Practice Versus Playing
Volleyball Player
I was at one time a serious competing volleyball player – when I was in my prime that is 
doing grass volleyball tournaments, then later beach tournaments. I never got good enough to break into the professional level due the fact I had a day job, but I learned a lot about the nature of practice, something that can be applied to learning how to win, or become good at anything in general.
I spent hours in my back yard with a 15 foot tall net so that I could practice jump serves, then hit the track running, doing sprints and stamina drills, hitting a local volleyball court to practice shots – I even went down to the local high-school and would serve against a wall so that I could practice passing the returning ball into a hoop. All of that practice, however, was controlled. I could set up the perfect environment – how high I tossed the ball for a jump serve, where a ball was set on the net – it was great for stamina building and learning to focus on my entire body positioning and motions to maximize efficiency, but all of that practice was void of actual competition. What actually counts, is learning to read and react to the events on the court in a live setting.
There is a mental aspect of playing that you get only from the actual game. Reading the other player’s intent, coordinating with your partner(s), dealing with your own ups and downs both mentally and emotionally. The environment in a game changes constantly. You have ”lead-ups” to a very important part of the game that pushes the adrenaline, the pressure of maintaining things the way they are, trying to push past-mistakes out of your mind so you can focus on the next play. Everything in this paragraph, you cannot get from practicing. You learn it only in the context of actual game play.
My Perspective
It is good to learn theory. It is good to practice jump serves. It is good to practice scales, fast and slow. It is good to run, sprint and drill. However, none of these can replace playing. You can learn an arpeggio in all 7 modes, but in the game, if your team-mate doesn’t set you up the way you want, your arpeggio is not going to turn out the way you expected it. Dealing with change is the end-goal. How you adjust to your surroundings will define how good you get. Playing music, playing volleyball, almost any sport is a team effort.
The best practice is to get in the game and play. The game is fast, and there is usually no time to think about proper positioning from a technical standpoint – you learn from experience how to position yourself because on the court, there’s no time to philosophize, or contemplate theory. There’s only reaction, and learning to react in a good way is done only by getting out there.
So try to play as much as you can, in as a real an environment as you can find. The more play time, the more experience, and therefore the better you’ll become as a player. So get in a band – and practice your leads in a real setting where the pressure gets to you. When you can’t play in a band, try to set up the best environment you can to mimic real life playing – backing tracks, use a looping station… anything that causes musical motion around you that forces you to adjust. Introduce new moves in the context of the game. You can learn to win, regardless of what you play. You can learn to deal with change.
