Practice. A verb and a noun. Nouns are boring, so…

Verb:
1. carry out, apply
2. to do or perform often, customarily, or habitually
3. to be professionally engaged in
4. to perform or work at repeatedly so as to become proficient
5. to train by repeated exercises

There are so many great words in there. “Apply, perform habitually, professionally engaged, repeatedly to become proficient, repeated exercises.”

I could give examples of how consistent, engaged practice can make a huge difference in performance. There are thousands of books on the subject. My most recent favorite is Mind Gym. I’m just going to keep it short and give a few reasons to get to every practice – even when you don’t feel like it. Other people can probably think of even more and hopefully will post them here.

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I want to try and capture the weird place I am in with skating roller derby. I’ll call it ‘The Intermediate Skater’, not yet on the team, but skating with the team, desperately trying to keep up. It was a huge step for me just signing up for the first “fresh meat” class where I learned to skate in June. Now I find myself in the middle of a sport that is so much more than a sport. It is a culture. It is a sisterhood. It becomes part of who you are and what you do every day even when you’re not on the track. Some days it is like falling in love – amazing, empowering, fulfilling. Other days it is like drowning – frustrating, desparaging, defeating. Either way – an obsession.

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