After a recent set of clinics, my top Coach-in-Training, Ernest Johnson, from D.C. and I were talking about the value of Feedback. I’ve been taught by my mentors that physical learning occurs from in-the-moment “awareness of experience” much more than from being told what to do or reading about it or even seeing it. When you can FEEL something, like the difference between a tight wrist and hand and a relaxed wrist and hand, that feeling (experience) will teach you about wrist-hand tension and how effective or ineffective it is. The “idea or concept” of something is superseded by the “experience” of it, and a much deeper learning can occur. As we were talking about feedback, Ernest got into one of his frequent crazy and spontaneous moments and started yelling into the phone, “Feed me, Feed me, Feed me, I’m hungry, Feed me, I need feedback!” That gave me the idea of an “Awareness Monster” needing to be “fed” with feedback. It’s like the Cookie Monster demanding cookies, this vision of a wild and crazy pretend monster that is after us to be fed. “Me want Feedback!!!” I think this analogy will be fun for kids: Feed the Awareness Monster!