I think sometimes when people start doing improv there's some regression towards trying to replicate the "good" improvisers that they've read about in their improv books or heard about from their teachers. That's understandable, because they're trying to learn technique and stuff, but I actually think that my favorite performers are ones who have unique improv technique but also have a unique point of view that you can feel with them and their performances.
If someone thinks, 'I'll spend the off season working on my fitness and I'll come back a better cricketer,' I don't think that's enough. You need to spend a lot of time working on your skills and honing your skills.
Don't get stuck in a rut. If you started yesterday's practice playing arpeggios, start today's with scales. Also, try to make a song out of what you're practicing to help break the tedium.
I never had a problem with technique.
I'm kind of a feel player. I'll stretch out before a show a bit and do some playing, but that's about it. I'm not one of these 10-hour-a-day playing guys.
I'd have to change all my training style to fight Cyborg.
To be able to perform at a high level, to be able to do things that no other fighter can do, you have to practice it. And the only way you can practice is by sparring, by fighting another man.
I always want to improve in all my facets of the game, whether it's the receiving or blocking aspects.
It's so easy to practice out of context. For example, if you're learning a scale, you take that scale and you sit in your room and you go up and down the fretboard, over and over. You've gotta do that, because you need to get that scale working. But you have to keep in mind that that's not the finished product. That's the starting point.
Training is my life. It's all I've known since I was in second grade, when I started wrestling.
I loved Art Tatum! And, through him, and other different jazz musicians, I actually found my technique.
There was a stage when Balanchine and I didn't talk. I was trying to develop my classical technique as opposed to the fast-track technique that he was pushing. We were very quiet with each other. But after two years he saw what I was doing and sent messages through other people that, yes, this is good.
Well, all I can say is thank goodness I had 15 years of theater before ever I did film roles. You build technique that you can rely on.
A fighter has to be prepared for anyone, to train every day. That's what I learned at Chute Boxe.
I train at American Top Team, the biggest team in the world, and I have every type of training.
When I don't have a fight scheduled, training is even more fun. I can come into the gym and work on stuff that isn't generated for a specific game plan. I can just play around with it and have a good time. I never want to get to the point where I'm sick of it.
When I look back and think about how I played when I was 16, and moving on to my 20s, 30s, 40s and now 50s - to me, it seems like you gain more experience, you gain more technique, you get better.
I'm honoured and blessed to even be in the UFC, much less be 19 years old in the UFC, knowing I have so much time to learn, so much technique to learn, everything all around to make myself better.
The biggest challenge to me is always technique.
You can't just be only going to the gym when you sign a fight contract or you'll just be the same fighter every time, just more experienced.
I think the solo playing, the decision to start playing solo, came out of having discovered what lay behind the doors that that technique opened for me.
I just keep my eyes open and focus on the things I'm not good at and what makes other people better than me - technique and things outside the Octagon.
Oil-painting is a developed technique. Why go backwards?
You establish a technique on how to develop characters. Everyone does it their own way, and that's what makes it fun.
Train hard, get good coaching, and don't forget that its mixed martial arts. Don't get tied into one style of fighting, and focus on multiple disciplines.
