Instructor Posts: 13.792
Joined: 11-March 10
From: England
I get a lot of comments on my speed picking video talking about various ways of improving speed & stamina - or what I'm going to refer as to physical performance. One thing I see is that there is a lot of people who still swear by the method of cycling licks slowly over the metronome and then only increasing when they feel they have mastered the speed they are at.
The metronome incremental speed increase may indeed work and, who knows, may actually be the most efficient way of doing it. We'll never know because there's no data and probably never could be. All we have is individual people's personal testimonials.
And here's another one - mine!
I'm looking at doing my first half marathon later this year so I've been upping my running training recently after some time off due to injury. Increasing mileage kind of requires a similar approach to someone getting into running for the first time. You'll be mixing up running and walking. The walking breaks serve as a breather and for you to stop your muscles working at a higher rate, thus stopping too much of a lactic acid build up. Better to take the break before you get burned out, rather than wait until you've pushed yourself to empty and then hope you get some steam back during the walk.
Some people offer technical guidelines to follow involving time / distance etc but in truth, the most useful thing you can do is learn to listen to your body. You can feel when your muscles are getting tight and tired. You can feel when you can't breathe, right? So the answer is to push yourself comfortably and back off before you use up all your reserves, giving you an opportunity to push again after a short break.
Sound like guitar playing?
Remember what I said about using speed bursts to build stamina and quicker reflexes? If you tried to pick constantly at 180bpm you'll burn out but how about a cluster of notes at 180bpm followed by a break for a count of 4, then another cluster? Or you could dispense with exact times and just push for a speed burst when you feel sufficiently rested enough. Listen to how you feel.
Establish that connection between your body and your decisions and I believe it will allow you to train safer, for longer and, not only that, you'll trust yourself more too.
This is just a testimonial, there's no proof, only what you see!
If you wondered why I'm not keen on the metronome thing it's because focusing on numbers provides a mental obstacle to overcome. Let's say you're at 70bpm and have been for 2 weeks. After a while, all you can think is "When will I get to 75? Or "Can I?". And let's also say that you start your warm up at 60bpm and go up in 5bpm increments until you reach your previous 'best'. Well, what if you're slightly shaky that day and start to feel 'off' at a lower tempo than the tempo your previously managed? To me, that is a confidence sapper right there and you do not need that.
Lose the numbers and instead let your physicality do the talking. You'll not know how fast or how long you did something previously so you won't have a target to beat. This takes off a lot of the pressure and allows you to focus on pushing yourself in the manner described above. Safely and naturally, all while listening to your body's feedback and practising according to how much energy you've got that day, how tired etc, not by what the numbers on the metronome say.
Ben Higgins Improving Physical Performance Jul 25 2015, 03:56 PM
