Hey First name / friend, it's Tiffany!
Today, I have a life update and some hopefully helpful thoughts about practice design - with a free download. š
First - I am in a transitional moment! My husband and I moved to San Francisco last summer, but I continued in my role as the clarinet professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA throughout this academic year. I loved getting another year with my students, although the traveling was a bit nuts and I also started another full time job at Cal Performances, the performing arts presenter at Berkeley, in January.
Needless to say - January to April were a whirlwind.
My last official day teaching at VCU was April 29 . The next day, I flew from Richmond to see my family for a few days and then came back to San Francisco.
Once I landed I felt simultaneous relief to not have so many balls in the air and a bit of an identity crisis.
Iāve been working a long time to have that clarinet professor title - but it was time for change and my husband had a really wonderful opportunity in SF. Plus, on top of it all, the end of a school year always brings with it feelings of āwhat now?!ā, at least for me!
The best thing I knew to do was focus on giving myself some much needed self care for a little bit.
I worked with a trainer in Richmond and had been missing that focused activity so much ā so I found a new gym and trainer a few blocks from our apartment. Itās wonderful and Iām so grateful for my new coach and the resources to get some help feeling like myself again.
However, whatās really struck me about starting with this coach, though, is the programming. Heās the most methodical coach Iāve had, and it has made me think so much about practice design!!!
One of the first things weāve looked at are my bench presses. Yes, I need to get better at them.
So what does my coach do? Spells out that we need to:
- Increase my shoulder mobility
- Gain chest strength
- Work on overall power
He clearly stated that in order to get better at a bench press, we arenāt just going to do a bunch of bench presses. Because itās not the most efficient way to get better.
Then, we put those 3 skills into a timeline. Whatās my weakest skill out of those that needs the most attention? What other skills/activity do I need to continue while working on this skill? And then, whatās our 3 month goal, 1-month goal, weekly goal, and what are we focused on in this session?
All I could think about when we were organizing the plan is that this is SUCH AN EFFECTIVE MODEL for practice design! Iāve naturally gravitated towards this thinking, but, I definitely found new clarity when I was trying to relate it to a specific fitness plan.
Thereās extensive research in fitness, kinesthetics, the body, weightlifting, sports, nutrition just to name a few. Yet, musicians are just not the best at looking to other disciplines for answers.
But, weāre going to change that today. Letās equate this all to practice.
We all know that practice alone does not guarantee improvement just as time in the gym doesnāt equal getting stronger. Youāve probably heard that concept around the internets.
But, if practice doesnāt guarantee improvement, what does?