Some years ago, a fabulous tennis player named Bjorn Borg was winning everything in sight. Naturally, everyone wanted to know how he came to be so good. In an interview, he said that he practiced tennis five hours each day, in itself an excellent display of discipline. So far, so good.
There is a quote, attributed to Artur Rubinstein, the late, great, much-loved pianist, “Don’t tell me how talented you are, tell me how hard you work”.
Yeah, well, lots of people work hard, or at least put in the hours, and they are not necessarily the best at anything.
Here’s the kicker. Borg went on to say that every second of that five hours was at the intensity of tournament play and that every shot counted as though it was a match point. Now we’re talking a whole other thing. We are including, along with physical stamina, incredible mental focus, motivation and sustained commitment. Anyone can play at an intense level for a game, or a set, once in a while. To play at that level of engagement for five hours, every single day, year in and year out, is awe-inspiring.
How that translates for me is that I aspire to be engaged all the time when practicing. I believe that practicing and performing are, ideally, the same. If I can be totally present, in the moment, and focused on the task at hand in the privacy of my practice room, I stand a vastly greater chance of staying with that kind of focus out on stage.
It sure makes practice time fly!
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