The Art of "Part Practice": Take Practicing in the Backyard To A Whole Different Level
Break a complex skill into its parts, then put them all together!
We've all heard of the old adage: practice makes perfect.
Well I'm here to tell you that it's not true...at least not completely. Practicing the right way and with strong habits makes perfect. Volume doesn't always equal results. Quality dictates results more than volume does.
Over the last 15 years I've told countless collegiate, high school, middle school, and youth players: "you're going to be best at what you practice!". If you go shooting on your own time, but all you practice is sidearm and low to high, that's all you'll be good at. If you're a face-off specialist that only practices winning a clamp, you'll be really good at it, until you come up against a player you have to counter against. If a defenseman only practices throwing checks, he'll be great in loose ball situations...but what about when he has to slide body? And finally, my personal favorite, a goalie who only sees right handed shots from up top will be solid...until they see a lefty attackmen curling around GLE.
These examples are in every day life too! You can get away with poor bench press form, until you injure your shoulder with too much weight. You can learn to play the guitar "your way" until you come up against a song that requires the correct hand positioning. You can even try to get away with "your diet", until you pay for it later on down the road.
We are all products of what we practice the most. While practicing on our own is significantly better than doing nothing, we have to make sure we're practicing the RIGHT THINGS. Think quality, not volume. Just because we're doing ALOT of something, doesn't mean we're getting better. Instead, we have to start asking ourselves the right questions.
Have you ever heard Bruce Lee talking about the number of kicks? "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times". Applying that to lacrosse: players who fully invest in shooting, approaching, facing off, and saving the ball the right way and practice it religiously, will always win out.
"How do I know whether or not I'm practicing the right way?" "I've been shooting in the back yard 3-4 times per week!"
Consider using the "part practice method". Just like its name suggests, the "part practice method" involves taking a complex skill, dividing it up into its parts, practicing each one of the parts, and putting it all together at the end. There are 4 main components to the "part practice method":
Isolate
Practice
Perfect
Combine
In order to exemplify the part practice method, let's take a skill: shooting on the run.
Isolate: What are the most important components of being able to shoot on the run? Hip rotation without stopping our feet. Stick placement above shoulder height so we don't hang our stick and get trail checked. Follow through and shot placement. Wrist strength and "snapping". When to shoot the ball out of our dodge (when we have the most angle). To get started we need to isolate these components and identify drills that address them:
-Hip rotation: Med Ball wood chops and "open the gate"
-Stick Placement and follow through: Catapult shooting drill on one knee
-Shot placement: numbered corners on the cage
-Wrist strength and snapping: one handed shooting with top hand
-Shooting Angle: Tie a long piece of string to the goal. hold the string with your top hand as you dummy dodge so you can visualize the angle for the head of your stick
Practice these drills on their own
Perfect them individually to the point where you feel like you can teach someone else who's never played before.
Combine them all together!
You'll be surprised at the results!
In summation ANY type of practice will generally make you better than you were before BUT we need to be aware that the consistent practicing of bad habits can ultimately hurt us in the long run. Slow down. Dissect new skills into more manageable parts. By using the part practice method, you'll be absolutely shocked at how much better you get in a hurry!