[TechBro8615]

This is how I learned to swing a baseball bat. I remember my dad bought some VHS tapes with a swing coach who broke it down into stages "one, two and three." And then he showed the slow motion swings of major leaguers and pointed to where the three stages were. Then he gave a drill for each step. And you were supposed to practice each step in isolation, then put them all together.

I remember thinking it was ridiculous, but it was somewhat effective (I was never a great hitter, but I think that was due more to the lack of a batting cage in my backyard than it was to the poor teaching skills of some mustached guy from the 70s). It's "good enough" for beginning instruction because it gives you a way to break a complex process into smaller discrete steps that you can practice in isolation. Are professionals thinking about their swing in three parts? No, definitely not, but you've got to start somewhere...

My piano teacher had a similar way of teaching, breaking each song into small pieces and making me practice a few notes dozens of times, then gradually growing the size of the pieces, and then putting them all together. He was an expert, so you could put a sheet of music in front of him and he'd play the whole thing on the first try. But I couldn't do that, so I needed to learn step by step.

There is something to be said for this technique, at least until you become an expert at something, to the point that it's second nature to swing the bat or play a full sheet of music. At that point you probably have more effective ways of teaching yourself. But you've got to start somewhere.