Thread: C12k users

Practice, Practice

I have been fortunate to have mastered a couple fields in my lifetime, Mastery to the point where the tool becomes an extension of the body. Razor honing is not one, even though I have been at it for over 40 years, I have learned enough to keep me from looking like Ted Kaczynski these many years.

I have also been blessed to teach others these skills, which as it turns out is an excellent way to master a skill. Because you have to understand the skill in its most oblique nuisance in order to explain it to a novice.

It is Perfect Practice that makes, Perfect.

We can and I have, gone willy-nilly attempting a task and ingrained bad habits, only to have to unlearn them to master the skill or just progress to the next level. The other day on this site I watched a video of a master, where he confessed and displayed a bad habit he acquired early on and now is a part of his skill set. His mastery of this skill allows him to compensate for this flaw but, when he demonstrates, he teaches the flaw by example to others who do not have the luxury of compensation.

On almost every hour of any day we can drive past a driving range and see “golfers” smacking golf balls, hooking and slicing. Are they mastering the skill or re-enforcing bad habits, what exactly are they practicing? Interestingly in a game where they will only have to make 18 drives from the tee, they will spend 99% of their “practice time” driving the ball. You will almost never see anyone on the practice putting green, perfecting the shot where absolutely every game, is won or lost… And never see anyone, with a coach standing behind them, making minute corrections to their form.

Tiger Woods arguably the world greatest “natural” Golfer, has a coach analyzing his every move, every time he practices. Why?

So yes practice, but study, learn as much as you can from those that have mastered the skill. Learn from their mistakes. Don’t reinvent the wheel, do what works, then go teach someone else. You will be amazed how much you know… and how much you don’t know.

Fortunately this is not life and death… the learning curve wears only the spine of your razor… enjoy the journey.