Purposeful Practice

It will be good for us to focus on purposeful practice for a bit.  This is a large topic so we will hit the highlights.  And keep in mind that this concept is for mankind in a variety of endeavors. 

The important skill that we are dealing with here is ‘mastery’, not logging how many minutes or hours we spend on a skill.  My wife Carolyn teaches piano students.  Her philosophy is that she would rather a student focus on three difficult measures and practice them perfectly for ten minutes than log thirty minutes and breeze past those troublesome measures and never improve.

I am in banking.  I am required to know five different software programs that are proprietary to the banking industry.  When I was new I kept stumbling over one particular program and I realized that I had to master this particular program or my banking career would be very limited. 

I asked my banking partner for thirty minutes one Tuesday morning for us to specifically focus on HOGAN.  As Travis coached me, I wrote down every stroke, every command that he taught me, and then after our session I practiced for another hour or more.  My skill drastically improved and I’m proud to say I can maneuver around that program with great ease now.  But it took purposeful practice.

I’ve read about sports figures who dedicated endless hours – yes hours – in solo practice perfecting a particular stroke (for golfers) or a jump shot (for basketball players).  They were intent on that one skill in their game of choice and given enough time their diligence paid off. 

An axiom I take away from this is:  It’s not a matter of how many minutes or hours we randomly spend on a skill.  It is a matter of how focused we are on one troubling aspect of that skill and putting our focus on that spot.

We do the thing “ON PURPOSE”.

  

P Michael Biggs

Words of Encouragement

Words of Inspiration

My Ping Pong Edge

Once upon a time I was a very good ping pong player.  I could spin, slice, top spin, put

English on the ball and slam one over on my opponent.  I was pretty good.

Notice I said “was”. 

A friend of mine was at one time one of the better saxophone players I’ve ever known.  He could hold his own with the best of the best, but he quit playing.

You see, regardless of how sharp, how proficient, how great we might presently be, we grow stale, we grow dull, and we lose our sharp edge in any activity unless we keep at it.

The concept of “number of touches” is at play here.  How many times a day do the greats touch their game of choice – and I’m not talking just about music.  This applies to sports, architecture, typing, writing, singing and on and on.  The lesson here is this … the more you increase the number of touches in your major skill, the more you increase the chances of continuing to hone your edge. 

A soccer specialists encouraged young soccer players to practice in a small room all by themselves.  They increased their number of touches on the ball by one-hundred fold.  And that is the beginning of skill improvement.

I played a game of ping pong a few months ago.  My aim was slightly off.  I kept knocking the ball a bit beyond my opponent’s edge of the table.  And my serves had lost a bit of their spin and pizazz.

If possible, touch your skill every day – EVERY DAY!  Carry your drum sticks around.  Show up at the keyboard every day.  Play a few notes on your clarinet every day.  Swing your golf club or baseball bat every day.

Keep your edge.

Increase your number of touches.

P Michael Biggs

Words of Encouragement

Words of Inspiration

Pretend to be Your Hero

Who is your hero?  Who do you like to emulate?

As a young drummer I studied Gene Krupa's and Joe Morello's (Dave Brubeck’s drummer) drum licks.  Forty years later I watched Joe Morello on YouTube and it suddenly hit me how much his drumming style had influenced my own.

Your hero can teach you a lot.  Learn from him/her.  Copy what they do.  Paint like them.  Speak like them.  Sing like them.  Sooner than soon you’ll take their style, put your own spin on it and evolve into your own style and personality.

Nobody is an original.  We all borrow from others.  We borrow until we make it our own

Pretend still works

P Michael Biggs

Words of Encouragement

Words of Inspiration