Why Not All Practice Makes Perfect

"Not all practice makes perfect. In fact, practicing without understanding what you’re doing is about as effective as trying to drive a car by honking the horn."

We’ve all heard the saying: practice makes perfect. It’s the mantra of language learners everywhere. Sounds solid. Work hard, keep practicing, and one day—bam!—you’ll wake up speaking English like Michael Caine in a British period drama. But here’s the problem: that’s not how it works. And if that’s been your strategy so far, I’ve got some devastating news.

Not all practice makes perfect. In fact, practicing without understanding what you’re doing is about as effective as trying to drive a car by honking the horn. You’re making noise, but you’re not going anywhere.

The Practice and Conversations Myth: Why More May Not Be Better

Let’s get one thing straight: practice is important. But it’s not some magical cure for language struggles. Most people think that the key to mastering English is more exercising—grinding through grammar rules, rehearsing collocations (what I call a first step towards a lobotomy), memorizing vocabulary, and hoping it sticks. It won’t.

"So, if you’re chatting away without solid foundations..., ... all you’re really doing is likely butchering the language and making your teacher second-guess their career choice."

And that includes conversations. Sure, conversation lessons are way more valuable than mindless exercises. But if you’re just talking without knowing what you’re doing wrong—or even what you’re doing right—you’re basically busy building a linguistic Frankenstein. Yeah, you might feel like you're making progress when the conversation flows on a topic you’ve practiced a dozen times, but that’s just a mirage. The second you stop? It’s gone faster than… well, I think you know.

So, if you’re chatting away without solid foundations or focusing on building them, all you’re really doing is likely butchering the language and making your teacher second-guess their career choice.

Practicing the Wrong Thing? You’re Perfecting Mistakes

The real danger here is practicing the wrong thing. Practicing without understanding means you’re likely reinforcing mistakes. So, instead of getting closer to fluency, you’re actually getting better at being wrong.

Think of it this way: if you’re practicing the wrong tense or misusing an article every time you speak, you’re building those mistakes into muscle memory. And guess what? Once they’re ingrained, they’re ten times harder to fix later on.

Check out our video on "I will" vs "I'm going to" and see how you've potentially been practicing the wrong thing for decades:

Understand Before You Repeat: The Real Secret

Imagine trying to learn tennis by just swinging the racket aimlessly, without ever understanding what each shot is supposed to do. Sure, you’ll break a sweat, but whatever you’ll be doing won’t be tennis—or pretty. Language learning is no different. If you don’t understand why a word or structure works the way it does, no amount of practice is going to magically make you use it correctly across the board.

That’s why understanding comes before repetition. If you know why a sentence uses the Continuous tense instead of Simple, then every time you practice, you’re reinforcing the right concept. That’s how you build solid foundations that eventually become second nature.

"But here’s the game-changer: the AntiMethod. We show you the why behind English... You’ll finally have the tools to practice with understanding, not just repetition."

Not Your Fault That Schools Never Taught You the "Why"

I get it—it wasn’t your fault. Up until now, no school or textbook could or bothered to explain why English works the way it does. You were just thrown into the deep end, forced to memorize senseless rules and repeat phrases without really understanding them. So, of course, you were left playing it by ear and hoping for the best. Blind repetition, memorizing schemes, and guessing were the only tools you had.

But here’s the game-changer: the AntiMethod. We show you the why behind English—why certain tenses are used, why structures work the way they do, why articles (‘a,’ ‘the,’ and ‘zero’) help us understand each other better, and so on. No more flying blind. You’ll finally have the tools to practice with understanding, not just parroting.

No More Excuses: The AntiMethod Changes Everything

That's where the AntiMethod flips the script. Instead of drowning you in endless rules and mindless repetition, we strip English down to its logical core. And once you understand what you're doing, practice will make perfect! Book a FREE 90-min DEMO now and see for yourself.