Why I Look at the Course, Not Today
The short answer
At a second visit, the first thing I look for is not the state of that day but what has changed between the first visit and the second. Two points are needed before a direction appears.
Contents
Why I Look at the Course, Not Today
I see the same person twice. A first visit, and then again some months later.
At the second visit, the first thing I look for is not the state of that day. It is what has changed between the first and the second. Today might be an unusually good day or an unusually bad one. A day's condition wavers. Two points are needed before a direction appears.
A single test looks at one moment in time, and it looks at that moment accurately. But the body carries time in it, and the speed at which it carries differs from place to place inside the same body. There are places that turn over in days and places that stay for life. A scar leaves something behind even after it has healed, and the force that springs back slows a little at a time. Building and taking down are always going on together; what differs is only which of the two is slightly ahead.
So a single number taken today makes it hard to know which side is ahead right now. The same number can mean filling up or being worn down.
That is why I suggest measuring again a good while later. I am looking at the direction rather than the value, and the interval has a reason behind it. New record accumulates only over the span of time that particular test holds.
"It takes time" sounds like bad news. I read it the other way. What tilted over a long time comes back over a long time, and what comes back that way does not tilt again easily.
Even if nothing looks better at the second visit, I do not hurry. When the third visit turns two points into three, only then can a line be drawn.
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