Overview
Practice is practice, right? Well, maybe not…
In this article, we’ll explore the styles of practice, their goals, and when to use each! And because knowledge is power, hopefully you’ll be more empowered to plan a better practice knowing which type you want to utilize!
Teaching
A teaching-focused practice is exactly what it sounds like! The ultimate goal of this type of practice is that your cadets walk away with NEW skills and NEW knowledge. A teaching practice should be engaging, enjoyable, and instructional in nature. The tone of those leading the practice should be positive, uplifting, and encouraging throughout since learning new skills for the first time can be challenging at best and intimidating at worst.
When you’re conducting a teaching practice, we can monitor improvement based not just on whether they can perform the skill but, more importantly, by whether they can articulate the details of the skill even if their bodies are still learning to perform it!
When a practice is geared towards teaching, the FEELING of the practice should be put before all other objectives! Remember: you aren’t teaching drill, you’re teaching people!
Training
Training is the repetitious performance of a skill to develop accuracy and consistency. Training practices are focused on honing skills already taught and developed through great teaching but repetition is not the only key to great training!
During a training practice, a special emphasis should be placed on targeted feedback designed not only to identify mistakes and errors but also provide fixes to those issues!
Furthermore, we should be careful not to only focus on what’s WRONG but also call out and emphasize what’s right!
When cadets only hear what’s wrong, they may start changing things they’re doing well so it’s just as important to let them know what to keep on doing as you work through a training practice!
Rehearsing
Rehearsing is preparation specific to a singular event. For example, if you have a competition coming up soon, you should shift your practice style from training or teaching to rehearsing. If you have a pep-rally performance you need to prepare for, you need to rehearse.
Rehearsing means preparing not only for the venue but also the conditions you’ll face during your performance. Helping your cadets visualize being in competition, going through all related procedures, etc. are all parts of rehearsing
successfully!
You’ll know a rehearsal is successful when it simulates as closely as possible the conditions under which your cadets will perform!
All-In-One?
While some practices will solely be one of the types listed above, did you know you can move through each of these during a single practice?
You might start with teaching a new skill – that’s teaching, obviously! But from there, you might integrate that new skill with skills the team already knows – there’s your training! Finally, you might end practice with a full run-through of your routine or sequence with the goal of preparing for an upcoming competition – boom! That’s rehearsing!
Knowing what style of practice you’re using at any given moment is key! Imagine using a less-friendly, higher-stress approach (as in rehearsing) while teaching? That would be a disaster! Imagine trying to simulate performance conditions without putting the pressure on (as in teaching?) Eek. It probably won’t achieve what you want, either!
We should always be mindful of the style of practice we’re using and how it changes our leadership, teaching methods, tone, etc. to get the most from our practices!