Active Practive vs. Wei-Wu-Wei

As an Taoist, I like to follow Wei-Wu-Wei in my life. Doing things without trying so hard to do them seems like a much easier way to live. And I like doing things the easy way.

But the principle of active practice seems in direct opposition to the principle of Wei Wu-Wei, which is based on not actively thinking about a task to achieve the best possible.

In order to reconcile these two philosophies, I think it is important to differentiate between practice and performance. I have noticed in tennis, I may try to push myself during practice - pushing when I have limited energy, trying for tricky shots, and actively attempting to change up the pace and direction of rallies as much as possible. 

But in tennis matches, if I think too hard about what I am doing, I find myself going for harder shots too often, and forcing myself into errors. I have to rely on an empty mind to give me the right attitude of playing the appropriate, high-percentage shot.

Further, putting myself in an automatic mode is a necessity for escaping the emotional upheaval that occurs during a match. I let the silent observer consume me, and sometimes even feel that I am watching myself in third person as I play my matches. This is when I play the best.

I postulate this: that practicing using our cognitive mode increases our autonomous level of skill, but that the two are not equivalent or even comparable. The cognitive mode is not associated with a level of skill at all, except for the skill of being in the cognitive mode. It is the autonomous level of skill that is the true upper bounds for our skill at any given time. 

To summarize, a quote from the Steven Mitchell translation of the Tao Te Ching:

"We work with being,
but non-being is what we use."