December 2011

Sports Strategies for Practice and Performance: Part 3-The Game Day/Concert Day Routine

December 10, 2011 22:52

So tomorrow, I'm playing a sold-out concert (in orchestra), for which we had a about 5 hours of rehearsal. So I thought this would be a good time to touch on my Game/Day Performance Day routine and how I apply them to performance.

From a sports point of view, before a competition the following things are most important to me:

==getting enough sleep the night before==

This means 9 hours for me but I usually just listen to my body.

==packing/wearing the right clothing==

In sports, this means staying warm and keeping muscles loose until right before the start. On concert days, will still pack layers, but most important, I always wear gloves when I'm playing to keep my hands warm and nimble. Glenn Gould did the same thing.

==eating right to make sure my blood sugar stays even==

A good breakfast with protein is mandatory. I stay away from caffein though, since it make me jittery. Most of us know what it feels like when blood sugar drops, and our bodies slow down. But when our blood sugar spikes, our body has to expend extra energy to make insulin to store the extra sugar that process leaves us with less energy than we originally started with.

==proper warm up before the start==

I like to warm up with scales and excerpts for an hour, take a 30 min break to do last min-prep and stretch lightly before the concert and be backstage/onstage warming up for another 30min before the concert.

==keeping my mental focus/visualizing the race==

I like to visualize/walk though my race course before I run, for performances, I just listen to the recordings repeatedly and follow along with the score if I have it in front of me.

==keeping my eyes fresh==

I'm extremely near-sighted so and my eyes get tired regardless of whether I'm in glasses or contacts. Generally, eyes get tired because when we're reading because our corneas are locked into one position while we focus at a specific depth. Changing the depth of focus can feel lighter on your eyes so I will often switch between glasses to contacts and vice versa. If you've practiced in contacts before, you'll probably already have a good handle on whether how long it takes before your eyes de-oxygenate and get blurry in contacts. Also when my glasses are off, my eyes are completely relaxed, so on concert day, I wear glasses while warming up, and take my glasses off whenever possible to keep my eyes rested and then just put in my contacts before the concert.

==staying calm==

Depending on how nervous you are before a performance, you could do anything from light exercise, to meditation to breathing exercises. They key for me is always to time it so that I'm not rushing before I get onstage.

So I hope this helps. Time for me to get some rest.

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Sports Strategies for Practice and Performance: Part 2-The Post Practice Workout

December 5, 2011 19:47

So unless you're a disciplined athlete, you may not be going to the gym for your morning workout every day. And that's ok, because for me, one of the most important things is that workout you get in at the end of the day, after you've done all your practicing. This is usually light.

As you all know, when we practice or rehearse, our muscles can locked in certain holding patterns, that lead to tension or pain. The idea of exercising or working out after practice is to break those holding patterns and use your muscles in a new way, in order to relax them.

For me, this usually involves swimming because:
-it's upper body intensive
-it's low-impact
-it's also difficult to injure yourself while swimming

In practice:
-warm up (at least 5min)
etches (15sec per)
-swim
etches (not always necessary, usually if your muscles are tight afterwards, 5-10sec per)
-cool down (2min)

The amount of time you spend in each phase depends on your personal level of fitness and time constraints.

Also, it's helpful to have a snack that has a mix of anti-oxidants, protein, and carbs to right after working out (or even practicing/rehearsal), just to minimize the lactic acid breakdown of your muscles.

I think anything that uses your upper body in a significant way, without pushing it, would be helpful.

A bonus benefit for me is the stronger my arm muscles get, the less often I feel pain when I play.

Find me on the web:

1. MySpace
2.LinkedIn
3. Huffington Post
4.Violin Profiles
5. Instant Encore
6.Youtube Channel
7. My Political Blog
8. My Music Blog

2 replies

Sports Strategies for Practice and Performance: Introduction

December 2, 2011 00:25

My approach to practice and getting ready for performances has always been a very athletic one. It's probably because I've competed in running, swimming, and sailing races for as long as I've played the violin. What always awed me was how similar the demands on a person's body could be: the coordination required, the cognitive function and muscle memory (also used in sailing).

Admittedly, I have not reached the Holy Grail of playing with technical brilliance while staying completely relaxed. (I think I'll leave that to my teacher, Jesse Mills.) But I'll share some common sports training strategies over the next few blogs that you can try out if you like.