Changing partners whilst working on a skill is something that has become more of a problem recently as I'm advancing in to more challenging skills.
Recently I was at a jam and I was practicing some standing hand to hands.
I calibrated with a flyer and did several attempts and rounds and really started getting it dialled in.
We were feeling pretty good about it and wanted to do more, but I was getting a little tired and needed a short break.
Whilst I was taking a break I suggested her to try with another base.
This was not such a great idea it turns out...
She then proceeded to calibrate with him and threw a few standing hand to hands too which was great.
Nothing against them nailing it and practicing, that's all good.
The problem was when they were done we wanted to do some more rounds.
But when we tried again it was all out of sync and tempo, and we tried several times to recalibrate it, but it was pretty challenging.
We managed to get a couple more in, but it had basically just reset us back to being uncalibrated.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened either.
It tends to occur in tricks that have a high level of skill and technique.
Because Acro is such a connection based practice it makes sense that each connection will be different with different partners, and therefore when training highly skilled movements jumping directly from one partner to another will disrupt the connection and the technique.
Just to be clear I am all for training skills with different partners as I've mentioned in previous posts.
But I have come to realise that in a single session it is most effective to not switch back and forth between partners, especially for challenging skills.
It is more effective to train that one skill with a partner repeatedly throughout the session, or until you're satisfied or done with it.
Then if you want to change and train with a different partner go for it, just don't change back and forth.
This is also very true for dynamic skills like pops and Icarians.
I noticed this before when attempting castaways and other challenging pops.
Now I tend to implement in a jam that when doing some challenging Icarian pops I will work with one partner and we can join with another pair to spot each other and take turns coaching and working through the skill.
But we stay with each specific partner until we are satisfied with the trick.
In the past I would have worked in a quad and we would each keep switching flyers and bases.
The benefits I have noticed from implementing these changes is...
more consistency
less safety risk of things going wrong
quicker calibration and understanding of the skill
more satisfaction
I've been implementing this pretty well for a while, but clearly I totally forgot in this recent jam, and it was a good reminder.
So at least I got reminded of this and I can share it with you all so you don't have to go through the same struggles. :)
Cheers,
Cas
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