The Illusion of Learning

Most of us were taught that learning is about:

• Receiving clear instructions
• Watching demonstrations
• Repeating skills over and over until they become automatic

Sound familiar? That’s because it mirrors how most of us were educated in school. But here’s the problem: that model of learning comes from Taylorism—a system designed not to develop thinkers, but to produce obedient workers for factories.

Taylorism: The Roots of Traditional Coaching

The British schooling system was built to instill conformity, obedience, and repetition. Learning meant listening to an authority figure, breaking complex skills into parts, and repeating them until they became second nature. The assumption? The human body is a machine. If something isn’t working, just swap out the part and reprogram it.

Coaching adopted this mindset. It gave us basket feeding, biomechanical models, isolated drills, and the belief that more reps = more learning.

Why That Doesn’t Work

The Human System Isn’t a Machine

Unlike machines, human beings:

• Are dynamic and adaptive
• Have infinite movement options (degrees of freedom)
• Learn through real-time interaction with the environment

Your players are not blank slates or programmable robots. They’re self-organising systems constantly solving problems based on what they see, hear, feel, and experience.

Learning Is Messy

Real learning:

• Involves mistakes, frustration, and failure
• Emerges through interaction, not instruction
• Can’t be seen immediately in a polished, “perfect” swing

If a beginner serves and misses, they’re already learning. Their system is calibrating. Errors are not failures—they are feedback.

But what do most coaches do? They interrupt the process. They jump in with technical fixes, show a perfect model, or revert to basket feeding. Why? Because that feels more comfortable and controllable.

“We mistake performance for learning—and confusion for failure.”

Performance-Looking Practice: A Dangerous Trap

Repetition works in a closed, sterile setting. You can make a player look good in 15 minutes of isolated forehands. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to use it in a match.

Why? Because every shot in tennis is different.

• The ball is never the same
• The position is never the same
• The intention is never the same

Two forehands are never identical.

So when you train the “perfect” one in isolation, it doesn’t transfer.

What Does Real Learning Look Like?

Let’s say two beginners walk onto a court. They’ve never played tennis before. Can they learn to play the game without a coach? Absolutely.

The Environment Teaches Them:

• The net invites hitting over, not through
• The lines invite keeping the ball in
• The racket invites gripping the handle, not the strings

The environment itself is full of affordances—invitations for action.

They hit, they miss, they adapt. They don’t need explicit instruction to begin learning. They need interaction.

So, What Is the Coach’s Role?

The coach’s job isn’t to fix. It’s to:

• Design representative learning environments
• Highlight relevant affordances
• Encourage exploration and adaptation

“I don’t fix technique—I set problems. Then I help players find solutions.”

That’s what Ecological Dynamics and the Constraints-Led Approach are all about.

Unlearning Taylorism: The Coach’s Dilemma

Even when coaches understand all this, they often fall back on old habits:

• Parents expect visible improvement
• Other coaches expect structure and control
• Coach education still pushes outdated models

But here’s the truth: Learning doesn’t always look good.

• It’s not smooth
• It’s not silent
• It’s not error-free

If it looks too perfect, it’s probably not learning.

Your Players Aren’t Broken—They’re Learning

If a player is missing serves, making mistakes, or struggling, don’t assume something is wrong. They might be learning better than ever.

What do they need?

• Time
• Space
• A safe place to be uncomfortable

And what do you need as a coach?

• Patience
• Restraint
• A mindset shift away from fixing toward guiding

Final Thoughts: Learning Is Being Uncomfortable

In the past five years, I’ve completely rethought what learning is. I used to believe in technical checklists and performance blocks. I now believe in:

• Representative learning design
• Repetition without repetition
• Coaching behaviour, not mechanics

My players are more adaptable. I’m a calmer, more observant coach. And above all, they’re learning to play tennis, not just perform it.

Ready to Coach Differently?

If you’re ready to step away from illusion and coach in a way that aligns with how humans actually learn—

🎾 Check out my From Drills to Skills course. It’s full of practical ways to deliver constraint-led coaching in real sessions.

👉 Click here to learn more and join

And don’t forget to subscribe for next week’s podcast, where we’ll explore why beginners move like robots—and how to unlock real coordination.

#TennisCoaching #EcologicalDynamics #ConstraintsLedApproach #SkillAcquisition #PlayerDevelopment #LearningScience