“Practice Makes Permanent”
For years I’ve used the term “Practice doesn’t make perfect … Perfect practice makes perfect.”
A very close friend of mine, David Newman, handed me an interesting article yesterday that captures the heart of what I’ve been trying to say for years. Interestingly enough the article is actually about supercross motorcycle racing. The article was about the need for practice, and more importantly the need for the proper practice. His illustration was that after riding for 20 years you could have learned each year and have 20 years of experience under your belt. Or you could be riding with 20 years of practicing what you learned the very first year. In other words you would have repeated step 1, 20 times.
What I loved most in the article was the simple quote from Jason Pridmore which applies to anything “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent.” I love that type of mental advice because it says basically the same thing that I’ve always said, but has the conotation to it that whatever it is you are doing is going to have permanence to it. It isn’t just going to make you better (or worse) while you are doing it.
I have no intentions of riding a “super” bike at 180 miles per hour, but I sure appreciate the advice of Jason Pridmore. Maybe I should invite him to demonstrate something at a softball camp one day. Not on any fields near my house of course. 😉