What is Deliberate Practice?

Mastering the Art of Intelligent Practice

Jul 16, 2009
Pervin Shaikh

Practice Makes Perfect - Maple

Practice does make perfect, but the right type of practice leads to superior and fast track results

What do Tiger Woods, Roger Federrer, Michael Phelps and Thomas Edison have in common apart from the first three being alive and international sports personalities? The connection with Thomas Edison doesn’t leap out immediately but actually, all four have a lot more in common than actually meets the eye because they have engaged in “deliberate practice”. This article explores deliberate practice and the lessons which can be learned from sports personalities

What is Deliberate Practice?

Academics have continuously been arguing about talent and whether it is an inborn gift or not and the main essence of deliberate practice is to continuously stretch oneself just beyond his or her abilities. Interestingly, recent research suggests that everyone can benefit from learning from the sports stars and geniuses because each individual can cultivate his/her abilities and talent to a higher and attainable level if they knew how.

Deliberate practice is not just about working harder or “practice makes perfect” but it is a combination of these factors and according to Geoff Colvin author of the book “Talent is Overrated”, deliberate practice is “designed specifically to improve performance” and the operative word is “designed”. Sounds like common sense doesn’t it? Alas, common sense is anything but common!

Conventionally, most people who engage in an activity or a hobby will reach a certain level of competence or aptitude and then be quite content at remaining at a certain level or within their comfort zones, either because they are happy to remain at a certain level or they don’t know how to move to the next level. This is where deliberate practice can make a significant impact on performance because it enables one to “identify certain sharply defined elements of performance and then work intently on them”.

Interestingly, this is exactly the point at which the geniuses and sports stars start excelling themselves because they isolate specific aspects on improvement and focus on those things until they achieve the desired outcome and then move on to the next level. For example, Tiger Woods is known to practice specific golfing shots from places regarded as others as being impossible. He has been known to drop golf balls into a sand trap and step on them and then practice these shots until he has mastered it. Mad? No! Why? If the opportunity ever arose in a real life game, these challenging golfing shots would not feel new or uncomfortable to him because effort has gone into perfecting such shots.

Stretching the Comfort Zones

Whilst many people are content on “practice makes perfect”, people who engage in deliberate practice will look at areas of improvement and then set about creating a specific action plan which will take them just beyond their current abilities. They also invest both time and resources to ensure the development needs is not just a competency but a mastered ability.

Consistently stretching comfort zone leads to greater growth maybe not to the levels of the sports stars and inventor mentioned earlier, but to the level which takes people just beyond our current abilities and by doing so, they set physical and mental challenges. 2009 has already been a great year where many people have found themselves being stretched consistently which has further been aided by challenges and opportunities presented by turbulent times.

No doubt, deliberate practice in the form that the stars and inventors practice may not be for the faint hearted or even for everyone and individuals can take small yet important and empowering steps in creating a plan in many areas of their lives which will stretch them beyond their current abilities. Here’s a great quote from Yo Yo Ma who is an international acclaimed cellist with over 75 successful albums under his belt and his beach analogy is excellent as below:

"When you go to the beach, most people congregate in the first quarter of a mile. But if you go a little further out you have a better view. So, I think in terms of success, you’re always thinking about where the centre is and whether you can go close enough to the edge, look over and jump".

Engaging in Deliberate Practice

Here are a few questions which may help:

1. What skills or competencies require further development?

2. What is the first and most crucial step to getting to desired action?

3. Come up with an effective action plan which will leads to expanding the comfort zones?

4. When will the action plan be implemented?

5. How will success be measured?

Practice does make perfect, but the “right” type of practice can make all the difference in achieving superior results as demonstrated by the likes of Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Michael Phelps.