What I learned about learning by learning to roller skate
A bit less than a year ago, some time in March 2021 I started roller skating (again… after a more than 30-year break). The joy it brought to my life over the last year is immense. It’s been quite a long time ago that an activity captivated me that profoundly. Since rolling up and down the strip on the Tempelhofer Feld (a former airport round the corner from my house) for the first time with skakey legs and not much skill to show, I’ve been going out skating almost every day – waking up in the morning excited to get on my wheels (weather permitting) and practice.
I basically never film myself skating, but here is a little video I made… The first part was filmed at the end of 2021 showing off a few moves I learnt. The second part is a move called ‘Crazy Legs’ that took me about 3 or 4 months to learn (and it’s still not perfect, filmed in February 2022).
Learning something new and practicing consistently
Apart from just making me stupidly happy every time I skate, it has also been a great experience to learn something new pretty much from scratch. And to learn something that doesn’t necessarily come easy to me. It gave me the possibility to remind myself again what it feels like to learn, and to practice and to improve. And I could observe a few interesting things about learning and practicing in general that can be applied to anything learnable – no matter if it is skating or sketching or a completely different topic – and that influence how I teach and how I think about practice.
I was recently invited to talk at an online and share my experience of getting through 2021. Part of that talk were my reflections on learning how to skate and how this translates into my sketching practice and teaching. Here’s the video:
I’m excited to continue my learning process… and I hope so are you :)
Oh, and speaking of learning… the next round of my Pragmatic Sketching Masterclass starts in autumn 2022.
If you would like to be notified when the next round starts, put your name on the waitlist.
The class is for anyone who wants to learn (even from scratch) to draw things in a simple, clear and pragmatic way or who wants to improve their current sketching practice by taking a more detailed view at how to approach sketching things, people, actions, emotions, faces and hands and anything else in a structured but also playful way.
More info about the class: www.evalotta.shop/pragmatic-sketching
Und für alle Deutsch-Sprachigen unter euch: Die erste deutsche Ausgabe der Masterclass started am 15.März 2022.
Infos und Anmeldung hier: www.evalotta.shop/pragmatic-sketching-de
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