Started by Beast, July 10, 2012 · 4 Replies · 2,188 Views
When I'm working my static holds, such as a variation of the planche, if my form begins to waiver to being a bit sloppy should I just bail or try to recover?
basically Im wondering how literally I should take the "perfect practice makes perfect", should I just ditch any attempts that begin to turn to shit or do I gain something from recovering?
"Perfect practice makes perfect" is meant to its utmost literal sense! 
Usually, if a hold ends up being sloppy, I ditch it. I think it's better to rest and try better on the next set than to expend energy to fix the form. The exception being handstands. I usually try to recover failing handstands to the best of my ability because as a beginner, good freestanding handstands are hard to come by.
How sloppy is a bit. All of us will be a bit off and need small corrections fairly often. Key word being small. If your form really starts to go then you are better resetting, make sure your not trying to work beyond yor ability to far or are not trying to force a position while over fatigued.
at the more advanced levels of static holds it's normal that form goes a little, just like a 1RM in powerlifting. For example, keeping full shoulder protraction in a full planche(though if you want to planche on rings, you better get on that). Even if the intention is there, it's not always what manifests. But this is approaching max effort
However, working basic holds like 30s tuck planche for example it is imperative to maintain perfect form. If you cannot maintain it might be time to scale down your set. Think of it as taking one step back to take two steps forward. Otherwise, you are just building on your mistakes.
Ideally, everything should be practiced with perfect form, but we have to reach out and push our limits sometimes as well.
I think you make a good point Yuri. I suppose the reason we say perfect form as almost an absolute is because we know form will slip anyway. The real problem is so many beginners (or all to often even trainees of many years) have no idea what form is, much less perfect. It just needs to be hammered home. But like anything, there is a middle ground.