Why developing skills matters.
One of the guiding beliefs behind Hiveclass is that developing skills in an activity makes it more likely for someone to engage in it. Having skills leads to better performance and fewer frustrations, which boosts confidence and enjoyment, encouraging continued participation.
What is a skill?
A skill is the ability to do something that supports a broader activity or endeavor—ideally, the ability to do it well. And, importantly, what it means to “do something well” varies depending on the activity.
In sports and other physical activities, having a skill generally means harnessing the ability to perform an action in a way that achieves the desired outcome while ensuring that the person performing it remains safe, healthy, and injury-free.
What makes skills valuable?
The obvious answer to this question is that skills allow you to perform actions effectively and safely. For example, in a sport like pickleball, you need the skill to properly grip and handle the paddle, understand the direction and force required to hit the ball, and adopt the correct foot positioning—all without straining a muscle, of course. But there’s a more broadly impactful reason why skills are valuable: they empower you. Skills give you the tools and confidence to participate in the first place, making it possible to reap the many benefits of sports and other physical activities.
Knowledge ≠ skills
Knowing how to play a game—the rules and objectives—is different from actually knowing how to play it—the skills required. This distinction separates the spectator from the participant. In today’s world, it’s relatively easy to acquire knowledge. A quick search online will give you the facts you need to be an engaged spectator. But to be an active participant, you need skills, and skills aren’t as easily acquired. They require practice, teaching, learning and time. That’s why skills are so special.
Take brain surgeons as an extreme example. They need to be experts in the theoretical aspects of how the brain works in order to fix it. But just as important are the hands-on skills—precise instrument handling, suturing and even knowing how to wash their hands properly during a scrub-in to limit the risk of introducing bacteria. Knowledge is essential, but so are skills. The same is true in physical activity, fitness and sports. And just like having skills in brain surgery makes a person much more likely to do surgeries, being skilled in sports and other physical activities makes a person more likely to engage in them.
The role of skills in developing an active lifestyle
Acquiring skills is a key factor in getting young people to engage in sports. Or a person of any age, really! When they possess foundational skills, they have the chops to participate. Think about it: it’s tough to join a pickup basketball game if you don’t know how to dribble, shoot or pass. Sure, with enough time and practice, you’d get there, but it takes a lot of guts to jump into a game without basic skills.
Having foundational skills makes it easier to start, continue and maintain an active lifestyle. Skills give you the confidence to begin, keep going, to improve and to stay engaged.
At Hiveclass, our goal is to remind people—and encourage them—to keep learning and growing. Research shows that the human brain loses some of its plasticity, or its ability to easily form new neural connections, as people mature. However, with practice, neuroplasticity continues throughout life, enabling ongoing learning and adaptation. To that end, Hiveclass is the place you can visit when you want to learn new skills and concepts.
Hiveclass videos aren’t like the workout videos you typically find online. Those videos instruct you through a complete workout, encouraging you to copy the movements and return to the video when you want to workout again. At Hiveclass, our ultimate goal is for you to return to the activity, not return to the video. Instead of promoting reliance on videos, Hiveclass promotes reliance on skills and your innate ability to develop them. We believe that teaching our audience to build skills empowers them to take what they’ve learned and apply it on their own, making their fitness journey self-fulfilling. When a person has skills, getting active is repeatable, scalable and far more enduring than a one-time workout experience. You can take a skill and run with it, so to speak.
This is the incredible value of skill-based learning: it lasts a lifetime.