muscle memory

At my daughter's rowing exhibition this past weekend I overheard a coach confronting the kids regarding their form as they returned to the dock after a race. It was for their form at that moment, not during the race. I commented to him that good form is always important. His reply was that proper form needs to be practiced all of the time to avoid laziness and to cause it to become "second nature".

I was reminded of my son who plays piano. As he practiced I would constantly remind him, "Slow down if you need to in order to play it correctly. Your focus right now is to learn to play it the right way. Be careful not to practice it the wrong way. You can speed up once you have it."

Any good coach in any discipline will promote the same. Practice the fundamentals until they become natural, you perform it right all the time. It's the way that feels right. You don't teach wrong technique in hopes to avoid it. You teach right so that wrong will seem foreign.

The same with counterfeit money. The training is on what is right. The fake is spotted and called out (I'm not one of these people that won't call a spade a spade) but the training, the focus, the repetition is on what is right.

This is not to say we never take time out to understand the affect of the wrong motion, etc. but it's not the focus of our training.

I think the same is true of spirituality and therefore I remain confused as I once again heard someone seemingly defending their carnal nature.