Practice Does Not Make Perfect

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Vince Lombardi

I want to get two points across. The first being that practice does not make perfect. The second being that perfect practice can make anybody perfect.

The first one is easy to explain: if you practice the wrong habits you ingrain patterns into your muscles that enable you to repeatedly hit poor quality golf shots with expert precision. practice makes permanent. Whatever you practice you make a habit. Therefore if you are practicing hitting shots with a terrible golf swing you're just making it harder to change to a good swing (hence the importance of a professional to see that you're working on the right things).

Before I start on the second one I've got to tell you that I am a sceptical person. I'm not a pessimist but I feel that most "You Can Do It!" style motivational stuff is very unrealistic and false. You could say I'm a scientifically minded guy. I like to see evidence.

For a long time scientists have been asking the question: what makes some poeple great and other's not? The presumed answer to this for most people is that genetics is the determining factor. But the research actually says the opposite and the more evidence pours in the more convincing it appears. What it suggests is that natural talent doesn't really matter at all in the achievement of excellence. Hard work is what it takes to get what you want, but not just any kind of work. It must be "deliberate practice." This is the term coined by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson in his landmark study into the acquisition of expert performance.

He also procured the figure of 10,000 hours as his estimated amount of deliberate practice required to achieve mastery in most skills for any person. Now the question becomes, what is deliberate practice? Deliberate practice is quite simply goal orientated practice, whereby you set targets for yourself to maintain motivation, measure results and experiment to find what works. Over time you make micro adjustments until you get the results you want. And then you repeat it again and again and again.

The evidence that the theory of "deliberate practice" is based upon on is real life case studies of people who have achieved mastery in a field. A classic example of a person who signifies the deliberate practice model is Michael Jordan- arguably the greatest sportsman ever. Not many people know that he wasn't naturally brilliant at basketball to begin with. He was even cut from his highschool team because he wasn't up to standard.

So how did he go from mediocre highschool kid to the most succesful player in NBA history? He practiced. And practiced. And then he practiced some more. After his team had finished their gruelling training sessions he would stay behind for more. He set himself goals as he went along and wouldn't allow himself a break until he achieved them.

As far as golf goes, this means setting yourself goals as you practice. They must be achievable and yet challenging. As you go on you increase the difficulty and keep on practicing until you get there. It's a lot like setting SMART goals in business. Your goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Related.

For example, I must hole 5 putts in a row from 10 feet and I can't go home until I do this. The next day make it 6 putts in a row. Whatever. Or it could be- I must hit 8 out of 10 eight-irons to within 20 feet of a target 140 yards away. All this time you are monoitoring performance and making appropriate adjustments (a professional is often necessary for guidance in making these adjustments).

This kind of practice is particularly gruelling and takes a lot of energy but it works. There is no evidence of anybody in history performing to a standard of mastery without deliberate practice. Aimless practice just does not cut it. It could even make you worse. Unless you have something constructive to work on it is probably best not to practice at all. (Note: warming up does not count as practice in this sense.)

A lot of people like to think that they probably have a natural talent in something and should they find it then success will just flow easily, but it doesn't work like that. This is both encouraging and daunting. It offers us all a challenge: how much do you want it? Are you prepared to pay the price and to make the commitment to yourself to take what you want? Personally I say STEP UP.

Take this article as an introduction. On it's own it is hardly convincing evidence. This has barely scratched the surface and I wouldn't be convinced by this article if I was you. Do some more research into this topic and if you're like me you'll find it fascinating.

Fraser Hasell is the owner of www.goodatgolf.com

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The Many Types of Palm Trees

There are thousands of species of Palm Trees. They are considered to be tropical in nature, but most people are not aware that cold hardy palms may be planted outside without any visible damage from temperatures as cold as -20F. You can see this as far north as Canada and Switzerland

Palm trees, like banana trees, give your home and garden that tropical look, usually found around pools and family recreational areas. Once established, Palm Trees are relatively maintenance free and are not significantly bothered by insects and disease.

There are two basic types of Palm trees and we will tell you about the Northern and Southern Palms.

Cold Palms (Northern Palms)

Afghanistan palm - Pakistan Palm and Mazari Palm - This palm may be the coldest hardy in the world, according to authoritative doctors on the subject of Palms. Their fruit is also edible and very popular to eat in that impoverished nation. The tree grows very slowly and thrives in desert conditions.

Dwarf Palmetto or Sabal minor - Blue Palmetto is widely distributed throughout the Southeastern United States and grows about 6ft. tall in shaded locations. This Palm is very difficult to transplant from the wild.

Needle Palm - Rhapidophyllum hystrix is a needle palm, which are the most frost hardy palms on earth surviving -20F weather with little damage.

Saw Palmetto or Serenoa Repens - Sassafras Palm has been found growing wild as far north as Virginia, Washington D.C., and New Jersey, and is cold hardy to -10 F.

Windmill Palm or Trachycarpus fortunel has been known to be cold hardy for many years and have been growing in Switzerland for 100 years along Lake Lucerne.

Adapted palms (Southern palms) Cabbage Palm or Sabal Palmetto - Sabal Palm and Palmetto Palm is the state tree of South Carolina and Florida. It is popular as a landscape tree in southern states with excellent cold-hardiness and transplanting success. Sabal palms are salt water tolerant.

Canary Island Date Palm - Phoenix canariensis or Majestic Palm. Is the most desirable palm to give a tropical look to the landscape. The trees grow about 50ft tall with leaves up to 20ft long.

Chinese Fan Palm is a slow growing palm; forms very large leaves, which will give a full-grown, tree a look of weeping. This palm can withstand below freezing weather, and can grow inside patios. You can find this palm tree along highways. This type of palm tree can grow up to 25ft tall.

Date Palm is the true date palm of North Africa. It has been planted widely in Arizona and California for production of dates. Date palms work well in mall landscaping.

Gum Palm is cold hardy to light freezes, but will freeze in weather below 20F. The long leaves look like fern fronds, but the leaflets are bright shiny green in colour and stiff and sharply toothed.

European Fan Palm or European Palm. Has a large crown of blue-green fanlike leaves. This palm is considered to be one of the coldest hardy and grows outside. The plant can be relocated and will survive easy with little transplant shock when moved, even in during the summer months.

Pygmy Date Palm is a good container plant when potted indoors. Fine-leafed, small scale, single-trunked palm; grows slowly up to about 5ft.

Washingtonian Palm or Mexican Fan Palm has a tall slender trunk, has a crown of large fan-shaped evergreen fronds, and can provide a very tropical appearance to the landscape.

Sago Palm is a feather leaf palm that is found along the Atlantic coast beach and is 300 years old and 12 feet tall with dignified umbrella crowns.

Phoenix Sylvester Palm or Toddy Palm is very similar to the Canary Island Palm and the edible date palm.

Zamia pumila or Coontie Palm is known as the prehistoric plant, which dominated the earth 200 million years ago and grows 3ft tall on separate male and female plants.

For more information, visit one of these sites: http://www.PalmsInof.com or http://www.PalmTreesInfo.com

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