What to Practice and What Not to Practice

The pandemic situation has created a situation that we can easily call cursed. Due to the attack of the disease, the lockdown has also been announced. Now it is up to us, whether we want to feel depressed the whole time or utilize every moment of it. Well, I've chosen the latter and I want to share my ideas with you.

1. Have a goal in mind. Think about what you want to get out of practicing -- do you want to be the next great trumpet player or do you simply want a better service for your next tennis match? Knowing your goals helps you home in on what you need to practice the most. Be specific with your goals.

• Sports: Do you want to make a new team? Set a personal record? Hit more free throws?
• Music: Do you want to increase your vocal range? Get a recording contract? Play "The Flight of the Bumblebee?"
• Intellectual: Do you want to get straight A's next semester? Write your first novel? Get into medical school?

2. Have a goal in mind. Think about what you want to get out of practicing -- do you want to be the next great trumpet player or do you simply want a better service for your next tennis match? Knowing your goals helps you home in on what you need to practice the most. Be specific with your goals.

• Sports: Do you want to make a new team? Set a personal record? Hit more free throws?
• Music: Do you want to increase your vocal range? Get a recording contract? Play "The Flight of the Bumblebee?"
• Intellectual: Do you want to get straight A's next semester? Write your first novel? Get into medical school?

3. Practice deliberately. While you can certainly practice guitar scales while watching TV, if you are not paying close attention to yourself you will pick up bad habits and learn slowly. You want to practice deliberately, not mindlessly, to make the most of your time. After you complete a task, think about how it went: Where did you make a mistake? What worked well? How can you improve next time?

• Sports: Don't focus on the final score in practice, focus on your technique. Are you getting stronger? Did you connect more passes than normal? Were you in the proper position to help your team?
• Music: Focus on playing everything perfectly. Even if you have to slow down, focus on getting everything right and note where you make mistakes
• Intellectual: Always check your work, and find out where you made a mistake if you get the wrong answer.

4. Break down complex actions into smaller parts. If you are trying to practice fixing bicycles, for example, don't practice on the whole thing at once. Practicing changing tires one day, making sure you have the skill down, then work on fixing the brakes. This is the time for "drills:" specific, small actions that you can repeat over and over again like playing scales, shooting free throws, or changing flats.

• Sports: If you are struggling to make a lay-up in basketball, stop and practice each step separately: dribbling at speed, jumping towards the hoop without stopping, and placing the basketball.
• Music: Don't try to tackle difficult songs all at once. Stop and practice 2-3 seconds at a time. Once you get those few seconds down, move on to the next few seconds.
• Intellectual: Don't approach a test trying to learn everything at once. Do easy practice problems first, then add more complex ideas, like starting with binomials before moving on to polynomials.

5. Learn from your mistakes. Do not worry about making mistakes -- this is the time for them. Exploring, experimenting, and noting the things that went wrong will expand your knowledge of your field and leads to new discoveries. When you make a mistake simply take note of it and think about how you can fix it next time. If you make the same mistake repeatedly, slow down and try to diagnose the problem. Work on fixing the mistake until you solve it to avoid learning bad habits.

• Sports: Watching filmed copies of the game and talking to coaches will help you quickly diagnose problems and find ways to fix them.
• Music: When possible, record yourself playing. As you play it back, listen in for mistakes that you might have missed before.
• Intellectual: Whenever you do not understand why got a problem wrong or got a bad grade, ask someone to explain it to you so you don't make the same mistake twice.