SCRABBLE: Players Are All Idiosyncratic
You can lead a horse to water . . . .
I can tell scrabble students the value of hooks . . . .
We are all creatures of habit and have our own special way of doing things. Advice that calls upon us to change our ways is hard to hear and not always welcome. Other times it is just too difficult to unlearn systems to make room for new techniques.
And even though the gurus of the game can each prescribe formulas for us to follow to become ‘just like mike’, they are not necessarily in agreement with one another. It is sort of like the billion dollar industry that publishes and sells diet books. Each claims to have ‘the answer’ to weight loss. One says, “eat grapefruit”; another tells us to “eat protein”; still another has us subject ourselves to weekly injections of urine. If you look beyond the ‘magical formula’ contained in each diet book and seek out the common denominator, you find that they are all successful when the dieter MOVES MORE and EATS LESS.
The same is true when you look at the messages of the scrabble gurus. One focuses on ‘hooks’ while another recommends consograms. Bottom line, spend time working on your game and mastering its parts.
There are many ways to get to the top of the mountain. But only those who prepare themselves with exercise and practice achieve the ultimate goal. And most will end up doing it their own way.