You can have someone show you how to do something and you think you know it.   Depending on what is is, you may only need to see it one time.   With other things, you may have to see it done over and over again until you really know how to do it.  But simply knowing how to and actually doing it are two totally different things.

This can apply to many things: sports, music, swimming, or even playing video games.    Let’s take one of my video driving games and my parents as an example.   I could explain in detail how it works, what the object is, go through all of the buttons on the controller and show them what each one does.   They nod their heads and agree they understand everything.

“Okay, we know how,” they say.  ”Let’s try it.”

I get the game set up for them to play a round.  They each have their controller.  The green light starts but Mom’s car isn’t moving.

“Tell me again which button is for the gas,” my mom says.  Even though I showed her what controls to use, until she actually did it for herself, just knowing wasn’t good enough.  Actually doing it for herself made all the difference.

This situation is just one example.  Most of us, especially kids, have probably had a similar situation at one time or another.   As kids, we think we know everything even if we’ve never done it before in our lives.  We think being told or shown how is good enough.  Then the surprise hits.  We actually try it for the first time and realize the difference between knowing how versus doing is huge.

What’s the point?  You can learn more from doing.