We can do 1,000 things at once. But we can only focus on 1.

I find myself telling parents and students this often.

Yes, we can walk, chew gum, and hold a conversation at the same time. But when we were learning each of those skills we had to give it our full effort. It is only after extensive practice that we have the chance to do all of them at the same time.

In the lesson and at home in practice we are being selective and essentially ignoring almost everything so that we can actively change just one thing. Those other skills will go on in the background. Just like how we can continue to breathe or stand without thinking about it. But we won’t ever try to change multiple things at once.

Frustration arises in practice not because we aren’t doing enough, but because we are trying to do to much.

Simply ask yourself this question. “What problem are we solving?”

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I returned from a workshop this weekend full of ideas about the bow hand. I see so many students plagued by tension and unable to rest the bow hairs on the string. These are the first things I do to target a locked up bow hand.

Three Important Concepts

1. Strength you can release is POWER
   Strength you can’t release is TENSION
2. Very rarely does the bow hand hold up the bow. The string holds up the bow.
3. Bow arm train analogy. The upper arm is the engine of the bow. The forearm is the energy. The palm is a vacant cargo car. The fingers are passengers sleeping in the passenger car. Of course the entire train moves, but only the engine leads. Everything else must follow. (Many students think the passengers drive the train).

Three Important Restorative Exercises

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