What’s with these games? I am moving away from straight “drills” while still aiming to land and analyze a specified number of tricks. Thus I’m accomplishing the same thing, but in a more fun, more naturally engaging dramatic activity. For more info, see “How I practice, what it all means.”
Anywhere there are numbers, games can be created. Games engage the mind and the passion. I’m very influenced by two books: The Talent Code and The Little Book of Talent, both by Daniel Coyle. He writes, “Drills kill”. I have not yet fallen into a rote way to muscle through drills, but it would be a danger after awhile. Games are the way to go! In fact, I cannot believe how fun they are!
At first I was trying to think of how the classic game S.K.A.T.E could be recreated as a solitaire game. It is possible, if I do it with 2 makes of each trick in a set, and compete against myself like I’m two teams. The first make “Team A”, and the second make, “Team B”. It would be ok, but I wouldn’t be too excited to track the record of both “teams.” It would be pretty arbitrary. It would just be a more complicated way to do a drill set, and I’m sure “Team B” would always win, because I’d be one attempt more warmed up.
So instead of dicking around with a solitaire version of the skate classic S.K.A.T.E, I’m created games where I mark various numbers while working on a trick or an entire “Practice Set”. That way, I’m only one “team” (jeez, I’m only one skater), and I compete against my numbers from previous rounds or previous days.
The actual tricks included in any given game will vary. I might track my progress of components within 25 attempts of one trick, or I might complete every trick in a “Practice Set” and then link the entry to the list of tricks in that set. (A practice set is a list of tricks, I just renamed it from what used to be called a “drill set.”) As of writing this page, my practice set consists of 22 tricks, one make each, and is called the Practice Set 2.2.
In the future I shall also be inventing games to include practice of height, speed, distance, accuracy, grinds, slides, manuals.
I’m noting the names and rules of the games as I create them, such as the M.A.T Game, and the Component Game as submenus of this page.
Relearning to Skateboard 