I am not saying that... read my posts,
I am saying it is a perfectly valid way of improving, it is sensible to ask a musician the tunes that are popular at your local session ... get a recording of him/her playing them and practise them at home, by practising them at home you learn the melodies of the tunes, I agree it does not end there, but it helps the percussionist to get better before rejoining the session.
Steve, you cannot have it both ways, you complain[as Ido] about bad percussionists, but you have no constructive suggestion, you dont want them at your session, what do you want, do you want them to practise in private with another musician, ok , nothing wrong with that, but if there are no other musicians, practising with a recording of a musican, and learning the melodies of the tunes you are going to be playing is good practice, so do not rubbish it.
I will try to be polite,I find you extremely negative.
Finally it was you that revived the subject of the metronome.