Network Learning: Experiencing the Trials of Virtual Self-Instruction

I finally decided on learning how to hit my driver straight on the golf course instead of that nasty slice that causes me to lose so many balls. I stopped using it since the risk is far too great to justify the rare reward whenever I accidentally hit it decently. My challenge was to strictly use digital instruction to achieve this. It was tough, and I had no idea where to start looking. The first drawback was lacking professional insight into my problem. I had a hard time finding helpful media because I had no direction on what specific issue I was trying to fix.

After spending this week scrolling through a plethora of blogs and YouTube videos, I finally stumbled upon Danny Maude’s Perfect Golf Swing Takeaway Drill for Driver video on YouTube. It was the strangest feeling, but for some reason, everything he was saying sounded like it was in a language specifically for me to understand. Perhaps my issue originated as soon as I started to move my club to start my backswing. I was excited to see this one tip change everything, resulting in the clip below.

Slice.

Shifting my thinking towards the classroom, my students missed out on important educational foundations due to COVID-19, an event out of their control. Much like Winner's (1980) issue with bridges purposefully built low to prevent bus access to the nicer parts of town, many students avoid applying a concept because they aren’t confident in the result and feel stuck when they can't do it. This avoidance is a similar behavior with my driver, where my lack of confidence keeps me from using my best tools. We are unable to access our full repertoire of skills if we do not have the proper training to do so.

References:

Banko, N. (2023, June 1). Driver swing [Video].

Maude, D. (2019, June 8). Perfect golf swing takeaway drill for driver . [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Numn-6xuEw&list=PLShAmcMviU8TEnhpsNofWhylMUp-o4sgF&index=1&t=508s

Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121-136.https://www.jstor.org/stable/20024652