Yes that's right. How many times do you hear something like "how often do you practice" or "I don't practice enough" or "if only I had practiced, I would have won" ? Too often. Believe me I'm not immune from those statements either. Practicing is one of the most important parts of dancing. There are other components too but it all comes down to how much you practice and even more so to how you use your practice time.
I'm spent years tormenting myself for not practicing more. I've been through the phases. I went on the streak where I practiced everyday without fail for a week or two. This was great but I stopped listening to the ache/pain signals of my body after the 6th day of rigorous practice.
Note: do not dance if you can barely do a proper front click due to exhaustion
I used to be the dancer way back who never did formal practices. I've done it all.
After years of dancing I am still trying to perfect the art of practicing. It's possibly one of the most challenging parts of irish dancing for me. I must confess I only practiced once this week! I have academic work to blame for that this week.
So let me tell you what my latest and what I think is the best practice strategy I have come up with so far is. This is especially pertinent if you are a busy college dancer or just busy in general. It's simple but makes so much more sense when written down and actually thought about. The #1 absolutely most important thing is to forgive yourself when you don't practice cause you are too tired or just are too busy. It happens to all of us at some point. My life is in cycles of business. Sometimes I can count on a specific practice schedule other times I am lucky to get in 2 practices a week. If you can forgive yourself for those days you are so much better off and likely to have productive days when you do practice. Sometimes when I haven't practiced for a week, and I get back to practice I feel as if I need to practice every step and every dance in order to somehow impossibly make up for all the lost time. As you can imagine this just leads to frustration and anger.
Whether you practice everyday, a few times a week, or sporadically you need to go into your practice time with set goals in mind. You might say to yourself, "hmm that new reel step I learned a month ago is still not looking that crisp and clean". So you are probably best off spending that day drilling components of your reel step until you can put the step together. One step well practiced is better than 4 dances amateurishly done.
The key to a happy productive practice session is FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS!
So what are you waiting for? Get practicing!
I'm spent years tormenting myself for not practicing more. I've been through the phases. I went on the streak where I practiced everyday without fail for a week or two. This was great but I stopped listening to the ache/pain signals of my body after the 6th day of rigorous practice.
Note: do not dance if you can barely do a proper front click due to exhaustion
I used to be the dancer way back who never did formal practices. I've done it all.
After years of dancing I am still trying to perfect the art of practicing. It's possibly one of the most challenging parts of irish dancing for me. I must confess I only practiced once this week! I have academic work to blame for that this week.
So let me tell you what my latest and what I think is the best practice strategy I have come up with so far is. This is especially pertinent if you are a busy college dancer or just busy in general. It's simple but makes so much more sense when written down and actually thought about. The #1 absolutely most important thing is to forgive yourself when you don't practice cause you are too tired or just are too busy. It happens to all of us at some point. My life is in cycles of business. Sometimes I can count on a specific practice schedule other times I am lucky to get in 2 practices a week. If you can forgive yourself for those days you are so much better off and likely to have productive days when you do practice. Sometimes when I haven't practiced for a week, and I get back to practice I feel as if I need to practice every step and every dance in order to somehow impossibly make up for all the lost time. As you can imagine this just leads to frustration and anger.
Whether you practice everyday, a few times a week, or sporadically you need to go into your practice time with set goals in mind. You might say to yourself, "hmm that new reel step I learned a month ago is still not looking that crisp and clean". So you are probably best off spending that day drilling components of your reel step until you can put the step together. One step well practiced is better than 4 dances amateurishly done.
The key to a happy productive practice session is FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS!
So what are you waiting for? Get practicing!
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