Deliberate Practice
You may have heard the phrase deliberate practice before and either wondered what it meant or thought you were doing it. I have enjoyed digging deeper into this concept and the research behind deliberate practice. There are a number of good books that discuss it – Grit, Bounce, and Outliers.
Any athlete looking for an advantage or a bigger edge in their game should understand it:
- what it is
- how important it is in addition to having talent
- how much it is necessary to be great at what you are doing
And then ensure deliberate practice is part of your routine.
What is deliberate practice?
Deliberate practice is a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice includes repetitions, those repetitions are most often mindless; moving through the process to get to an end. Deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance.
Does talent take the place of deliberate practice?
If you are talented at something, it usually means you were born with a decent ability to do the thing that you do. However, if the talent you were born with is not nurtured in a deliberate way then that’s all you’ll have, is your natural talent. This talent will only take you so far. In order to be great at something, you need to put in many hours of deliberate practice to grow more consistent talent.
On the other hand, you don’t have to have natural talent to be great at something. Even though you may not even be naturally talented at something, you can work deliberately at it and you will improve, and your talent will grow.
It’s great to have a natural talent or propensity toward something but whether you have it or don’t have it, you still must put in purposeful and systematic hard work in order to be great at it.
How much time do I have to deliberately practice?
If you’ve read Grit, Bounce, or Outliers, the one thing that stands out is the concept of time spent deliberately practicing your skill in order to be great at it. While research continues on this, the consensus is it takes time. It can’t be hurried. It takes 10 years or 10,000 hours to be great at something.
This might seem like a lot of time but there’s been a lot of research done all pointing to these numbers in Grit, Bounce, and Outliers. I think it’s important that performers, parents, and coaches all understand that there’s no magical pill, regardless of someone’s natural talent.
Important concepts to walk away with
Your child may be a natural at math. They still need to progress through each level of math over 12 years of school to get good at it. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t purposeful and systematic ways of making each level a little more challenging so that your child continues to be motivated. However, it does mean that if you’ve realized that they are a math prodigy in the 3rd grade, they should not already be mastering calculus.
Same holds true for naturally gifted musicians and athletes. Parents, coaches, and teachers need to understand the difference between keeping a talented child motivated and pushing them to be something they should be and aren’t ready for. Remember 10 years or 10,000 hours.
In the journey to be great at something, kids have to deliberately practice for an extended period. AND, also within that practice, they must be allowed to make mistakes and deal with adversity to develop grit. Learning to be gritty not only helps kids move through challenges now, but also later in life.
Be realistic
Deliberate practice does not mean that you can be great at anything and everything even though you put in the hard work and effort. Your genes set limits on how far you can go. For example, you realize that you have a natural talent for basketball. You put in a lot of deliberate practice time at the number five position but are five feet tall. All the deliberate practice in the world is not going to allow you to go very far in that position when most of the others at that position are six feet and taller.
What needs to come with deliberate practice
As a parent, if you believe that your child has natural talent, nurture it slowly. As a coach or teacher, if you believe a child has natural talent, nurture it slowly and come up with a purposeful and systematic way to help that child learn and grow.
Understand that by supporting kids’ development in this way, doing the thing that they love to do can’t be about being great now. Being great takes time. It can’t be about being perfect (that doesn’t exist) and it can’t be about only winning.
