How To Improve Faster And Avoid Ruts
In order to improve our skills and expand our abilities we need to practice. This is not an unfamiliar idea. Even young children recognize the principle. Practice for the piano recital. Practice with the soccer team.
Regardless of the endeavor - from dancing to singing to cooking to painting, from martial arts to musical instruments, from writing to shooting pistols to closing the deal - practice is the key to improvement.
But HOW should we practice? Everyone has general ideas about practice; some of these ideas are culturally ingrained.
But how effectively has practice worked for us in the past? Is it time to question some old perceptions?
Let's look at a few examples. Many people take piano lessons. How many of those students can sit down at a piano and entertain at a dinner party?
Lots of people play golf regularly. How many of them have good putting and driving technique?
Lots of people take tango classes. They go to milongas week after week. But for some folks improvement comes very slowly.
What's Missing?
What's the secret? What's missing when someone invests a lot of time on something but makes only marginal progress? It usually comes down to one of three possibilities.
A Conscious Choice To Avoid Practice
Some people don't have time to invest in practice regardless of whether or not they'd like to improve.
Others may be satisfied at their current level. Practice for them isn't worth the opportunity cost of time and effort.
Incomplete Awareness
In order to improve something, we first need to understand how well it's working. Or how badly it's NOT working. If you're driving down the road and you don't realize that your turn signal is burned out, it won't occur to you to have it replaced.
For dancers, video can highlight problem areas that we might not otherwise notice. Until we make an honest assessment of our strengths and weaknesses, we won't understand what aspects of our dancing require focused practice.
Ineffective Practice Methods
There are almost an infinite number of ways to practice ineffectively. Listing them would be like listing all of the ways not to drive to Chicago.
Rather than try to compile a partial list I would suggest that dancers work with a teacher to help identify their problem areas and come up with a plan for improvement. (Any good teacher should be more than willing to do this for you.)
Effectiveness and Efficiency
Practice is Effective when it yields positive results. Practice is Efficient when it doesn't waste time or effort.
Good practice is both efficient and effective. It's designed to help the student improve as quickly and easily as possible (keeping in mind that everyone progresses at a different rate, and 'as easily as possible' means that you still need to do a lot of hard work, just not extra wasted effort).
Tips For Effective Practice
Understand what you're trying to improve and why. - This requires an honest assessment of our strengths and weaknesses along with an understanding of our short and long-term objectives. A good teacher or coach can help by identifying problem areas and deficiencies and developing a plan to address them.
Do the right things in the right way. - It doesn't help to practice mistakes (self-explanatory). If you're not sure what to do or how to do it, discuss your developmental needs with a teacher who has a track record of helping students overcome obstacles.
Work on your weaknesses. - Concentrate on the areas that need improvement. Don't waste time on things that already come easily. Do the hard work, and over time you'll be able to convert those weaknesses into strengths.
Focus on one issue at a time. - Do your brain and your body a favor. Work on one problem or technique at a time. Simplify the exercise to isolate the area that you want to improve.
Work only as long as you can engage your full concentration on the problem areas. - When we stop concentrating we become sloppy. What happens when we repeat sloppy technique over and over again? - Right!
Strive for Near Perfection, but don't get frustrated by Absolute Perfection - It's better to do each movement as perfectly as possible for a handful of times (or even ONCE) than to do it sloppily ten-thousand times.
Just don't worry about ACHIEVING perfection. It's enough that you STRIVE for it, that you REACH for it. That's the secret to developing technique effectively.
Concentration is vitally important. In order to improve we need to approach perfect form as we practice (at least to the degree that we are capable). It's not humanly possible to maintain that level of focus for hours and hours on end.
Add variety to keep the mind and body fresh. - We can repeat the same techniques or movements only so many times before our brains go to the Bahamas and our feet hurt like crazy. Before you approach your saturation point, switch to another topic. Or at least to the other side.
Keep practicing. Keep doing the right things in the right way and improvement will arrive like a check in the mail - a little late but well-earned and greatly appreciated.
¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!
Daniel
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