Re: Re: Practicing


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Posted by Rick Denney on August 10, 2000 at 13:52:02:

In Reply to: Re: Practicing posted by Rob - READ THIS on August 09, 2000 at 20:18:13:

I'm not disagreeing with MC, especially since he ain't here to explain himself.

I would like to point out, however, that athletes take breaks from training for their physical as well as psychological well-being. I just finished an Ironman triathlon, and my training for that ultra-endurance event involved rest days every week, rest weeks every month, and rest months every year. In athletic training, it is called periodization, where you spend a period working on some aspect of your sport, like base endurance, or speed, or technique (as in swimming), with rest periods during and between these periods to allow your body to recover and to allow your mind to absorb what you learned.

Rest is part of the training. But the rest is *on purpose*.

So, I think the real lesson from jocks is to practice effectively, which includes planned breaks from playing. But, when you are not playing, think about music. For me, this means listening to it, for the sheer enjoyment of it. That helps establish the goals of playing.

Athletes spend a lot of time visualizing their goals. For me, it was visualizing myself coming out of the lake after swimming 2.4 miles, and rolling into town strong and confident after 112 miles on the bike, and crossing the tape at the finish line after the following marathon. Those images filled the many exhausted miles during training. They established the goals.

Here's the final point from MC's sports metaphor: I *wanted* to do an Ironman. If I didn't want it, I'd never have been able to do it. But nothing in sport is harder than disciplined training without an objective to train for. Go, find a goal--something so hard you can't do it now. Commit to a recital, or to an audition. Tackle new music. If you can't find a goal, maybe you don't really want to be a tuba player, at least not at that level.

Rick "Do you want to be a tuba player?" Denney


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