2025-08-14
and on practicing effectively.
This article is adapted from articles written by nyannurs, Horie and SGH. They are linked below.
| Outline |
|---|
| Preamble |
| 1. Defining skill |
| 2. Effective practice |
| 3. Mental barriers |
| 4. Conlusion |
| Sources |
Getting good at a new thing takes a lot of time and practice. For the first few days/weeks/months, you will improve rapidly as you’re eliminating the most common of beginner mistakes. This is why a lot people that are better at that skill than you are will tell you to “just do it more and more often” when you ask them how to get better. At the beginner level that’s true, you should be doing it more and more often. However, what people asking that usually want to know, is:
How do you improve from the beginner level onwards?
The first thing you have to realise is that skill is not constant. If you just got started practicing a new skill, you’re probably already better than the last time. Further along, you may notice that some days you’re performing better than others. That’s all natural and completely fine, you will have Good Days and you will have Bad Days. More on those later.
Your level of skill exists between a low point and a high point: the skill floor and skill ceiling, respectively.
| Skill floor | The lowest level that you are able to consistently perform at. This is your global average. |
| Skill ceiling | The level that you peak at. This is your personal limit where’ve you set your personal bests. |
You should be able to reach your skill floor almost all the time. On days where you are performing well, you can get close to or surpass your skill ceiling.
We place a hypothetical level of skill on a line of beginner to number 1 leading expert. Between the two bars is where we find that hypothetical skill. The left bar is the skill floor and the right bar is the skill ceiling.
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Beginner Intermediate Leading Expert
This is the important part of the article. Here are general guidelines for a consistent and effective practice schedule.
An effective practice session results in meaningful progress.
Your practice should consist of session of two types: Push and Pull.
Remember those bars on the skill line from earlier?
| Push | Increase skill ceiling by pushing your limit. |
| Pull | Raise skill floor by focusing on technique, fixing mistakes and gaining more knowledge. |
By increasing your skill ceiling you can increase your skill level as a whole. It can therefore also move your skill floor upward, but not as much as a good Pull session.
By raising your skill floor the gap between your skill floor and your skill ceiling decreases. It might even slightly move up your skill ceiling, but not as much as a good Push session.
Experiment with how much Push you do in relation to Pull.
Sidenote: The importance of warming up. Warming up gets you into a flow state where your brain is already focused and your muscles are ready for the push. This makes focusing to increase your skill ceiling way easier than if you start pushing from a cold start. Warmup helps identify if you will be having a Good Day or a Bad Day. It also leaves you less prone to injury, which is very important for keeping your consistency.
Good Days are days where you are able to have an effective session. Bad Days are days where you’re not able to have an effective session.
So what exacly happens when you have a Bad Day? Let’s map it out.
Bad day skill | | Good day skill
v v
---------|======|----------------------------
Beginner Intermediate Leading Expert
On Bad Days, your skill is less then what you planned it to be.
For Push sessions, identify which aspects feel good and which don’t. Focus on the aspects that do, and try to Push those. If nothing feels good, it’s reasonable to switch your Push session to a Pull session.
The same is true for having a planned Pull session, switch to a Push session if pulling doesn’t feel good. If it turns out neither type of session is working today, it’s okay to end your session early.
You will have points in your practice where you make a mistake or mess up. Instead of moving on right away, try to analyze why you made that mistake. What caused it? Recognizing mistakes is essential to having an effective session.
How exactly you can identify weak points varies from skill to skill, but asking someone more experienced than you is usually a safe bet. Even if what you’re practicing is a solo activity, there is probably a community of people that are also practicing that same skill. They can (and are willing to, if you ask nicely) give you pointers on where you have the most room for improvement.
Being consistent in your practice means that you have a set schedule for when and for how long you practice. It becomes easier if you integrate that alotted time for practice into your daily routine.
For example: I have my practice session after dinner every other day and it lasts for 1.5 to 2 hours, maybe longer if I’m having a Good Day.
If your schedule has daily practice, it’s important to know when you should take a rest day. A streak of Bad Days caused by overtraining on Good Days can be very hard to deal with, both physically and mentally. Allow yourself to recover, but make sure that they don’t throw you off your routine.
Your next Pull session you should then put more emphasis on the problem areas.
Dedicating yourself to learning a new skill requires a strong growth mindset.
If you’re not having fun, trying to improve will feel like fighting a mountain. Having fun keeps you motivated and a can-do attitude is invaluable.
“I can’t do it yet, but with more practice and hard work, I will be able to do it.”
Motivation and frustration are two moods you will most often find yourself in during practice. If you’re having a Good Day, your motivation grows. If you’re having a Bad Day, your frustration grows.
These two are each other’s opposite and your goal is to find a balance between them in order to keep having fun. Motivation is great, it keeps you practicing for longer and you’re also more likely to have fun during practice. Frustration is a downer, but don’t let it discourage you.
That doesn’t mean “don’t get emotional” though!
You should find a healthy way to channel your negative emotions (frustration) into positive emotions (motivation). Always remember: if you find yourself too frustrated and/or not having fun, ending your session early is okay.
While competition is a great source of motivation, it can become a bigger source of frustration. You may end up constantly comparing yourself to your peers and their improvement instead of that of your own, causing frustration. Impostor syndrome is real and can drastically reduce the amount of fun you have or even induce stress while practicing.
Improving is not a simple question of time and effort. It takes dedication to practice consistently while addressing weak points. Keeping a good mindset while facing a tough challenge is very hard, but it’s important to take breaks from time to time as well.
I hope my advice can help you use the time you are dedicating to the skill you choose to practice more effectively.
Feel free to link this article to anyone who complains that they suck, are plateauing, not improving or stuck at their current level. Being good at practicing is also a skill you can learn.
If you feel the need to contact me, my username on Discord is at the top of the page.