Practice

     So I love the 49ers.  I used to be a true fanatic, and have since entered into fan-atic recovery.  I love love love Joe Montana.  I love Steve Young.  I kinda like Colin Kaepernick.  Joe Montana may not have had the pure power and athletic-prowess as Young or Kaep, but he was a true champion.  He was all that a NFL quarterback should be.  Truly a hero.

     I think young Colin Kaepernick has potential.  Physically he is a force to be reckoned with.  He is young.  A rookie.  Not a lot of touch.  No touch really.  His sight and feel is narrow.  Powerful.

    Steve Young, on the other hand, was extremely smart.  Maybe just a little bit more of a physical threat than Joe in his arm, but not so much in the mobility department.

     Ronnie Lott.  The best.  Crushed his pinkie finger just before a play-off game.  His choice; miss game or amputate finger.  He played.  To me that was hard-core and super cool.

     In a nut shell the reason I admired Montana is that he became a part of the game.  He was NOT an over thinker.  His memory was short.  He had an amazing vision of the field.  He would 'feel' the game.  Joe Montana was perfect with the plays, but even better with taking a broken plan and turning it into success.  He made his teammates better than they really were.  He made himself better than, someone crunching numbers on the side lines would say that he was.  Goofy.  Happy.  Talented.  Immersed. Four time Super Bowl Champion.

     Two components that I would like to talk about in the athlete.  Physical.  Mental.

     Physically, you are blessed (or not) with the genetics that you are born with.  Training physically there are memory receptors.  Kinesthetics.  'Proprioception; is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement.'  So in normal people terms, you want to practice physically correct and your body will actually remember it.

     Mentally, you also have the gifts that you were born with and that you put effort into developing.  Psycho-Cybernetics is a technique of elite athletes utilize in mental visualizing your perfect event.  So in normal people terms, you want to practice mental correctness of your event (mental visualization) and your mind will remember it.

     I think that this is what makes a Joe Montana.  He just knows.  He just re-acts.  It is not the over thinking that some can do. Or the over powering that others will try.  It is reflex.  He becomes the game.  "The Zone"!

An ounce of practice is worth

more than tons of 

preaching.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Practice does not make perfect.

Only perfect practice

makes perfect.

-Vince Lombardi

      So how does all this equate to sheep dogging?  Out in the middle of 'no mans land', where we are trying to re-introduce the sport, it reminds me that practice is important.  Not just time invested.  But it is important to practice smarter and not harder.  CONSISTENCY. 

Addendum:  This does not mean that you have to have a perfect practice.  You have to make all the mistakes (and sometimes that is many) before you get it right.  How many three pointers do you miss before you start hitting "nothing but net"?