the fundamentals
In most cases going back to the basics, back to the fundamentals, will prove to be the best way forward.
In basketball, the most basic of moves are what’s used most. Chest pass, bounce pass, free throw, dribbling, blocking, lay-up. That’s why you do drills at practice. To get the feel of these things, to get them engrained in your head and in your muscles. After you get these down you can use them in a variety of different ways.
When it comes to weight training, the biggest improvement in gains (whether that’s in strength gains or building muscle) come from the most basic of movements, repeated consistently over long period of time. No tricks or gimmicks. Just hard work on the basic stuff, a lot.
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once”, said Bruce Lee, “ I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times”.
In every sport, vocation, hobby, there are the basics. In sports they are drills. In melodic music there are scales. In drums, rudiments. In martial arts, forms. These basic functions are the foundations of the art, hobby, vocation. A part of the whole, but the meat and potatoes. They are the bones and the muscles.
And in order to be worth your salt in anything, you have to put in the reps. Doing the boring work. Shooting 100 free throws at the end of every practice. Playing a paradiddle for 20 minutes at 80 BPM to work on form. Repeating these movements, going over the forms in your mind. Engaging in the process, focusing on the basic movements.
“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”
- Archilochus