#purposeful practice

All types of practice are not equal for producing the best results. Just practicing by doing something a lot will not by itself lead to becoming an expert or high performer. For example, many people having been driving a car for years and yet they do not keep improving. In the beginning we do improve our driving skills, but after awhile our driving relies on automatic skills. Without consciously practicing to improve our driving skills our progress plateaus and stalls. This is not only true with driving, but in other areas as well.

It is true that becoming an expert at any worthwhile endeavor will most likely take many hours of practice, but a lot of time spent without the right type of practice is not enough.

Anders Ericsson is an expert on how to develop expertise. He is a cognitive psychologist who has devoted over thirty years to studying elite performers - the best in their fields - in many different disciplines. For example, Ericsson has studied musicians, memory experts, great athletes, mathematicians, scientists, chess players, ballerinas and more. In the book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, the authors share results from many of Ericsson’s research studies.

Dr. Ericsson discovered that all of the elite performers in different fields who he studied and anyone who wants to significantly improve at anything - follow a similar set of principles in their practice or training sessions. He describes what he calls, “Purposeful Practice” and “Deliberate Practice.” Both are the same except that deliberate practice requires a mentor or coach and a subject which has a well established criteria for success in that field or discipline. In other words, it is known exactly what an elite performer must be able to do in that discipline and what it will take to try and get there. Purposeful practice can bring about significant improvement and expertise, but deliberate practice is needed to become among the best in the world at what you do.

Purposeful Practice

According to Ericsson purposeful practice consists of the following four principles of practice:

1. A well-defined goal. You must have a specific and measurable goal. This requires a plan of action and breaking your goal into a series of small steps. Both the goal and steps should be measurable so that you can tell when you are making progress.

2. Focused attention. You must focus on your goal and not split and divide your attention. You need to focus on the task before you and be fully present in the moment.

3. Feedback is needed. It is ideal if you have a coach or mentor, but if not, you can use your own observation and take notes to measure your progress and results.

4. Stretch your comfort zone. Push yourself some, but not too much beyond your comfort level. You are trying to keep doing a little more than you have done before.

Lets look at an example of how these principles might be applied. Lets say you want to improve your basketball skills. There are many skills that you could work on such as rebounding, dribbling, passing, three point shooting, layups, etc. Lets say you are a 50% free throw shooter. You average sinking five free throws out of every ten shots and you want to improve to become an 80% free throw shooter.

Goal. You can start with a step to improve to a 60% free throw shooter even though your long-term and ultimate goal is to average 80%. You schedule practice sessions and begin working to improve your free throw shooting. This is an example of a well-defined goal which you have broken into small steps. After you are consistently shooting 60% you can go for 70% and continue until you achieve your goal of 80%.

Focus: You eliminate distractions such as your cell phone during practice sessions. You concentrate on basketball and try to forget everything else at that time.

Feedback. You use your observation skills and later take notes about how you are doing. Take note of how many shots out of every ten go in. Also notice what in your practice sessions is helping you the most. For example, you might find shooting in front of the free throw line and then gradually moving back to it improves your shooting. Do more of what works and less of what is less effective.

Stretch your comfort zone. Try to do a little more than you could do previously. Remember, “no pain, no gain.” Keep raising the bar in small increments. Use the principle of Kaizen. This is a Japanese word which means small incremental steps to continuous improvement.

Applications of Purposeful Practice and 10,000 Hour Rule

These purposeful practice principles can be applied to any goal and this can move you toward becoming an expert in your chosen career field.

You may have heard the term, “ten thousand hour rule.” The idea is that it can take about 10,000 hours to master what you do. Dr. Ericsson says this is a misinterpretation of his research results and that it is not a rule. He says it varies how much time is needed from one domain to another. For example, it may take a little less than 10,000 hours in one field and a lot more in another. He found that to become an elite violinist who plays solos in a professional orchestra takes an average of twenty years. This takes much more than 10,000 hours of practice. Typically 10,000 hours will take about ten years unless one has many hours a day to devote to the practice sessions.

What is true is that it will take many hours of practice to become an expert and this must be the right type of practice (as we have discussed) for best results. In his thirty years of studying elite performers Ericsson did not find anyone who used only “natural talent” and needed little practice. Those who demonstrated superior talent at an early age only became top performers if they also practiced purposefully and deliberately for thousands of hours. Talent alone did not get them there.

If you are an educator think of creating more learning objectives which help students to do (acquire skills), not just to know (acquire knowledge). The ability to apply knowledge is essential for success in excellent 21st century jobs and careers. Many hours of the right type of practice will maximize learning and lead to mastery and expertise.

References:

Ericsson, Anders and Robert Pool. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. April 5, 2016.

Article written by Raymond Gerson

Raymond Gerson is an adjunct professor of college and career success courses at Austin Community College. He is author of Achieve College Success and Achieve Career Success and trains educators how to teach these strategies.

For more information:

http://www.raymondgerson.com

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The reason is usually a principal of nervousness and embarrassment, interrelated with a apprehensiveness upon overconfidence and the likelihood of being incised by their colleagues. Full exceedingly, are credulous that if they reveal intemperately affluence it's tempting fate that yourselves will work against them.<\p>

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Entirely golf lessons alone are not going to make you improve immediately. You have for take what the pros has shown you and reiterate yourselves with a purpose.<\p>

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