Fifteen minutes of practice at home

Students who improve fastest at our studio are rarely those who practise for hours on Sunday. They are the ones who practise a little almost every day. Fifteen focused minutes at home, five days a week, is enough to keep the body and the memory moving between classes. Here is the routine we give our juniors.

Find a space of about two metres by two metres. A mat or a wooden floor is best; if you have only tiles, do the footwork lightly and without stamping hard. Wear practice clothes so the body takes it seriously.

Minutes one to four: warm up. Rotate the neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, knees and ankles, ten times each way. Hold aramandi for a count of eight, rise and repeat four times.

Minutes five to ten: three adavus. Choose the three your teacher corrected most recently, and do each at first speed, then second, then third, saying the sollukattu aloud as you go. Watch yourself in a mirror or a phone camera. Check that knees stay over the toes and that the arms stay at shoulder height. Minutes eleven to fifteen: one line of the item you are learning. Not the whole piece; one line, until it feels clean. If you have forgotten a step, write a question in your notebook for the next class rather than guessing. Parents can help by keeping the time fixed, perhaps before homework, and by watching once a week. Children who are praised for showing up do better than those praised for being talented.