Saturday, May 2, 2009

Practicing Slowly

One of the items Target Focus Training is criticized for is the slowness of the practice.
I came across the following article on genius, and feels it may apply here. Also, it applies to the Tai Chi Chuan players out there, too, I believe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/opinion/01brooks.html
"Coyle describes a tennis academy in Russia where they enact rallies without a ball. The aim is to focus meticulously on technique. (Try to slow down your golf swing so it takes 90 seconds to finish. See how many errors you detect.)

By practicing in this way, performers delay the automatizing process. The mind wants to turn deliberate, newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. But the mind is sloppy and will settle for good enough. By practicing slowly, by breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, the strenuous student forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance."

As always, adapt the training principles from a variety of sources to what you practice. Try to not fall for the latest fad, look closely and discern the principles behind the techniques.

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