Concurrent or Consecutive Training? A Question of Timing and Competence

Abstract

The negotiator contest held at Texas State University every year tests negotiating teams’ skills on ten dimensions: Use of Active Listening; Overall Flow of Communications; Overall Effectiveness of Communications; Use of Intelligence; Use of Intelligence Boards; Brainstorming; Handling Demands; Team Functioning; Team Roles; and Use of Feedback. Multiple skills are practiced at the same time. This approach to training is called “concurrent” training. We use it when we train using full-blown scenarios that exercise the coordination and communications between teams. The scenarios exercise several multifaceted skills at once. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2009) defines concurrent as “operating or occurring at the same time; running parallel.” There is another approach to training, however, called “consecutive” training. It is used when we are learning the individual skills or the component parts of each multifaceted skill. For instance, active listening skills can be learned individually. We learn open-ended questions, then effective pauses, then minimal encouragers, etc. Lesson plans can be consecutive plans. That is, they are broken down into component parts and presented sequentially. Consecutive is defined by the Encarta World English Dictionary (2009) as “successive: following one after another without a break or interruption; following a logical or chronological sequence.” Athletes have found that concurrent training leads to poorer results than training consecutively. Strength training is done utilizing the consecutive repetitions of the same exercise utilizing heavy weights and short, intense training periods. Endurance training is best done utilizing repetitions, using less stress, over longer periods of time. Both training methods are consecutive training. Using concurrent training, combining strength and aerobic exercises, leads to poorer results on both than doing them separately. Each