By Dr. Donald L. Green, 21 May 2022
A common issue in coaching an introductory and novice rider course is the desire to over-help (over-coach) a student by providing too much information to a learning sequence or task; this is known as a Type I Coaching error (MSF, 2016). Typically, each exercise has one, maybe two, primary learning objectives for a student to focus on, especially during the early stages of learning. Coaches who do not fully appreciate the primary objectives and rationales of range and classroom activities may add different or more complex instructions, causing brain overload in the student. Recent questions in Tribe Talk© and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s © vRETS© workshops for coaches have fostered some thoughts on Brain Overload, also known as mental or Cognitive Overload (an MSF Rider Subtask) in the cognitive psychology field.
Learning a new skill (skill acquisition) requires practice, yet the practice method is maybe the most misunderstood part of motor skill development (Schmidt & Lee, 2014). There is no easy way to forego practice. It takes time and commitment to accomplish, but more importantly, the method must start slow and specific, be effective, and be guided efficiently to be meaningful and stored in long-term memory. In the case of motorcycle rider education practice, it must also be safely executed, reducing the risk for potential injury. Simply- Brain Overload can make learning less effective.
Brain Overload can lead the student to focus on the wrong learning objective, decrease the practice on the specified task, confuse a novice student more, or potentially decrease the level of end performance quality. A crucial aspect is to allow students some experimentation (rehearsal) of the task with the ability to make mistakes, create knowledge, and, eventually, automate the motor skill before adding other objectives. A RiderCoach who knows the exercise objective (task) and rationale will better distinguish the primary focus by not adding more complication to the task or objective. RiderCoaches essential decrease brain overload for the student if they follow the researched and tested curriculum structure.
The ideas above reiterate the absolute need to stick with the rider education curriculum’s researched, tested, and validated structure to reduce potential brain overload. All too often, coaches necessarily flex to accommodate the individual student’s needs only to continue off-course for every student. Deviations like this should remain the exception based on good RiderCoach judgment for the needs of individual students. Those who then subvert the curriculum by applying flexibility to every student after that could be hurting students more than helping. Overloading a student with extraneous tasks or too much information can decrease the overall retention of knowledge and confuse the learning of a series of unique procedures or schema.
The differences in novice students require a coach to be able to connect through the Safety, Adult Learning, and Motor Skill (SAM) variables to manage successful student learning and retention. With a limited time for students to develop the perception, judgment, and motor skills to ride a motorcycle, RiderCoaches need to trust in the process of the curriculum. The introductory riding course is a novice-level learning event that works best without brain overload.
References
Atkinson, R.C. & Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In Spence, K.W. & Spence, J.T. The psychology of learning and motivation, (Volume 2), (pp. 89–195). New York: Academic Press.
Motorcycle Safety Foundation (2016). The MSF basic ridercourse – ridercoach guide. Irvine, CA: Author.
Schmidt, R. A., & Lee, T.D. (2014). Motor learning and performance (5th Ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
