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As a multiple black belt, a Reiki practitioner, and a professional dancer of twenty years and counting I have spent a great deal of time studying the various capacities of the human body. They are truly miraculous things capable of a near infinite assortment of actions and skills, above and beyond the incredible processes of ordinary functioning. The more devotedly and intricately you train your body the more you get to know it, understand how the countless myriad pieces fit together, and what those pieces can do in specific combinations.
One common theme to all forms of athletic training is the pursuit of achieving maximum results through the most efficient means and methods possible. The more efficiently you can perform a task the more you can repeat it, the longer you can sustain it, or the further you can enhance it.
A massive part of this process, whatever the discipline, is constant repetitive training to make the action itself an automatic skill. The other part is the application of a conceptual approach, either to give the task a beneficial mental target or to nuance the process through use of a specific technique. In simpler terms, practicing helps us to master ‘what’ and the way we mentally and physically approach it nuances ‘how’.