things you need to improve on. The latter could be your assessment skills, an aspect of your technique or note taking. Straight away you have identified three possible needs. If you are feeling really brave, get your client to fill in a feedback sheet asking the same question: What three things do you think I did well today and what three things would you have liked me to do differently? If you don’t want to do it with a live client, try it on a relative or friend, or have a mutual treatment exchange with a colleague. You might be surprised at the results. Another idea is to jot down any

questions you are asked in the course of your normal working day and to think about your answers. When your client asked you whether massage could get rid of her cellulite or whether doing a thousand sit-ups a day would give her a six-pack, were your answers really the right ones? Do you have any evidence to back up your answers? I should make the point here that the whole process, from needs analysis, through reflective thought, to putting learning into practice, only works if you are totally honest with yourself. If you want to be really ambitious

you could try “career mapping” (3). Ask yourself where you want to be in 1, 3, 5 or 10 years. What skills, abilities, qualifications and experience do you need to be there? From that point work backwards, planning how you are going to achieve what you need.

SO WHERE DO I FIND A COURSE TO GIVE ME WHAT I NEED? Forget courses! Ok don’t forget courses because they are valuable experiences – and the course providers would lynch me for saying such a thing! However, courses are just one of many sources of CPD and they may not always be the best option for you, depending on your budget, your available time and what it is you have identified as your particular need. The cone of learning (Fig. 2) shows how much knowledge you retain – depending on how information was delivered. This model often contains lots of detail, like particular learning styles and percentages (actually putting numbers to the concept is controversial), but the essence of what it is saying is true. You retain the least amount of knowledge after reading, hearing or

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seeing something, more by talking about it to someone else, and the most by going and doing it for real (4). This is the essence of CPD today. It’s not the hours you spend listening to someone else or reading this article. That is just the foundation. It’s the application of that learning – actually putting what you have learned into practice. This model couldn’t be better for those of you who work directly, hands-on, with clients. You are developing as a professional simply by doing your job. Clearly you don’t have to get

hands-on experience from courses, even though courses are good for being shown new skills. If you are considering one, ask yourself whether it is practical. How much is hands- on, and how much is delivered in lectures? Courses are expensive and time-consuming and you should quiz the providers to make sure that it is the right one for you. And before I get lynched by a course provider, I should say in my defence that I too run courses and, yes, potential candidates for the course do ask detailed questions about the content – which can be a pain, but I’d rather have someone on my course who fits my target audience than someone

HOW MUCH KNOWLEDGE YOU RETAIN

n least: reading, hearing or seeing something

{

n more: talking about it to someone else or experiencing it visually

n most: doing it i.e. the application of that learning/ putting it into practice

{ {

Figure 2: Cone of learning

who isn’t getting out of it what they expected (and therefore is a distraction to me and the other participants). The best advertising a course provider can get is word of mouth so you definitely want “happy campers”. To find a course that is good for

you, speak to your colleagues and ask them which they have done recently. Check your industry web sites and trade magazines and, of course, hit the web search engines. But remember – it is what you do after the course that counts. This is why organisations such as the Sports Massage Association insist that candidates for membership complete a log of treatments after their massage course. It consolidates what was learned on the course.

WHERE DO I GET MY CPD FROM THEN? From anywhere and everywhere! Box 2 is adapted from a list provided by the CSP (5). They suggest formal routes, such as courses and seminars, which are what most people think about when considering CPD (and when given due reflection they are excellent sources) but just look at the informal list. This includes anything from analysing an incident, learning

LOW

PASSIVE LEARNING

READING

HEARING WORDS

LOOKING AT PICTURES

WATCHING A MOVIE LOOKING AT EXHIBITS

WATCHING A DEMONSTRATION

SEEING SOMETHING DONE ON LOCATION

PARTICIPATING IN A DISCUSSION GIVING A TALK

DOING A DRAMATIC PRESENTATION SIMULATING THE EXPERIENCE DOING THE REAL THING

LEARNING ACTIVE HIGH RETENTION sportEX dynamics 2010;23(Jan):14-18 VERBAL RETENTION