BEST PRACTICE(S) FROM SPARK PRACTICE
What Elite Sports Teaches us about Audition Preparation
- Sarah SPARK
- January 28, 2026
Originally published Oct 14, 2021
For several years, I was an elite rower, competing in nationals, international competitions, and going through the
whole NCAA Division 1 recruiting process. I worked with experienced coaches that also worked with national teams,
olympians, and often had their own careers as elite rowers.
Why this is important
Elite Sports has been on forefront of performance psychology and physiology for a long time now - and as musicians (aka super-precision athletes), we can absolutely relate.
Many of the lessons I learned as a rower are directly applicable to the very physically and mentally challenging activity of practicing and performing music at a high level.
Let’s look at some of the big differences between elite sports and elite music.
What most people don't know
A couple major differences that I experienced as an elite rower were:
- 60-70% of my time training was accompanied by a coach, even at an elite level. Imagine if 60-70% of the time you played/practiced was with your teacher?!
- I didn’t have to worry about what to practice, all I had to do was show up well-rested with a good attitude, and I could trust that my coach had a plan.
- My coaches had a training path mapped out for my progression - leading my training towards big goals, and also accounting for rest and recovery.
Musicians are missing out
1
Time spent with the coach / teacher
The difference in time means that as musicians, we miss out on active feedback and are left to fend for ourselves much earlier in our musical, technical, and mental game development than sports athletes.
In music, our expectations for excellence are often unmet because students / learners don’t have the support they need to install the right information (theory & practical)
The expectations continue to increase - but that means that more is being expected of us faster than we can learn it alone - and we tend to fill that gap with negative self-talk and feelings of inadequacy / imposter syndrome / etc. - let’s call this the “Expectation Gap.”
This also means that often when we have further experience, we feel like we need to know more than we do and therefore feel embarrassed or ashamed to fill in the gaps in our knowledge / experience - even if that information would make a BIG difference in our playing.
Learn more about the SPARK Practice Mindsets for Musicians, and look for how we can enjoy the discomfort of learning - finding excitement in the unknown - because we are courageous, and know we can learn!
2
Clear Teacher & Learner Responsibilities
Some teachers are better at this than others, but many don’t work with learners to figure out WHAT the goals are, and fewer communicate clearly to the student HOW to get there.
This is why graded repertoire lists / repertoire benchmarking per year (the kinds of rep you can anticipate playing in which year of study) is popular - we need to understand where we’re trying to go and break it down into smaller parts. Graded rep lists can be very flawed and not address core competencies in the zones of excellence (mental, musical, and mechanical), but they try to infer those competencies with the presence of increasingly complex pieces that require more advanced skills.
The mental load of practice is often placed on the student, which invites the “Expectation Gap” that often gets filled with unhelpful self-talk and feelings - but there is also an incredible mountain of inexperience facing most students. If they haven’t already been on a performance path before, if they haven’t already set up a full year with goals, cross-training, technique, mental skills, and musical development, they will not magically know how to do this.
If you’re a student and you feel like you’re facing this mountain of stuff that you don’t even know what you don’t know - it’s ok. You’re not alone, and I invite you to give yourself permission to not know. This is part of why SPARK Practice is magic - we help you translate what your teacher wants into actionable strategies you can implement immediately, and frame the conversation so that even your teacher understands better what they’re actually asking of you.
Check out Better Lessons Now to bring to lessons to learn faster, be more autonomous, get higher quality instruction, and know exactly what you need to do between lessons.
3
The SPARK Practice Path to Performance
Most teachers have a good understanding of what it takes to be a “good player”. This means that we’re building technique, communicating a musical story, and know how to get on stage and give a good performance.
However, very few teachers have a proven formula or framework to follow to make sure you’re a Total Package Player.
Having a tested framework that gets results changes everything - and makes sure that we are working WITH our neurobiology, psychology, and physiology to maximise efficiency and go further, faster.
Many teachers have experienced but may not really understand (or have articulated) how skill-building fits together, which means that the student often is confused about the purpose of various activities or requests from the teacher.
- We know that scales and fundamentals are part of our “essential playing toolkit” - but why?
- As teachers we assign études and scales, but have we taken the time to explain to the student what we really want them to learn?
- As students, do we understand why we’re being assigned certain exercises or activities and how they fit into the larger picture?
Having a framework for skill-building is a great place to start. What for you goes into being a great player? What fundamentals are essential, how do they build in together?
Then, let’s take that another step with finding the missing SPARK in our playing.
First we look into the zones of excellence: Technique / Artistry / Presence / Support. What’s working / what’s not?
Next, we look at where we want to improve, and map out the Path to Performance, following the SPARK Practice Audition Accelerator phases of invincible performances: Pathways / Accelerator / Triumph / Hero.
Spark the conversation
This all comes back to Intention. When we know why and how we want to do something, and we commit to it with determination and intention, the chances of us succeeding are much greater.
Further, when we have a strategy and framework to work from, these elements come together more quickly and more organically - because we’re nurturing a clear pathway to success rather than giving equal weight to all of the confusing options.
We can always refine and modify our goals - but to act with intention will give us more options and help us make the impact we really look for: the connection with our audience.
See you in the practice room!
Sarah ⚡️❤️
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