Practice makes perfect, and repetition makes permanent

Some lost dismally and others won different prizes in different categories. I was among those who lost.

I comforted myself by saying that at times participation is more important than winning.
Allow me then to take a few learning points from the overall winner Chris. In his speech he said: “I am a disciple of Jose Mourinho. He is never surprised when he wins because he works very hard during training.

“I am equally not surprised to win this prestigious competition. I spend the last month training hard for this competition. I work in Norton and stay in Norton.
“Every day after work I would go to the dam to experiment with various baits and fishing techniques. I also spent 30 minutes jogging everyday to improve my endurance.”

What is implied by working hard during training? Training basically implies preparation.
It involves conceptualisation of the future — the desired state of the future. The more you rehearse about the future (what you visualise) the more likelihood of success in the future.

The most practical way of rehearsing about the future is through practice. Practice makes perfect, and repetition makes permanent (anonymous).

If you want to perfect a particular skill, the more you continue practising the more you perfect the skill. In the end that skill becomes natural.

What makes training successful is the understanding of the goals to be achieved.
Sport training has become so scientific these days so much that there are high performance centres which are devoted to bringing out the sportsman’s full potential.

Gone are the days when one would enter the race and hope to win on the basis of talent.
Science has made it possible for even those without talent in sport to be successful provided they follow a tried and tested programme.

Gone are the days when companies just hope to beat competitors on the basis of just bigger branch network, more factories, or more product offerings or higher capitalisation.
A good example would be that most sports people who are not professionals train without visualising what they want to be.

When training to be a good soccer player you have to know whether you want to be the best striker or defender or midfielder or goalkeeper.

Each position has different training requirements. This is similar to what companies do. They train their staff without aligning it to their strategy. In most cases this is just a waste of resources.

Likewise rugby players have to understand what aspects of training they have to do.
In rugby there are the forwards and the back line. The forwards are normally the big guys and the back lines are normally the fast guys.

Training requirements for backs and forwards are slightly different. At times you disempower players by giving them the wrong training.
You will disempower the back line if your training emphasises bulkiness at the expense of speed at the same time you will disempower the flanks if you emphasise speed at the expense of bulkiness.

The flanks will lose their effectiveness as they will easily be injured, etc. Most companies do not articulate the goals of training to their employees adequately.
At times employees are equipped with higher competencies but are then blocked from using their skills which is a serious source of disgruntlement and demotivation.

Therefore, the training dose must be determined by what to train and how to train.
Science and statistics show that you can’t compete and win the marathon with a rugby body.

You have to be light in order to finish the race. Therefore training for a marathon player is different from a rugby player. The diet of a rugby player is different from a boxer’s or soccer player or any other athlete.

If your company is growing rapidly and you are continuously developing staff and promoting managers prematurely, promoted achievers are bound to encounter health challenges manifesting themselves in obesity, high blood pressure, etc.
This reduces their effectiveness. Therefore you need to consider training on diet and health programmes if your company is at the growth stage in its life cycle.

Most people go to the gym but they do not understand what they want to achieve by going to the gym.

People confuse going to the gym with creating a nice body. This is just one of the many objectives of going to the gym.

Different sports personalities go to the gym to train aspects of their bodies which make them competitive and more effective in their discipline.

Training is contextual to the season. There is offseason training, preseason training and season training. Offseason training’s emphasis is on methods to help in recuperating, preseason is preparing to go into the season and season training we expect you to be at the peak of training.

This also determines the type of training, which is specific to those seasons. If you maintain the same season training throughout the year, your players will suffer from burnout i.e. diminishing returns to training.

You can never be at peak throughout the year. Burnout affects the mind first then the body.

Companies should slow down on training towards the festive season and immediately after the festive season. Therefore, “training hard” does not imply doing it every day.
Training is supposed to increase players’ confidence. The more the players are encouraged during training the more the player’s behaviour is affirmed.

The bigheaded players are brought back and the underperformed will be upscale.
If you do not sweat during practice you will bleed during the game. If you do not give 100 percent during practice you will not get 100 percent during the game.
Both high achievers and low achievers needs for training need to be assessed correctly.

Training is not restricted to the less talented but to the more talented as well. I find this verse from the Bible inspiring when I am training: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might . . .’’ (Ecclesiastes 9 vs 10).
The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International. Email: [email protected]