A few days ago I talked about breaking old habits and how the brain produces a substance called Myelin. Myelin is simply put an insulation that wraps around a series of neurons that are linked together to cause a movement. The more times you perform that movement, the more thickly insulated this chain of nerves becomes. The better the insulation, the more instinctive the movement becomes. Myelin does not go away except in the cases of disease or old age which is why we concluded last time that you do not break old habits, you create new ones instead.
This time I wanted to discuss teaching an “old dog new tricks.” This can be a little more difficult if the dog, aka, golfer is truly old. The rate at which the body creates myelin decreases as we get older.
“In children, myelin arrives in a series of waves, some of them determined by genes, some dependent on activity. The waves last into our thirties, creating critical periods during which time the brain is extraordinarily receptive to learning new skills. Thereafter we experience a net gain of myelin until the age of 50 when the balance turns towards a loss.” Daniel Coyle; The Talent Code
Throughout our entire life we continue to make myelin, it is however faster to learn a motor skill at a young age as opposed to an advanced age. This may not shock you.
Can an old dog learn a new trick? Absolutely! When it comes to golf and golf instruction, it might be best to work on improving particular skills rather than trying to overhaul your entire swing to look like Tiger Woods, but we can improve.
If you find this an interesting topic, the myelination of nerve fibers, the process of learning; pick up Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code. Or go to thetalentcode.com. Both are great resources on how we learn, how our children learn and how as parents and coaches, we can be doing a better job.