, it will not be painful or damaging to your athlete. 

So in conclusion, ‘shaping’ a skill is practising the whole skill but making that whole skill easier in some way.

So help your athletes overcome their fears, reduce their interference and increase their learning.  Give them the opportunities to get closer to their potential.  If your athlete finds an activity difficult, use the learning method of, ‘Shaping’.