“Don’t practice until you get it right… Practice until you can’t get wrong!… ??
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“You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way.” – Michael Jordan
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The term “training” is often over-used. People refer to any and everything they do in karate as training, yet training is a very specific act. It is repeated efforts at improving specific parameters of your fitness, or strength.
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Training is how you get stronger or fitter. Practice is how you get better. The saying “practice makes perfect” is known to us all, but the truth is that practice makes permanent. Simply doing something a lot doesn’t make you good at that thing. What we really need to do is practice correctly. Perfect practice makes perfect.
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I have a 75/25 rule; this is where it comes into play: 75% of your “training” time should really be practice time. Don’t go to the dojo to get tired, to get fitter, go to get better.
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In order to get better, you have to look for errors. This is what we call active learning. The better you get, the more you’ll have to pay attention to what needs fixing. In fact, most of your practice should be about exposing errors and weaknesses so that you can correct them. This doesn’t mean just working weaknesses, either. You’ll also want to hone in on fine tuning your strengths.
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Research shows that if you do a skill right once and wrong once, it is engrained in your neural circuitry equally. This means that you may or may not have acquired the skill.
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Repeating the correct skill multiple times is the only way of engraining the correct pattern.
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You can’t learn and perform at the same time. Learn and practice in earnest, give yourself an opportunity to solidify your skills. Don’t just train, have perfect practice.
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? Photo Gavin Mulholland