Does Practice Make Perfect?

Well, my strokes are all basically perfect now, so I'm thinking I won't bother to practice any more. This is similar to Mark Gill's philosophy of training. That means more time for partying, where I'm definitely in need of practice!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. . . I'm watching the Pussycat dolls and realizing I need to really work on my *Girlicious-ness!*

or continue to do poorly depends which habits are made permanent Practice makes permanent... What you practice, you will learn and do well.QUOTE]

It's all mind body coordination/conditioning. When under stress, the mind is often separated from the body. Repetitive motions help "program" our brain to the prefered responses, like a long reach instead of the strong desire to spin the wheels at all costs to go faster. Tall Paul's turnover in the 50 is about finding the sweet spot and keeping your hand on it all the way through the stroke. Stuff like that doesn't just "happen".

geochuck There is always time to do sloppy swimming NEVER!!!

I don't think it ever is a good idea to do quality sets with poor form.When I am doing warm up,cool down or recovery swims I use some cue(e.g. snorkle,fist swim,drills,etc)to let my body know that this is different from race stroke. I read an article that said it was easier to make a technique change by thinking it was something completely different.They ran an experiment on racing starts.There were 2 groups.The both did their standard start.In the control group they were told what to change and practiced that.The second group was told what they were doing and practiced that and told to think of that as Start A,then they were told they would be taught a different start Start B(which was essentially their start corrected.) By thinking of it as something different they were able to learn faster and retain the new skills better.

There was an interesting comment by Glenn on Go Swim: I'll only say one thing which a great coach recently told me after a talk... "perfect makes paralysis". Nobody can be perfect, and demanding it leads to too much structure and loss of flow. Again, I didn't say it, but once I realized what he said, I changed how I explain things.

Exactly Ande! You will become very good at doing.. bad turns, sloppy streamline, breaths etc.. unless we focus. If we do more sloppy thing we will most likelt be better at them than the good stuff!

So is it better to one 100 with perfect focus and technique then 10 sloppy ones? That would save us loads of time... If we are supposed to do 10x100's. What if we only manage to focus on 5, should we skip the rest? Or how much damage does 5 bad 100's do compared how to how good the5 good ones do? What we practice makes permanent...... ;o) Just a though...

There is always time to do sloppy swimming I mix it up when doing a warmup or cooldown swim. My sloppy swimming is a place where I conscentrate on technique also. But for sure when I swim repeats it is always focus on technique. When I swim distance it is focus on technique. Your focus can be on any part of your stroke. But you must remember I do most of my swimming using full stroke. I do think of many items, but not every item every stroke. I work on hand entry, to the catch, then the catch to finish, then exit to the recovery, then breathing, sometimes bilateral breathing. I sometimes change the kick to a 2 beat, a 4 beat, and of course a 6 beat kick. Oh streamline is my focus also. I have never thought of a perfect stroke I think of stroke perfection. The repitition of good technique helps us swim better. I don't think anyone can have a perfect stroke but let us at least work on attaining this perfect stroke.