DOCTOR’S PRACTICE

I was so impressed when I read Doctor’s column last week, titled: Practice doesn’t make perfect. It is true. What most of us only know is that practice makes perfect, but Doc, through his column, made us think the other way. We as Soccer Laduma readers are so fortunate to have people like Doc, who are always willing to share their knowledge of football with us. They always say, “If you want knowledge, you have to pay”, but we as Soccer Laduma readers only pay R5 to get all this information and knowledge. I always enjoy Doc’s column every Wednesday, especially when he shares his football knowledge with us. Any Soccer Laduma reader who wants to become a coach one day must read Doctor’s column first so that he can get to know about the basics of football. Thanks, 16V. Keep on feeding us football knowledge and sharing with us your opinions about football in general. Musa Zondi, Tongaat, Newton

I was prompted to make my point as a response to the column by Doctor Khumalo (Chillin’ with Doctor), in issue 1211. The article is well-written and easy to read and understand as it is devoid of any technical issues such as blocks, pressing and zonal marking etc. However, it would appear to me that the great Doc is now venturing into the arena of semantics. Some of the dictionary meanings of ‘practice’ are: “a way of doing something, especially as a result of habit, custom or tradition”; “do something regularly as part of your normal behaviour”. Given these meanings, it is my opinion that the permanency you make a case for is actually embedded in the meanings of ‘practice’, therefore I argue that practice still makes perfect, not “practice makes permanent”. I don’t even want to tackle perfection itself, because perfection is a state to aim for, it is not something we arrive at, hence the saying that a perfect person is yet to be born. To further argue my point, between a regular spot-kick taker who hits the target, without scoring, and the goalkeeper who saves that kick, just who is perfect between the two? Just asking. Ephraim Sinxezi, Vanderbijlpark