Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast (Pilates Edition)

Pilates is known for slow, controlled movement that brings the shakes. While it’s common to think going slow just makes things harder, there’s a hidden benefit: slowing down helps you consciously notice how you’re moving.

Why does this matter?

For one, slowing down and paying attention to how each part of your body moves is key to a mindful movement practice. This is what Pilates, yoga, and Tai Chi have in common—how you perform the exercise is just as important (if not more so) than simply checking the box that you did it. This mindful approach creates a meditative effect, which, when combined with breathwork, offers benefits far beyond basic strength training.

But perhaps most importantly, being aware of how you’re moving gives you the power to change it.

This is best explained by the Conscious Competence model in psychology, which describes the four stages of learning a new skill.

Note: For the sake of this model, I’ll use “right” or “correct” to mean a student is moving as instructed, and “wrong” or “incorrect” to mean they’re moving differently than instructed. The ability to follow an instructor’s cues is a movement skill, and very few movements are inherently dangerous or flat out wrong—though that’s a topic for another post…

The Four Stages of Learning Movement

Step 1: Unconscious Incompetence

At this stage, the student doesn’t realize they’re doing something incorrectly. For example, an instructor cues them to keep their legs in parallel during footwork on the reformer, but one hip is externally rotated, causing the knee to point sideways—without them even noticing. Ever heard the phrase, you don’t know what you don’t know? That’s this step.

Step 2: Conscious Incompetence

Here, awareness sets in—maybe thanks to a cue from the instructor—but the skill hasn’t developed yet. This is where the struggle happens: the student now knows they’re externally rotating but keeping true parallel feels awkward or unnatural.

Step 3: Conscious Competence

At this stage, the student can perform the movement correctly, but it takes significant effort. Each repetition requires concentration, and if their attention drifts, their form suffers.

Step 4: Unconscious Competence

Finally, the movement becomes second nature. The student no longer has to focus on knee alignment to maintain a parallel position—it just happens. Now, they’re free to bring awareness to other parts of their body.

Smooth learning is faster learning

This ties into the special forces saying: “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” In movement learning, slowing down allows a student to transition from Conscious Incompetence (where they struggle to correct their form) to Conscious Competence (where they can control their movements with focus). Over time, this deliberate practice leads to Unconscious Competence, where the movement becomes second nature—allowing for smoother, more efficient motion. In other words, by moving slowly at first, students build the foundation to move with greater ease, precision, and eventually speed should they desire.

Imagine trying to teach a student to articulate their spine, breathe as instructed, and maintain length during a roll up if they’re going so fast it looks like a sit up during a timed test in PhysEd! They probably can’t! There simply isn’t enough time to consciously make those changes at that speed. So slowing down, making changes, and then speeding back up is actually a faster way to learn a new movement skill or adjust an existing one.