To elaborate on an earlier post, aikido training encompasses physical and mental education. Physical training provides the body several beneficial elements: conditioning, muscle memory and coordination to name a few. But our physical exercise also inspires confidence in our ability. Through repetition, our bodies become efficient at the given movement and in time our minds learn to comprehend the higher rate of successful accomplishment in that movement. This is the basis of confidence in our movement.

Once our minds becomes confident in the bodies ability to successful accomplish a given movement it becomes free[er] to devote its efforts on other contemplation. This is a similar state of mind to the "automatic pilot" that we experience when we perform a mundane action and our minds wander while we vacuum the rug or mow the lawn. Once freed, our minds are able to undertake other cognition.

So in a sense practice does make perfect, or at least increase the percentage of accomplishment. We train our bodies to inspire confidence in our minds. We train our minds to understand the technical lessons of our bodies so we learn the truth of why aikido works. Once we understand the truth of the technical principles that govern aikido, we become free to innovate [within compliance with those principles].