Practice makes Permanent!

Hey Everyone!

I thought now would be a great time to talk about one of my favorite quotes from Maestro Ed Richards.  Ed often said “Practice makes permanent.”  His next line would talk about how striving for perfection in practice is what makes you better.  I think this message is universal for all sports.

When we do repetitions of a skill we cement that particular movement within our skill set.  If we are practicing the same error for months or years at a time, that error becomes a habit and that habit becomes difficult to change.  Constantly working on making the action better will lead to more success in the action while we are bouting.

One of the best ways to be able to constantly work on an action is to create scenarios where you always have to pay attention.  Mindless repetitions are the enemy!  We need to work the action against many different situations.  Let’s talk about a few ways to do this.

First we can have a partner (or coach) who can vary the way they make an action.  When someone changes their attacking speed and angle we end up paying more attention to our parries.

The other method is to practice against different people.  These partners will all have different methods of execution which is very similar to one person who can change up the way they make an action.

So the moral of the story is since “Practice makes permanent” we will add variety to the practice to simulate the most realistic scenarios.  This way we have better practice leading to better skills.  By doing this method of practice you will start to become the master of your actions… Permanently!