Practice Perfect Like a Top Athlete Would

Because I am an adult amateur and I have a lot to learn about how to ride dressage, I try very hard to practice perfect so I don't waste my time and make a lot of mistakes. Especially since it takes 30 repetitions to change a bad habit. To practice perfect, I will often use my online notebook to "deep practice" journal. This is where I come home after a ride, sit down at my computer and write out what happened while I was in the saddle. When I do this, my entries are not just a chronological description of my experience. I actually slow down my reflection, extract all the details of the ride, think about the mistakes I made, the strengths of my ride, and the opportunities for improvement.

As a result, I gain those critical connections and insights that will help me to scaffold to higher levels...you might say, to scaffold up the training scale and into the upper levels.

So where did I come up with the term "deep practice?" I learned about it from a book called The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle. He's studied and written about top athletes (like Sean White, Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong) and what makes them different from the pack. The key to success for any athlete, Coyle says is the combination of 1) passion, 2) masterful coaching, and 3) deep practice. Any one can grow their talent because talent isn't something we are born with. It's something we work very hard to earn by using key talent-growing strategies. Clearly some riders are more natural riders, but they still have to grow their talent.

In the book, Coyle describes how deep practice is used in a Russian tennis camp where most of their top players learn the sport. At the camp, the younger children aren't allowed to even use a tennis racquet or hit balls for months. Instead, they stand in line and hold their arms out as if they are holding a racquet. Then, over and over, they practice the swing, slowly, very slowly, like turtle slow, with trainers watching over them. Once they can make the perfect swing at the slower pace, they are allowed to speed up and continue to attempt to practice perfect at a faster speed.

Coyle argues that whenever an athlete can slow the process down into unbelievable slow speeds, the athlete gives his brain the opportunity to understand the new information in order to develop new and improving motor skills. Research shows that more often than not, the brain simply can't keep up with the real-time speed of a sport and perform it perfectly right away without time to put the pieces together. In other words, an athlete who is learning something new in real-time is always vulnerable to making too many mistakes in the beginning of the learning curve which hinders the talent-growing process. And that is why slowing a practice down gives the brain the time it needs to make the connections necessary for further development.

One day I wrote to Coyle and asked him if he thought that journaling about my riding is a form of deep practice. He wrote back, " I think you're onto something with journaling. Especially as it acts as a kind of a "time machine" through which we can (slowly) revisit the details of our experience, see the mistakes and opportunities, and relive them. Essentially, good journaling (and there are lots of types here) allows you to build a neural network that improves skill; it scaffolds you to a higher level."

Begins to make sense, huh! The bottom line is that if you really want something, like improving your riding, you find the time to sit down to do this. The end result is that you save time by growing talent faster. Every day I think of the gift I've been given by owning such a talented, willing horse. And I also think about the challenges I face as a fairly inexperienced adult amateur with dreams of riding the upper levels. How on earth will I ever learn what I need to in order to be so lucky to ride the upper level movements, correctly and gracefully, in his lifetime and as my partner? My answer...thoughtful study practices and deep practice journaling.

If you have any questions or would like to sign up for your own online notebook, please go to www.barnbynotes.com. Free notebooks for USDF members with USDF promo code.

Don't let it slip away

How often are you in a lesson and you don't quite understand something your trainer says? For fun, the next time I am auditing a lesson, I'm going to try to count the number of coaching tips the coach gives the rider. Wait, maybe not. I'll just say... a lot! What that means is, in the heat of a lesson, oftentimes, several coaching tips will slip through the cracks without the rider understanding.

I hate it when something I need to understand slips through the cracks. But in a lesson, we can't always stop and ask because often there is something just ahead we have to try to understand and work on. You have to learn to say, "Okay, tip number three-hundred and fifty two, I'll come back for you later." Furthermore, life and learning gets so busy that its easy to forget to ask for clarification in the next lesson.

However, the ideal state of studentry is connecting. For the sake of connecting, I use a training notebook after every ride and it never lets me down. It catches what slips through the cracks.

For example, two weeks ago, I came home and wrote about my lesson. There was one area that I was re-living in my mind's eye that had to do with collecting in the trot and keeping the hind legs active. I wanted to write down the details surrounding something my trainer said... "You want a piaffe-like reaction, not a passage-like reaction." I didn't quite get it in my lesson and I didn't get it at all on the pages of my notebook. Had I not had the opportunity to see that I could not write down those details, that gap of understanding between my trainer and I could have gone unattended for weeks if not months.

But fortunately, I became highly aware of the need to ask my trainer to explain and in the next lesson I got the clarification I needed. Finally, yesterday I wrote in my notebook about it, with a detailed checklist of what my trainer is really asking me to do. Take this one step further, and I'll print the list out and re-read it before my ride today.

If you would like to see my public notebook at Barnby Notes, please go to www.barnbynotes.com and sign up using our two-week trial membership. The entry this blog is referring to is "A piaffe-like reaction". In September, barnbynotes.com will offer free access to USDF members via our partnership in education.

A garden-girl equestrian

Today I experienced a benefit from keeping an equestrian training notebook that perhaps only a true garden girl can appreciate -- the harvesting of previous entries. The harvesting of one's notebook is where the accumulation of focused previous entries (goals, notes and reflections) have taken root deep inside the brain and have become strong enough to remind us to do something when we need that reminder most.

For example, over the past week, I've written in my notebook about keeping my chin up. And a month ago, I wrote down what one trainer said which was, "Ninety percent of all riders look down." Within the past year I've written several similar reminders. Today, all of these reminders harvested, ripened, broke the surface and in a powerful way, became quite helful. "Chin up, now!" my voice blurted out just a few minutes into my ride. I raised my chin immediately and from then on forward enjoyed a productive, rewarding, uphill, well-balanced ride. I was thrilled it didn't take me 20 minutes or longer to remember it, as it usually does.

What is most important to remember about an equestrian training notebook is that skills develop out of the neural network in our brains and if a rider hasn't planted the idea or the "seed(s)" about keeping the chin up, then how is he ever going to remember to do it physically, consistently and correctly?

To read my entry "Chin-up now!", posted inside my online notebook please go to barnbynotes.com and use the two week trial. It is one of many entries I make where all this talk of harvesting begins.

Contigo has to be more handy

Sometimes I use my training notebook to explore a word or phrase a trainer uses. Just yesterday, trainer Else Donnell said, "Contigo has to be more handy."

Handy? A horse, handy? I was intrigued because it's a word I typically associate with a household, not a horse. Turns out, the word choice was perfect.

Else Donnell is a USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold Medalist and "L" judge with distinction who recently moved to Gardnerville, Nevada. Yesterday was my first lesson with her.

I have a past with the word handy. My mother used to say that my dad wasn't very handy around the house and that the only thing he was handy with was the wood pile and his ability to pile five pieces of firewood at one time into his arms and bring them up the steep stairs on a cold dark night. (But she'd only say that when the kitchen drain got plugged or a lightswitch didn't work; she really did think he was handy, especially in his chosen profession -- the operating room.) Furthermore, my husband is the son of a man who taught him how to build houses, fix the plumbing, the dishwasher, the heating, the air conditioner, the washer and dryer and anything else that runs. He just does it and I don't ever have to think about asking him or bugging him for it. So, I simply haven't heard, used or even thought about that word in a very long time.

Else provided me her own definition of the word handy: Contigo needs to pick up his feet quicker, without changing the rhythm. He needs to spend less time on the ground and more time reaching under his body toward the middle of the saddle. He needs to fall with less weight on his font feet, and he needs to let her lift his shoulders and refrain from wanting to drop them. He also needs to move off the right and left leg aid faster. In essence, he needs to use his hind end to become more adjustable. Then she rode him as a masterful gymnast would, testing and developing strength, balance and agility through a random and spontaneous sequence of movements, postures and gaits. Over a short period of time, Contigo's body grew taller, his steps became lighter and he looked beautiful. Or should I say he looked beautifully handy.

So I wrote her definition down. Then I looked it up in the dictionary. It means to be within easy reach, conveniently available, accessible, skillful with the hands or dextrous (in a horse's case I guess that would mean skillful with his hind legs and supple and relaxed through his work), and easily maneuvered.

When working trainers, whether it be for the first time or the fiftieth time, I still seek to know the deeper meaning of their words. What exactly does that trainer mean when he or she uses this word or that word. In this particular phase in my learning, that word, handy, felt so practical, so achievable. I love the idea of Contigo becoming more handy. And now that I have explored it on the pages of my notebook I won't lose site of its importance.

Ah-ha!...that felt...different, it felt...right....it felt....hum, how do I describe what I just felt in the saddle?

I've heard from elite pros that it is critically important to write down my ah-ha moments. But to be perfectly honest there are times when I have an ah-ha moment that are hard to explain largely in part because I felt it, but I haven't explained it yet. But as the owner of Barnby Notes, and a specialist in keeping a notebook, I have learned that the writing process forces us to put words to our feelings which then brings more clarity to that which we have felt. The end result -- the ability to reach new depths of meaning and connection in a sport that can be quite complicated and challenging, despite its rewards.

For example, just the other day I was riding and focusing extra hard on even contact in both reins. All of a sudden, when I turned the corner, I realized that my contact remained as even in both reins during a turn as it was down the long side. It dawned on me at that very moment that during turns I don't usually feel even contact. And because Contigo, my horse, felt remarkably good during that turn, I instantly knew I had hit a sweet spot in my ride because often its during turns that he doesn't feel that good.

This sudden ah-ha moment, this sudden understanding, this sudden training breakthrough is a clue that I must pay particular attention to. It is an indication about how to proceed.

I did write in my notebook about it, which you can read by signing up at Barnby Notes with our two week trial, because I wanted to remember for the next day to aim for that same feel. You can bet I did just that and my turns felt wonderful. Furthermore, I took that same feel and applied it to my half-steps, piaffe and tempi-changes with fantastic results!

List making is one of several ways to use a notebook to tap into your potential. In a clinic with Jeff Moore, I found out that he is all about list making. For successful training of the horse it is essential, Jeff says, that the human/rider learns to communicate in a horse kind of way. Because horses have a thinking process that is linear (black and white or yes and no), if we learn to think more linearly and break down the complexity of our thoughts that we use to ride, then we will improve our ability to work with them.

Now, this makes so much sense. And I'm sure there are many other trainers who share this philosophy. Take for example Susanne Hassler of Hassler Dressage who often teaches in checklists and who leads our Training Community at BarnbyNotes.com.

Yesterday, I learned a new list, and that list was developed to prevent myself from allowing a sloshy mid section while sitting the trot and develop a much more quiet, stable core. The first two steps on my list are...

1. Pull the belly button back and up and the shoulder blades slide together and down (connecting) by engage them with an invisible string.

2. When in motion, think that that newly engaged core goes up and down without any other wiggling, just as the horse goes up and down. But right before the down, engage the core for up again. This will help to prevent the sloshy middle wiggling that can occur.

I also developed a list for how to engage my core for the walk and the canter. Very similar, but slightly different. All my lists are in a seamless and well organized online notebook at barnbynotes.com where I can always use my search engine to find them easily or edit them to re-organize, re-write and re-read them for deeper understanding.

Jeff is a stickler for making lists and it really makes sense. Personally I enjoy making lists because if I do the thinking and reflecting on the pages of my notebook, I am that much closer to not having to "figure it out so much" while on my horse and I can ride for quality more quickly.

For more about learning to use a notebook, please go to barnbynotes.com and try our 2 week trial.

Welcome to Dear Barnby Notes. I'm here to answer any questions you might have about using an equestrian training notebook. There are 10 simple ways to use a notebook and they all have the ability to grow your talent in the saddle exponentially!

The first of 10 ways to use a training notebook is to write what you experience in the saddle. This is one way that Lendon Gray, two time Olympian, used her notebook! Typically it's best to do this right after you ride because the longer you wait, the more you forget, because memory is fallible. That means it forgets. And the point is to remember, ideally before you get on again -- because as we are trying to create new habits and grow new talent, we are constantly practicing bad habits and we don't even know it. For some, depending upon how focused you want to be, keeping a notebook might just be about defeating the odds of that fallible (fall out of your head) memory!

Often times Lendon just wrote one sentence thoughts like, "Be careful not to tilt head to the right." And while her notes were simple, her notebooks piled up. The more the better for those who want to reach their aspirations in accelerated time!

For more about learning to use a notebook, please go to barnbynotes.com and try our 2 week trial. We also have two platforms where you can publish your notes to our equestrian notebook keeping community and earn yourself a 6 month subscription for our online notebook: The 30 Day Challenge and Ah-ha Moment.