After a long day of studying hard all around UBC (mostly at IK Barber), I walked hastily from Rose Garden, after I picked up my gear for badminton at UBC’s Badminton Club, all the way to Osborne Gym near Thunderbird Stadium. Let’s just say I had what a friend of mine called “Bad Karma” today.
I went on the court to hit my first bird and my strings snapped after the first hit.
After waiting the whole day for my long awaited exercise, I only got about 2 games (which average at about 10 minutes each) in the hour and 15 minutes I was there (badminton didn’t start until 5:30 pm and I had my first class at 9 am).
On what was suppose to be my third game, I picked up the wrong racket and on the first hit I swung with my racket with no strings and hit my left wrist hard. I walked off the court to grab my other racket but my spot had been taken.
So the whole purpose of all that was building up to what happened next. I sat down and realized that almost everytime I miss a hit, I repeat the stroke. Some people say it’s just something people who play badminton a lot do. It’s become a habit and I think it’s partly because repeating the stroke helps build muscle memory to improve it for next time. And then I sat and thought.
I do that for just about everything in my life.
Whenever I miss a three pointer during basketball, I repeat the motion to make sure I have the proper technique/follow through.
Back when I was still taking Math, whenever I got a question wrong, I’d do a similar one (if time permitted) to repeat the process even if I thought I knew how to work the problem out just so I could build onto my knowledge base of whatever I was doing.
If I can’t pronounce a word, I keep repeating it and sounding it out until it “sounds better”.
Many teachers/profs tell students not to just memorize the concepts and try to understand it. I’m sure that’s the case for almost every course, but can’t a method used to understand these concepts mean sometimes going over many problems to see more examples of it? Sometimes, taking a second look, or just giving yourself a reminder makes that big of a difference.
If i’ve learned anything from school all these years, it’s that repeating a certain studying technique or reviewing things taught with another friend or two really makes that big of a difference. I know teachers often tell us this, but I know many people don’t believe it. And sure it doesn’t work for everyone, but do yourself a favour and give it a shot and your university experience/rest of your life may be that much more successful and pleasing (if marks tingle your taste buds!)