Slow Practice

Three or four months ago, my wife returned to practicing her French horn after a hiatus of several years. She took a series of lessons from an excellent teacher to help her get back on track, and it has worked out very well.

In preparing her to play in church, he had her practice at a faster pace than she would actually have to play. That really helped, and she has improved measurably. I noticed, however, that she still misses a note here and there.

That got me to thinking about martial arts and self defense practice. When you want to improve a technique's precision, you practice it in slow motion.

I suggested to my wife that, since she seems to have adapted to the faster tempo, maybe once a day she should slow the piece way down and concentrate on hitting each note with precision. She said, "That's exactly what I need."

Here is a principle that I believe applies to more than martial arts and music. I think you could generalize it to include how you practice any or all of your vocational skills:

Increase the tempo for performance; decrease the tempo for precision.