The 5 Minute Practice

Hey everyone, it’s Heather Wayman, Director at Belly Dance Geek and today’s podcast is about practice. We all want to practice…well, maybe not all of us, but I think we all want to practice, at least at some point and we make valiant efforts to do so. And sometimes things just don’t work out. You might be having a really bad day. You might get stuck at work or your car won’t start. You missed the bus, Whatever. Everything just seems to be going to crap.    

And then when you get home, you might discover that you forgot to take anything out for dinner to defrost for dinner.  

So there’s that. And if you can get past all of that, by the time you get home and fed, you’re too tired and cranky to put practice clothes on, much less actually dance.

So, sometimes it’s just not a great day. There’s nothing wrong with skipping a practice session once in a while. But when you miss a practice session, it often turns into two practices. And then a week goes by and then before you know it, you’ve missed out on hours and hours of practice. When five minutes would have kept you on track.  

Now, if you want to make consistent progress in your dance, you have to practice. We all know this And this is true whether your goal is to become a professional dancer or just prepare for your next hafla. But life gets in the way and things happen.

That’s why you need a practice plan for those days when you just can’t squeeze in a full practice session. And surprisingly, five minutes of practice can really make a big difference.   So when you’re tired, stressed and short on time, it’s tempting to skip your practice session entirely. But frequent practice even in trivially short sessions tells your brain that what you’re practicing is important and your brain obliges by optimizing the path to that information.

So while you won’t make a ton of progress in those five minutes, you’ll actually accomplished more in your next full length practice session.   Plus, you’ll maintain the momentum of your practice habit so practicing will feel like a normal and natural part of your day, rather than a guilt inducing to do on your list.  

Okay, so how do you plan a five minute practice session? When you only have by minutes to practice, you cannot waste a second. So, it’s really important to plan your session carefully. If you’re working on a particular piece. One run through is all you may have time for, and that’s okay. But if you’re working on a point of technique or a combo, you can try this format.  

Okay. So, in minute one, you could do a quickie warm up just to get your blood flowing and your joints loosened up. Some good options for this can be shoulder rolls with plies, hip circles, side stretches, hamstring stretches. You can roll up your spine. You can just do all sorts of things. But just for one minute, Okay, It’s tempting to skip the warm of when you’re pressed for time, but don’t do it. You won’t dance as well without it, and it prepares your brain to learn. And you’re also a lot more likely to end up with some kind of an injury if you skip this,  

Okay. So, minutes two and three can be nit picky practice. You can review material that you’re working on. You can do it really, really slowly focusing on the details. Things like alignment, position, which muscle is working, etc. Just be sure to work both sides equally because we all have our favorites. I and you don’t want to end up with an imbalance.  

Okay, in minute four, you can… we’re going to call this “tempo” practice. Practice the material at a speed that is challenging but doable. At first. This will be a moderate tempo and over time, you can work up to a faster tempo.   And then men at five, which will be practicing in context. This is where we’ll practice the material while dancing. You can improvise or use it in a pre-planned combination.  

Okay, so let’s let’s just look in an example. Um, let’s say that I’m learning a new choreography and I want to polish up a particular move, and I don’t have a lot of time, but I’ve got 5 minutes. I could find those five minutes.   So, here’s what I can do. The first minute I warm up. Um, the second minute I’m going to practice. Let’s just say I’m going to practice hip slides with a shimmy and maybe an accent on, the on the ends.

Okay, so I practice those hip slide with a shimmy and I start off in…going through each position. They’re going to slide back and forth and then I add the accent.   OK, now, at first I could do this slowly and deliberately making the move as perfect as I can manage at the time. And in the third minute, I’ll do the same thing…on the other side. Now, this would work better if it was a movement that, you know, maybe had a directional change on it. But you can you get the idea.  

And then in the fourth minute, I would practice that at a medium tempo and then try to speed it up. And if you know if it’s just to get a little bit messy on the accents. If I’m doing it too quickly, then I can slow it down if it’s not nice and clean.  

And in the fifth minute, I would practice that in a combination or in the context of dancing. Okay, so and that’s all in just five minutes and I could get those hips slides with those accents and shimmies just really super crisp and clean and they look great, okay?  

Um, so, it’s true that you won’t make a huge progress in five minutes. But remember, we’re not concerned with what you can accomplish during your mini session. We are focused on the big picture.  

Our top priority is to maintain the practice habit. And if you show up today you are much more likely to show up tomorrow and the day after, and next week and next month, too. But skipping today puts all that future practice at risk. Plus, tiny practice really, really adds up. Even if you never do a full length practice ever, ever, ever again, five minutes a day add up to 30 hours and 25 minutes of practice per year. Not too shabby right?  

How much could you approve your shimmies or your finger cymbals or your improv skills after clocking in 30 hours of practice?   OK, let’s summarize…while you do need to get consistent practice if you want to make progress, there are some days when you just can’t squeeze in a full session. In that situation. It’s actually better to practice for five minutes, than to skip it entirely. That tells your brain that the material is still important, which makes your later, full practice sessions more effective.  

To get the benefit, the most benefit, be sure to:

• Do a quick warm up. Don’t skip it. You’re tempted, but don’t do it.

• Practices one topic slowly and deliberately.

• Practicing the same thing at tempo and then practice it in a dancing context.  

When you only have five minutes to practice. You can’t waste a second collecting your stuff. So be prepared. Prepare your five minute practice plan right now, before you need it. Because one of these days, and it could be tomorrow, you might need this plan. And if you don’t have it, then you’re probably going to end up skipping that session.  

Write down what you want to work on. Pick out a five minute song with a suitable tempo and place your notes, your music and your hip scarf and whatever else you need, right next to your music player. And with your five minute practice plan in place, even bad days won’t be a lot of stop you.  

Right now, it’s your turn. Have you ever done a many practice? If you haven’t it is super, super useful. How do you maintain your practice momentum? Um, and what are your favorite practice tips?  

If you have a practice habit, kudos to you. Absolutely fabulous. If you don’t have one and you really want one, you can do it. You absolutely can. And if you have a habit, and you know, it’s just kind of like floating along.

And you’d like more tips on how to really, really, um…jazz up your practice, have it and keep it going nice and fresh, then you might want to consider our course How To Build a Sustainable Practice Habit.   It’s a nine week course and it’s coaching and lots of in depth tips on how to make your practice habit sustainable, Which is why it’s called that and the next live run of this program is starting on January 13th 2020.  

And I would love for you to join me in that that course. I’ve also got an early bird special going on. You can actually save 25% by enrolling early and this savings is only going to be available between now and Cyber Monday, through Cyber Monday on December 2nd, 2019. All you have to do is go check it out at www.BellyDanceGeek.com/habit and then put the premium package in your cart and use coupon code: earlybird. That’s all one word and just do that, Um any time between now through December 2nd, and we will see you on the course.