> somebody with
> a naturally gifted memory can improve just by hearing lots of
> questions, whether at tournaments or at practice. that's probably
the
> only correlation between "playing experience" and overall ability.
> most of the time, people do not become good at this game simply by
> being around it for a long time.
I think you have to work to make any progress by just experiencing
questions. Among the people who were on Pitt's QB team as freshmen
in 99-00, Rich often says he's gotten worse, Jon left the team
because he'd gotten so much worse, and Heather says she's gotten
worse. This may just be in comparison with other players, but it's
pretty much true. If you're scoring 5 points a game your first year,
you're not going to get past 12 points a game unless you write a LOT
of questions and carry around a notebook when you play so you can
write things down you want to remember (e.g. "MAGGIE TULLIVER --->
MILL ON THE FLOSS").