What Great Trainers Do

17

Leading Practices: Dress Rehearsals for the Real Thing

It’s a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get.

——Arnold Palmer

With few exceptions the ability to learn how to do new things will only occur if one actually practices what’s being taught. That’s true whether the activity playing the violin, golfing, bike riding, or shooting free throws. To simply read a book, hear someone speak on one of these subjects, or do paper and pencil activities won’t do the trick. As Japan’s greatest ever baseball player, Sadaharu Oh, said, “Skill is improved by repetition. There’s no avoiding it.”¹ That learning principle underlies sayings such as “Practice makes perfect” and “You learn by doing.” The power of this principle is why swimming coaches ...