Pianist vs. athlete

[ilovemusic]

Hmmm, the discussion about food before plying sounds a lot like discussions  I sometimes have what to eat before a running-competition.

No, seriously, is it sensible to compare a pianist to an athlete ?

How high can you get your pulse up by playing piano as compared to your rest pulse ?

Can one speak of endurance vs. sprinters in piano playing ? (Hehe).

Joost.

[Hmoll]

Hmmm, the discussion about food before plying sounds a lot like discussions  I sometimes have what to eat before a running-competition.

No, seriously, is it sensible to compare a pianist to an athlete ?

How high can you get your pulse up by playing piano as compared to your rest pulse ?

Can one speak of endurance vs. sprinters in piano playing ? (Hehe).

Joost.

You can't deny that there is a physical side to playing the piano, and you should experience joy, frustration, satisfaction, etc. in taking part in the physical aspect of playing the piano. However, there is very little similarity between playing and athleticism, especially regarding enduance.

While an athletes tend to push themselves more when they get tired in order to increase endurance, pianists need to do the opposite when they become tired and fatigued. The main reason for this is repetitive stress injuries that range in severity from causingause a player to miss a few days of practice to permanently impairing their ability to play.

I've seen a lot of pianists become injured because they tried to build up endurance by playing through pain and fatigue. The lucky ones missed a few weeks of practice, and the unlucky ones can't play anymore.

If you want to raise your pulse, get a treadmill.

[Wired]

Competitive athletes can be compared to pianists in many ways. I personally am a pretty good tennis player, and I can say that I can get as much fatigued from playing against 5-6 teams at a state tennis competition as I can from playing a few pieces on the piano. The fatigue is of a different sort though... it's really easy to get mentally and emotionally fatigued from playing something and expressing yourself fully. I often get into this state where I play the piano, and I forget entirely of where I am, what I'm doing, and just feel the music. It's an odd feeling, but perhaps you know of what I'm speaking of. I'll reach the end of the piece and not know how I got there.

But I have had the same type of fatigue in tennis as well. For example, at the same state competition I was mentioning above, my stepbrother and I were playing doubles. It was our first match of the day, and we were down 1 full set, and down 0-4 in the second set (going to 6). We couldn't end the season like that, and from that moment on, every point was an entire battle. We actually won the match, coming back in the second set to win it in a tiebreaker (7-6), and then winning the third set 6-4 (IIRC, it's been two years). After that match, I wasn't physically exhausted.. just mentally. It's almost like the experience above.

In my experiences, making a huge comeback can be a very similar experience as playing an extremely great piece.

[ilovemusic]

Of course I am not seriously trying to raise my pulse by playing...

An old classic: "When it looks like working, you ain't working hard enough" comes to my mind whenever
playing piano. I think playing a phrase should not feel
hard. Same thing with sport. If it feels like you have to 'work' it means you have to exercise some more. Look at world-class sportsmen/women and how easy they look when competing (in the beginning of a race, anyway).

But what do I know: I've only started to play this year.
For some it was the summer of love, for me it was the
summer of the piano....