I’ve also heard a lot of coaches complain about students who pay them $100+/hr not do the homework that they are assigned. The coaches beg and plead, but the students just don’t want to do the work.
Indeed this is a common experience among music teachers. A singing teacher I know, who teaches middle-aged amateurs, says they never practice what they’re told to, and pretty much come along to (a) do a little expensive supervised practice and (b) have a nice chat about anything.
In contrast I started singing lessons a few years ago, and did what a pro singer friend advised me: recorded the lesson. Then I listened back to the whole thing afterward, and did several hours practice before the next lesson, doing everything the teacher had told me.
At my second lesson, the teacher said I had got much better in just a week—like, as if I’d had months of lessons in between—and he couldn’t quite believe it. Presumably almost no-one remembers most of what the teacher told them, let alone practices it for hours between each lesson, like you’re meant to.
The same is true of physiotherapy. I once had some treatment for a sprained ankle. The physiotherapist gave me some daily exercises to do at home, and explained that if I did them then they would work, but in practice almost no-one ever does them. (Or they do them once or twice then give up.)
This may suggest a point even more basic than More Dakka (which IIRC said, if something doesn’t seem to work, or only works a bit, try doing it more): if you don’t do something at all, then it definitely won’t work.
Indeed this is a common experience among music teachers. A singing teacher I know, who teaches middle-aged amateurs, says they never practice what they’re told to, and pretty much come along to (a) do a little expensive supervised practice and (b) have a nice chat about anything.
In contrast I started singing lessons a few years ago, and did what a pro singer friend advised me: recorded the lesson. Then I listened back to the whole thing afterward, and did several hours practice before the next lesson, doing everything the teacher had told me.
At my second lesson, the teacher said I had got much better in just a week—like, as if I’d had months of lessons in between—and he couldn’t quite believe it. Presumably almost no-one remembers most of what the teacher told them, let alone practices it for hours between each lesson, like you’re meant to.
The same is true of physiotherapy. I once had some treatment for a sprained ankle. The physiotherapist gave me some daily exercises to do at home, and explained that if I did them then they would work, but in practice almost no-one ever does them. (Or they do them once or twice then give up.)
This may suggest a point even more basic than More Dakka (which IIRC said, if something doesn’t seem to work, or only works a bit, try doing it more): if you don’t do something at all, then it definitely won’t work.
Thanks for the data points!