Practice Doesn't Make Perfect

My mother told me a long time ago that practice
makes perfect, but much as I love her, brothers
and sisters it just ain't so.

If it were, there would be a lot more tennis players
with perfect strokes. There are many who've hit
thousands or even tens of thousands of backhands
in practice, for instance, and still the stroke lets
them down when it counts.

So it's not enough to set volume shooting goals for
yourself or for those you coach. So many shots a
day, a week, a month, etc. Too often that leads to
"unconscious" practice. Just going through the
motions till it hurts.

And whether you want to believe it or not, that
really doesn't do you much good.

Then there are those who say, 'Perfect Practice
makes Perfect'. That sounds better on paper, but
who the blank knows what it means. It sounds like
circular reasoning to me. If you could practice
perfectly would you really need to practice?

Of course we know what they mean. Seeking to
be as perfect as possible in your practice will make
you a better shooter if at least four factors are
present.

1). You have a good idea of what the ideal is, i.e
you know what constitutes good form or good
technique.

2). You know how to duplicate the mental state of
the great shooter.

3). You practice perfectly in your imagination.

4). You understand how to use active awareness.

In coming days we'll delve into the four factors in
more detail but just think about them for now.

Shoot for the Stars,

Dean - The Dean of Shooting Hoops

P.S. Coach Tom Nordland's Swish DVD's are very
good at teaching three out of my four factors. He
really doesn't emphasize using your imagination
much at all, but he is one of the best I've ever seen
at showing how to use awareness and active
learning to become a great shooter.

And now that 'Swish 2: Learning and Coaching the
Swish Method' is out you can learn even more
about this neglected topic. See what I mean now at:

http://www.deandelker.com/swish.html

Copyright, Delker Enterprises, Inc. 2006