Proper Practice

by Teresa Trojanowski

Imagine that you'd like to learn to play the guitar.  Where would you start? Would you choose a song and try to start playing the entire thing right off the bat? Probably not. Because first, you'd need to learn how to hold your guitar. Next, you'd have to learn how to play your first chord...and then your second, and so on. You'd need to practice different strumming techniques. You might play the chorus of the song over and over until you've mastered it, before moving on to learning the verses. 

Makes sense, right? So then why do so many of us operate differently at the gym? Take, for example, the person who wants to get their first muscle up. They jump up on the high rings, try it unsuccessfully, and walk away thinking, "well, I guess I can't do it yet," hoping that they'll try again later and something will have magically changed. Or perhaps they continue to jump up and try that muscle up unsuccessfully, thus "practicing" the movement incorrectly over and over.

Whether you're learning a new skill that that you've not successfully completed before, or trying to perfect an existing skill, remember that PROPER PRACTICE INVOLVES PRACTICING THE PIECES (check out that alliteration :)) Just like you can't learn to play an entire song on the guitar before you've practiced each individual chord, you won't learn the muscle up as effectively without practicing your kip, doing drills on the low rings to practice your hip pop, and jumping muscle ups to quicken your sit through. You'll be better served at improving your snatch technique by doing drills that focus on one or two aspects of the lift at a time (think: snatch drops, high hang snatch, snatch pulls, pause snatch deadlift). 

Stop trying to tackle the whole thing at once, and determine if you're practicing properly and efficiently by focusing on the pieces in addition to the whole. You coaches are here to help you if you're not sure where to start, or Catalystathletics.com and crossfitinvictus.com are great resources for drills!