Re: imagining practice
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 2:47 am
Good stuff. Ozzie Smith used to warm up every game by throwing to first from different spots with his eyes closed. There are a lot more senses than just the eyes, or ears afterall.
Visualization is an important part of it, but it isn't the whole story. I tell my students the doing is the easy part, its the knowing what to do that is the hard part. Another saying I just heard is "The learning starts when practice ends" Another one is that "we do what we think is going to work" The choices we make - not just about what note where, but also how to steer ourselves in to be in the mental state necessary to perform well - are defined by how we understand ourselves and the instrument. We won't make different decisions without first changing our understandings. To this end, a lot can be accomplished by simply thinking about something. While visualization and 'virtual practice' is real, important and useful, practice of any sort doesn't make perfect. It makes permanent.
Visualization is an important part of it, but it isn't the whole story. I tell my students the doing is the easy part, its the knowing what to do that is the hard part. Another saying I just heard is "The learning starts when practice ends" Another one is that "we do what we think is going to work" The choices we make - not just about what note where, but also how to steer ourselves in to be in the mental state necessary to perform well - are defined by how we understand ourselves and the instrument. We won't make different decisions without first changing our understandings. To this end, a lot can be accomplished by simply thinking about something. While visualization and 'virtual practice' is real, important and useful, practice of any sort doesn't make perfect. It makes permanent.
