Skill acquisition problem

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I’ve noticed various parts of the following over the years since being diagnosed with AS, but it really only came together about a week ago, and I need some opinions.

I have always been very good at learning the initial stages of anything, but at some point along the line, it just doesn’t work for some reason. In sports, I look like I do things well, but the results are bad (if you watched me hit a tennis ball, you’d think I was pretty good, until you saw where the ball went, same with martial arts, the teachers all think I’m going to be really good, but then I get pushed around by people who don’t look nearly as good as I do). I have had similar experiences with school, where I would not really get something, like a piece of literature, but then when a discussion started, I could be part of the conversation by extrapolating from what others were saying, so I could get away with it.

So last week, while contemplating this and making myself miserable, I came up with a model for learning. It has at least three stages, but since I feel like I never get to the second stage, I didn’t bother contemplating advanced stages.

Stage #1: beginning, in which you learn unconnected things, like how to hold the tennis racquet, footwork, etc.; or, say, in language, basic rules and vocabulary.
Stage #2: intermediate, in which you start to put these basic building blocks together, maybe by rote learning of rules, like when to take the racquet back, how to swing when you want to go to a particular spot on the court; or in language, memorized sample sentences.
Stage #3 and beyond: ? Maybe creatively mixing things up, or getting into a flow, or something. Still working on this part.

I hope that’s clear enough. The weird part is that I seem like I should be a good tennis player (verified by observers who would have no reason to lie to me), but when it comes to playing, it just doesn’t work (there are a couple of other sports I’ve had the same experience with). I’ve had similar experiences with other things, like intellectual pursuits, where it seems like I’m learning everything well, but then it doesn’t come together.

My two questions:

Has anyone else here had this kind of experience, where you feel like you have all the pieces, but they don’t work together like for other people?

Does this sound like an AS symptom, or should I be thinking it’s caused by something else?

Thanks for your input.

Since you are having trouble getting to stage 2 from stage 1, I suggest that you skip stage 2 and go from stage 1 to stage 3. Using the basics that you learned well in stage 1, you can try going directly to creative project of stage 3, and the process of trying to do the project may help you fill in stage 2. I am pretty sure that I do this, because I want to learn skills to do something interesting instead of drudgery of stage 2. This probably wouldn't work for sports, but it is worth a try for intellectual pursuits, I think.

I think everyone has their own slightly different way to learn although I'm pretty sure I've heard of them being grouped into 3 or 4 categories. You need to find out what works for you, and then also find a way to communicate that to anyone who wants you to do something new.

I like to learn from base principals, and rote learning is totally useless to me (so i'd be skipping your step 2 as well). For things like sports and playing musical instruments, I have found that it requires a certain amount of practice to just find what is comfortable to me (and build muscle memory).

Good luck with finding what works for you, and don't forget to try new ways sometimes because you might not know what will work until you actually try it.
Maz

If I understand you correctly, then I have the same, or a similar, problem. It seemed like I could learn and understand anything, even "advanced" college-level subjects at a young age. But it was only as long as each component, formula, rule, and application was explicitly and exhaustively taught. In classes where the rules are flexible or subjective (such as interpreting poetry), or when the professors made the students responsible for somehow just "knowing" all "real-world" applications (such as applied mathematics), I couldn't pass.

I would get perfect grades until the final exam, when I was supposed to apply each and every component I had learned throughout the year together to solve a "real-world" problem, but the teacher had only taught each component separately, not how to apply all of the rules together. I can't seem to integrate the knowledge myself; each component stays compartmentalized. I also can't seem to view the knowledge from a practical "real-world" point of view.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

"I am silently correcting your grammar."

This is a real tough one because I don't think breaking down the task into stages is going to work.

I had intensive one on one coaching in tennis as a child. I was technically as good as anyone on a tennis court. I won several junior tournaments and had my name written up in in the local papers as a future star. My major advantage as a player was being able to run my opponent off their feet and break through the pain barrier in going longer and harder than my opponent. As I got older, I started to encounter opponents who were just as hard and athelic on their feet as me and who could stay with me on the court. I found I couldn't mentally keep up with them and at some point my concentration would break and my game would fall apart. When I lost I would storm off the court, argue with my coach and do physical damage with my tennis racket. Eventually, I gave tennis away, only to return to it in my twenties when I played in church competitions as a social activity for fun.

I think you need to find an activity that you love doing, where there is little pressure on you to succeed and where your only opponent is yourself. When you discover that activity, you will find you encounter a barrier, where you will find it difficult to get to the next level. The challenge then is keep trying until you succeed. That will require concentration and dedication and hard work to the task, but the reward in succeeding in that task, is the satisfaction you get from your success.

Thanks everyone for your input. And definitely thanks for your advice (it does seem solid, but it was not what I was going for).

Thanks, Knofskia, you understood my intention perfectly, and I think you and I have the same issue with integration of knowledge and/or procedures.

I was unclear about something: I did not intend this proposed learning model to be a plan for me to learn something, I intended it to be a description of how anyone learns anything, and therefore that these steps are a law of cognition, and cannot be circumvented. That's why I left it so vague, so that any set of skills could be seen this way: learn initial chunks; start putting them together; something more advanced that I can't even see from where I am.

I'm concerned that it's an inherent part of my AS, and that I'm forever doomed to be stuck at this beginner kind of level, and was wondering if others had the same experience, and if people around here see this as a symptom of AS, and not just some other kind of psychological weirdness that I can blame on my parents

Again, thanks.

I don't think it is due to autism, as many autistic people have mastered topics that they pursued intellectually, so this is unlikely to be generalizable to most autistic people or be core trait of autism. I think that your problems in this area can be circumvented with different approaches.

I mean this in the nicest possible way:

It sounds like lack of application on your behalf. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do in life, or what level you're at - everyone will always hit hurdles.

Key is breaking through the barriers - which are mental.

If you don't, you'll quit with everything you do at the same point of commitment (i.e when the 'honeymoon' phase is over) - the problem with every activity will be the commitment. If you break this barrier, you'll be able to apply this new level of commitment to everything you do.

Whatever you put into something, you'll get out of it. If we could all hit the track and run like an Olympic athlete first-time, the activity itself would become meaningless.

I'm not saying you're making excuses, but over-analysing something is a common diversionary tactic for apathy.

I do many things by "instinct," or by the use of "muscle memory."

Were I to "analyze" each component of me typing this, I would experience difficulty getting a "word in edgewise" within this reply.

In other words, just "let it flow, baby!"

Don't know if this is related, but I get this problem with understanding a subject - I often feel I don't know it yet, but if I'm asked questions and get talking about it, it becomes clear that I've absorbed it pretty well. It's just that I somehow can't see the stuff I've learned as any kind of organised, integrated whole, it's more like a list of unconnected small concepts, and I can't recall most of them unless I'm given the right questions, so it feels like I don't know much about the subject.

I've no experience in trying to be good at sports, I've only noticed this problem with theoretical learning.

That's how people learn....by asking questions--even to themselves!

It often takes a lot of time to acquire skills--for things like tennis it may take years--we can't all be prodigies.

A simple example might be darts--you might start by hitting the bulls eye in the center of the board. Then you learn to hit other targets. Finally, you start playing games that involve math--a common one requires you to end the game on a double--if you had 36 points left you need to hit the double-18. Being able to do the math AND throw the darts is a bit harder than just hitting bulls eyes. Some folks memorize "out tables" for the last 100 or so points in which the smart guys have figured out the best exit strategy.

Often, there really isn't an integrated whole to be learned--I just accept that if you look hard enough--there are all these gaps and areas of missing knowledge that nobody really knows the answer to--because nobody has the time and and money to find or figure it out.