When
famous directors talk about the process of editing they mention that they never
really finish editing, rather they edit all the way up until their
deadline. At some point they just throw
up their hands and say, “that’s it, I’m out of time.” Others will even quip that the deadline
prevents them from over-editing.
In
2014 I was getting lunch with Carol. It
was early April, about 4 weeks from Regionals, and I mentioned that I felt like
I didn’t know what else to work on with NUT.
I couldn’t see any glaring weaknesses and I didn’t have any plan for
something to sharpen. She swiftly cut
down any delusions of completion with NUT 2014 by telling me there is always
something to improve on.
The
practice before regionals Yiding wanted to have a “fun” practice. I agreed thinking that another tough practice
wouldn’t have helped us out very much, and I thought a “fun” practice would be
good for morale. Minutes after practice
Ben and Max told me they hated the practice structure for the day.
Almost
a year later before 2015’s final practice Jack Shey asked me if I was going to
have a “fun” practice for them. I told
him no. I tried to outline how I thought
that 2015 needed all the time to work that we could get and that I wasn’t
convinced another practice would have helped 2014 out. He responded that he wished he could have had
one more intense practice to get ready for regionals.
With
the glory of hindsight I am still not sure what we could have worked on in
2014. Maybe if I had bought 100 industrial
fans, encircled the field, and turned the fans on high then we could have been
ready to go.
In
isolation it was easy to not take Carol’s warning with the weight it deserved,
to dismiss Ben and Max as whiners, and to write-off Jack as being bummed about
his collegiate finish. Summing them
together and it feels overwhelming. Even
if you feel like you’re team has put together the big pieces and you’ve done
the heavy lifting, editing is never finished.
I agree with the general statement you're making, but with the editing analogy, is it possible that the edit won't make the movie any better? Maybe it could make it better, or maybe it could make it worse? What if I spent that time marketing my film better?
ReplyDeleteIts like cramming for the hour before the test. It's extremely unlikely that you are going to gain much from that. You either know it or you don't.
I think with the right personnel could be good for morale. Obviously Ben and Max hate fun. I remember the fun practice we had before 2010 Nationals with the offhand/upside-down scrimmages and I think it helped us relax a bit.
I like Adam's way of looking at it like studying for a test. The relaxed practices before Nationals were a great way to destress and put you in a good place mentally. I kind of wish we had done that in 2013 and I'm not sure why we didn't. I don't even think we ever talked about it.
DeleteMost meaningful improvement is not going to happen in those last couple practices before Regionals/Nationals. At that point you have to assess where you are and turn towards the mental aspect of prep. Having your dojo in a good place right before the end of the year tournament can be huge to how you perform.
At that point, whatever happens, happens.
I don't think the intensity level of your final practice necessarily means you're not still editing. High intensity doesn't mean you're editing, having fun doesn't mean you're not editing. If you have a high intensity scrimmage without any focuses, you might not be changing anything and you might not be improving at anything. A fun practice could have more creative, game-like drills, but that doesn't mean there can't be focuses involved in everything you do. Intensity and fun are not mutually exclusive. And, like Adam said, you probably shouldn't be cramming things in at the last practice. At this point, you shouldn't be changing things or introducing new things, anyway. I think in the last month leading up to the big weekend, you should be getting more reps at what you already do to be better at what you're already doing well. The team might have really good defense already, but that doesn't mean more defensive footwork drills won't make them even better at defense.
ReplyDeleteIf you have an intense last practice and it goes well (people play well, lots of energy, big plays happen in scrimmage, things are clicking), you will have a huge emotional high going into regionals. If that last intense practice goes poorly (people play poorly, get in their heads, miscues are happening), you're left in a really, bad spot leading into the weekend - I think that's a far worse place to be in. Nemesis ended on a 'fun' practice before nationals - we drew from a hat and picked out drills to do, some were serious, some were fun. I thought that there wasn't enough focus and we were so lax that we weren't getting anything out of it. In the car, someone pointed out that alternatively, we could have had one of our more intense practices that we had in the 2-3 weeks previous, which ended in people crying and/or angry at themselves. If this was our last practice leading into nationals, that would have been far worse for Nemesis. Maybe the last practice is more about the emotional needs of the team and not what else needs to be worked on.
Some incomplete thoughts here, but something for the discussion
ReplyDeleteThink about your past club season. You had tryouts until Mid june. Sectionals was the first week of September. In that time you had, 3-4 tournaments and 1 weekend off for sandblast. With 2 practices a week you have a grand total of 16-18 practices. That is so few. A lot can be accomplished in a single practice. You may be thinking for a college team that practices more often and in general spends more time together there may be diminishing returns on each practice. I think with that improved chemistry and regimented practice routine, your practices can be much more productive.
Now, I don’t think the practice between sectionals and regionals is a great time to be introducing new concepts, plays, zones, strategies, etc… Especially if you cover them incompletely. But you can probably solve a single significant hurdle you faced in sectionals. I think during these practices is also a great time to recall a lot of the foundational stuff that was buried back in your winter practices that may have been forgotten when working on more specific situations late in the season.
Perhaps another way to appreciate what can be done in a short period of time is looking at how pro teams prepare. In football, the entire gameplan is relayed to the team in the preceding week. Film watching, adjustments, walkthroughs, all done in less than a week. Seems like cramming works fine for them. Even in basketball, coaches are making game to game adjustments, particularly in the playoffs. These few practices can be very productive. Plus, cramming has worked out just fine in my academic career.
As far as fun versus intense practices, I’m very surprised by the dichotomy of some of the comments here. You don’t need to do boring drills, get angry, and be a task master to have an intense practices and you don’t need to have upside down points or no pants vs no shirts scrimmages to have a fun practice. Obviously they aren’t mutually exclusive. If you have had made a habit of making practices competitive and challenging while keeping perspective that you are out here with your friends playing a game, you’ll have a both fun and intense practice. Having a throwaway practice where you don’t do any sort of preparation, especially between sectionals and regionals, is to me a tragic wasted opportunity.
Dealing with pressure is a different thing. But it seems like everyone is talking about how to take the pressure off. What!? It’s competitive sports - the game-to-go, universe points, elimination games are all going to be high pressure situations. It’s not about avoiding high pressure situations, it’s about thriving and performing in them. This comes from confidence, which comes from execution, which comes from preparation, which comes from reps - reps in practice. Of course, you may always feel inadequately prepared, in which case, maybe that practice won’t help your mental situation. I think then if the team needs it they can take their mind off the pressure and de-stress outside of practice, perhaps as a team, a social event, movie night, pasta night, project cakeway, dline vs oline eating competition.
Carol, if Nemesis can’t get through an intense practice without some tears/rage, it sounds like the team may need to take a step back and address these things directly. Regain some perspective on what they are trying to accomplish and that they are trying to accomplish it as a team, who are their friends. To me, those outburst responses are selfish, I’ve been guilty of them myself. If you can’t push your teammates in practice then how can you have a productive practice?
Bruns, it seems very unlike you to think that nothing more can be done, especially for a team that had just lost sectionals to Illinois. There must of have been something in that game that could have gone better.