The Dice Institute

Be Like Tiger

Suppose we could approach every toss like a pro golfer on the putting green. I think there is some sort of clock element in golf, but the pro golfers sure seem to have as much time as they want. They line it up from various angels and distances, they take numerous practice swings, they talk to the caddy, they back off and check the wind, and  take a few more practice swings before they actually execute the putt. Of course they demand perfect silence as they get ready to execute.

Be the Batter

In baseball, the batter is talking practice swings the moment he picks up the bat, while he’s in the on deck circle, and again while he’s in the batters box. There looks to be a few different types of swings where perhaps the goal/purpose  of each is distinct.

Be a Pitcher too!

Then there is the ritual type of preparation, and baseball pitchers are maybe the most noticeable group of athletes in this regard. Its hard to say that the things they do in this area are directly helping them physically prepare to throw the pitch; the value is in preparing to execute in the exact same manner all the time.

  And we’re not done yet with baseball. Being a very ritualistic sport, the batters often add a bunch of strange things before, in the middle and after their practice swings.

Just be Prepared

The last thing going, which we don’t exactly see, is that players in many sports, have a mental checklist they use to prepare right before the instant the  execute, At this point  we’re not really talking about complete mental review/visualization  of the upcoming event, but its more like a Cliff notes outline, repeating key words that have a special reminder type meaning.

  Just Relax

Also common is that the very last thing some athletes do is to come to a point of rest, of no movement, of total relaxation before the start of whatever action they will be doing. In the case of pitchers, you see them take a big breath and their shoulder sort sag as they let go of the tension, like precision shooters, and unlike the batter, there is an advantage here because we control the start of the event/execution.

  Of course not every sport has the unique timing of baseball, but this idea is obviously a theoretical one because we’re never going to be able to play like that in a casino.

  When I go into this mode of practice, I  work most on the work on various physical aspects of the toss’s forward motion.

 I  go through the forward motion very slowly, looking to see if I’m keeping the dice level to the table surface. At times I will switch and pick up the dice I have that have the little leveler glued on to them.

  Another method I use for working on keeping absolutely level is as follows.

I lean out over the table and bend a little towards the table.

I extend my arm forward as far as it goes, and since I use the diagonal grip, I can press the edge of the dice flat against the table surface.

I know that this position is perfectly level to the table. I then raise my arm into a more realistic  height and natural position, looking to maintain the “levelness”. I’ll do this back and forth and eventually sort of work backward to the starting position

Sometimes I take practice swings where I just sort push the dice forward, keeping them almost touching the table surface, looking to maintain the levelness.

    If I think there is anything bad in my grip, I examine it and  will adjust it with my other hand if I think there needs to be adjustment

  The results.

When I first doing this, if I’m in a good place mentally, I can actually see each action as part of the actual toss as I work through different parts and types of warm up swings. And when this is the case, I will work towards executing some pretty darn good tosses.

However I have had throws that looked like the worst thing you have ever seen.

  I have learned that there is a limit to how long my focus will actually be tuned into these practice elements so that when I finally make the toss, the preparation resulted in a very solid toss..

  I find this hard to do for even 15 minutes without seeing the whole thing go totally south for at least a few consecutives  tosses

The longer you’re doing this, the more likely you are to lessen the mental focus you need to make the warm up swings pay off when you do release the dice. You’ll tune out a little here and there, start to more go through the motions that actively focusing and practicing. 

The point of the overall exercise is to show us once again that to be the best, you have to mentally be the best. Again we know this. And I have been looking into whatever research I can find that addresses this, and there is allot of it

  But to me, as an exercise itself, I think its valuable in a couple of ways. 

Since it likely it will produce a few very solid tosses, if has value. If you get to the place we each toss is also looking to build on and correct from the previous one, you likely in a very good place for effective training and practice. Perhaps you’ll find one aspect of the warm up that is consistently a performance booster

 As to why its not a total cure all, other than the fact that we have no boundaries for what we could try, the reality is that this method is not going to really be 100% effective training because segmenting  aspects of the toss does not really fit the optimum mental state we need for executing a toss.

The toss is a complex physical event that takes very little time. In fact the time is so short, you really can’t specifically get your mental focus on every step and phase and aspect.  And you can actually try top hard and that’s when you get those really scare results. 

The following quote describe what’s going here pretty well

“All the various commands you need to send out to your muscles, during the extremely small amount of time the tossing motion takes  requires an almost absence of sensory information, otherwise, disruption of the motor pattern becomes inevitable and execution malformed. This is because conscious intervention is too slow to accommodate changes in motor coordination, and thus, unconscious execution is desirable

  This is because conscious intervention is too slow to accommodate changes in motor coordination, and thus, unconscious execution is desirable”

  While not a solution to this very top level issue, this is just another way of mixing up practice a little bit to keep it fresh and even fun. Sometimes, I’ll pretend that  some evil bad dude is holding me and all I love captive and we’ll be ok, if I just don’t throw a 7. The evil dude has told me to take 30 minutes, a day, or a week if needed to prepare for the toss. I could consult an oracle, get a slide rule, bring in Uri Geller,anything I want or need I just can’t throw a 7 on that toss.