Soooo Awkward: 5 Tips for Learning a New Skill

One of my summer goals was to learn to tack while foiling. It’s harder than jibing, because you’re fighting all that apparent wind. And I can officially declare success—on one side at least. 

Learning new “tricks” takes longer than it did when I was younger. For one thing, my body is quite asymmetric (which is why so far, I have only mastered tacking from port to starboard). And there’s no actual “need” for this new skill; the big advantage of tacking is to get upwind more efficiently, which isn’t tactically important for the blast-reaching that dominates my wing foiling time.  

But I do want to keep improving, and that means pushing myself beyond the comfort zone. So here are my top five tips for learning later in life, which can be applied to any new skill.

1. Accept But Don’t Give Up

No matter how fit we are, our bodies carry the memories of old injuries. We have to test our boundaries when learning, but it’s also important to be realistic about what our “mature” joints can and can’t do. 

2. Trust Your (Self) Knowledge

I still remember my first attempt at a foiling tack; even before the inevitable crash, I was thinking, “I will never get this.” It felt sooo awkward!

Eventually I realized that the recommended approach just didn’t work for my body, so I tried a different method—and that’s what eventually led to success. 

3. Muscle Memory Matters

It’s easy to overthink new activities, which leaves little brain power for anything else. Building muscle memory helped me “automate” this new skill, freeing up my brain enough to learn from what was working—or not—on each fresh try. 

4. Tack Like Nobody’s Watching

It’s easy to worry about what others think of each failed attempt—or to wish they’d seen the good ones. The reality: everyone else is probably too focused on their own efforts to even notice what we’re doing.  

5. Celebrate the Baby Steps

It takes a lot of repetition (and a lot of mistakes) to build a new skill, so make sure to reward yourself for even tiny signs of progress. And don’t beat yourself up when you inevitably take a step backward; getting better is rarely linear. 

Once I’d mostly mastered port to starboard tacks, I figured tacking from starboard to port would come easily. But the first time I tried, I thought (again), “I will never get this.” It felt sooo awkward! After reminding myself that I felt exactly the same when first trying port to starboard tacks, I gave it another go. And another. I’m not yet consistently succeeding, but I can see a day where all the pieces might just fall into place.

Trying to learn a new skill? Congratulations—it’s not easy, at any age. And the only way to succeed is to get out there and try—even though it feels sooo awkward. Share your achievements (and frustrations) in the comments below, or send me an email; I read every single one, with gratitude.

Thanks for being here, and see you next Thursday!

PS Thanks to Paul for the 360 video that proves my success. For more foiling (and other) info, head over to PaulCroninStudios