Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Short answer is YES, wrestling practice should be fun. But let me walk through it and make the case for why the fun should not come from playing games.

First, let me say that I ask this question about wrestling practice because my two boys wrestle and wrestling practice is rarely what a kid would call fun.  But really I’m questioning practice in general.  Should practice be fun?

I’ll walk through this using wrestling as my point of reference, but be mindful that wrestling is simply a metaphor for music practice, football practice, track practice, soccer practice, practicing a speech or presentation, etc.

Let’s Establish the Main Goals for Practice:

1. To help you get better (practice makes perfect)
   Being “perfect” is not a real goal of practice as perfect is such a fleeting idea. It’s just a fun thing to say and what the quote really means is practice makes you get better when done with perfect as the goal.
2. To help you win
   Winning is relative (i.e., no obvious way to win at giving a presentation at work vs. who wins a wrestling match is clear cut). So, to put it differently winning may be a measurement of being the best, becoming a recognized expert, or achieving a goal.

Keeping that in mind, I submit to you that there are two types of people when it comes to practice:

1. Getting better is the main objective of practice, and winning is seen as a by-product
2. Winning is the main objective and getting better is seen as a by-product.

Person 1 vs. Person 2 Dictates if Practice Should be Fun

I would argue that practice does not have to be fun for Person 2.  Person 2 only cares about winning and will do whatever it takes to win.  If practice is boring and the practice environment is uncomfortable it won’t matter as long as they keep winning.  Once person 2 stops winning, they would likely rather quit than change their perspective. Let’s put person 2 aside for a moment. Person 2 is a personality type that helps many people reach the pinnacle of success at the expense of day-to-day happiness, and that’s fine if that’s the life you choose.

For everybody else, practice is a journey. The destination is important, but the journey is just as important. In this case, getting better is the journey and winning is the destination. If practice is boring and the practice environment is uncomfortable Person 1 won’t last long even if they win most of the time. What’s more, unlike Person 2, losing can be fun for Person 1 when they test themselves against the best and can see themselves improving.

Next, the obvious question is what makes practice fun for Person 1?

Games Don’t Makes Practice Fun

The first thing that comes to most people’s mind when they think about a fun practice is games. However, if playing games in practice does not make you better then by definition it’s not practice. Most games are fun, but most games aren’t practice. Therefore, if the goal is to make practice fun then the go to activity can’t always be a game.

For example, if a coach runs a boring practice for 90 minutes then does a 30 minute game at the end that has nothing to do with getting better the coach will not achieve the goal of making practice fun. The kids that thrive on enjoying the journey of practice will have some fun and not get better, and the kids who thrive on winning will hate wasting time playing a game that does nothing to help them win. This scenario is a lose lose.

A better approach to making practice fun is a “martial arts” approach to practice that focuses on mastery of levels and tracking progress of mastery (i.e., earning white belts and black belts). Research from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that in youth sports in particular, the perception of progress is a major component of what makes a sport fun. Combining this concept with the fact that earning swag and team rituals are additional factors that make sports fun, and you can see why the “martial arts” approach to fun is superior to games.

In addition, the process of focusing and tracking mastery is beneficial to both the destination and journey personality types. As a result, answering the question about if practice should be fun is a no brainer. Of course it should be fun. When fun is a byproduct of getting better instead of pointless games, the fun always benefits the practice process.