Practice refers to repeating a task over and over in order to learn it and to perform it correctly. As you learned in Fitness for Life: Middle School, the way you practice is important. You learned that the old saying “practice makes perfect” is probably not correct. Your practice must be GOOD practice to be useful. Some experts have suggested this saying instead: “Perfect practice makes perfect.”

Practice helps you learn to perform a task the correct way. Information or feedback from a teacher or from watching a video can help you focus on doing your practice well. Repeating good practice using feedback helps you learn. So it is true that people who practice a lot often improve the most and become the best performers. But there are times when too much practice can become a problem. For example, if you practice so much that you get excessively fatigued, you may start to practice a skill incorrectly—your practice is no longer “good” practice. Also if you practice so much that you become bored with the practice you may not focus on the important parts of the skill that you are trying to improve.

The answer to the question is yes. There are times when too much practice makes practice less effective. To combat this you can rotate the skills into several shorter practice sessions rather than doing excessive repetitions all at once. Also practice can be done using drills that are fun and keep you from getting bored.