PRACTICE MORE, PLAY LESS?
By: Lary Faris…2013
Yesterday I was reading In The Wall Street Journal, (yes the WSJ has some sports news) about a young
skier named Mikaela Shiffrin who has been using "practice -focused" methods to develop her skiing
performance with super results.
She is expected to be outstanding in the winter Olympics at Sochi in Russia. She spends almost all her
time and effort on practice versus regularly competing.
This innovative approach seems to be used sometimes now in sports and in many high skill and high
mentality non-sport areas.
The article mentions a book on this and I've ordered it from Amazon. I can't quote from it for you until I
read it of course. You'll have to wait, or if you are anxious, you can try Googling Mikaela Shiffrin.
But I have thought some about the concept of practice vs competing and based on my experience and
observations, the idea makes some sense and that goes for shuffleboard too.
The article says this skier practiced endlessly on a nearby slope and did not spend time and effort
traveling to competitions. Now she is on top. It goes on to say that the tennis playing Williams sisters
spent many hours hitting the ball back and forth over a net to each other long before they started
playing in tournaments.
In another sport, I recall that hit-king Pete Rose often didn't go on spring training road trips, preferring
to stay at the REDS camp, to be able to spend whole days in a batting cage swinging his bat again and
again and again. A roommate of his reported that Pete would jump out of bed in the morning and take a
batting stance and some swings first thing. (I wouldn't look to Pete for advice on anything else though.)
Have any of you shufflers tried heading for the courts at 6 am in your jammies to shoot practice discs?
In shuffleboard we've all heard the great Earl Ball say that when he started shuffling he would spend
hours each day practicing and practicing until he got it right. Earl's super outstanding results attest to
this approach. Earl became one the best, if not the very best, among the all-time great shufflers. And
I'm proud to say he's a good friend too.
I know from my own modest experience that I played much better when I competed less and practiced
more.
Playing two tournaments a week was not my ticket to better playing; but practice on Thursday thru
Sunday was.
Now readers will argue that shufflers need to learn strategy and tactics by playing, and I agree, but if a
shuffler isn't making good shots, the mental game is goofed-up and game strategy is confused. Watching
good players in games will help learn good strategy.
If this was an actual column I would, have included a diagram showing practice shots like kitchening,
replacing 10s, hiding, etc. Today, you'll have to imagine them.
I'll likely write more when my books come and I've read and digested them. I'm in Ohio now and it's
snowing 5-7 inches. Brrrrrrrr.
Happy shuffling and Merry Christmas.