How to Get Better Through Practice.

There is a popular saying: “Practice makes perfect.”  The idea is that the more you practice something the better you will get at it.  But, is it true? 

Let’s look at it a different way.  Is it possible to do something many times, and even for many years, and never get better?  Yes, it is.  Many people will study a language all through school and then graduate and not be able to speak a word of it.  They were “practicing” it all those years and yet did not learn almost anything. 

How about driving?  We drive our entire lives, but do we necessarily get better at it?  Probably not.  Yet we do it for many hours, with other people, and even in different vehicles.

So, is there a way to get better with practice?  Yes, there is:  deliberate practice.

Deliberate Practice

How is deliberate practice different?  Practice can be done without preparation and informally.  Deliberate practice involves preparing to practice and having a plan that you are going to follow.

Let’s use playing piano as an example.  If you want to get better at playing the piano, rather than play the same pieces of music repeatedly, you could prepare to practice and make a plan.  You could warm up by playing scales and chords in the same key as the piece.  That way, your brain will get used to playing in that key and your familiarity with it will increase.  Once you are warmed up, you could choose the parts of the music that you find the hardest and work through them slowly rather than play the whole piece many times.

Then, once you have become better at the hardest parts, you can put it all together and play the piece from beginning to end without worrying that you will make mistakes in the middle.  The reason you must prepare and have a plan is that this process can take many hours to perfect.  Learning even a short piano piece takes time, both for your brain to learn the piece and for your hands to learn the movements. 

Now, as you practice more pieces, your ability to learn will increase and you will be able to work on harder pieces, but the process of deliberate practice must be done.

The Beatles

The Beatles were a fantastically successful band in the 1960s, but it is generally not well known that they practiced for years in Hamburg Germany before they performed anywhere else.  From August 1960 to December 1962, they played in small clubs, honing their performance skills, and trying many different techniques until they arrived at their unique sound.  By deliberately practicing certain techniques, they were able to improve their skills and when they returned to Liverpool, they were excellent musicians and performers.  This process of intense practice was over 2 and a half years however, so it took them time to learn and grow in skill.

What is it about deliberate practice that makes is so much more effective as a learning technique?

In the case of learning a piano piece, when you warm up with drills that are in the same key as the music, you are priming your brain to learn in that key.  Then, when you deliberately practice the music, slowly and with precision, you lock in the correct technique. 

The Beatles learned different techniques in Hamburg and were able to bring it all together into their particular style of music because they had deliberately and intensely practiced the techniques for 30 months.

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”  -Bruce Lee.

In sports, the greatest athletes have perfected the art of deliberate practice.  Bruce Lee’s quote exemplifies this.  He is stating that deliberately practicing one kick (piano scale, guitar chord, style of painting, baseball pitch) is much more important than a high volume of unfocused practice.

Kobe’s 4am Practice

Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant was renowned for this.  He would arrive for practice 7 hours before the rest of the team and deliberately practice particular shots.  He famously did this to prepare for the 2008 Olympics.  He arrived at the practice facility at 4 am and had a plan to make 800 shots before the official 11am practice started!  Keep in mind that the Olympics is not a regular league and had nothing to do with Kobe’s professional career. 

Deliberate practice does not differentiate between an exhibition game and the NBA finals.  It does not differentiate between a smoky German bar and Wembley stadium.  Deliberate practice is the only way very successful people practice.  They do this so that the skill they are practicing becomes automatic and they don’t have to think about it when they are performing.  By doing this, your brain will see more of the playing field and allow you to achieve better.

See More in Slow Motion

The highest performers report that they see things is slow motion when they are performing at their highest levels.  This is because your brain does not have to concentrate on the task that you have deliberately practiced for so long.  You have mastered it, so you are free to see other things.  In hockey, Wayne Gretzky reported that he could see the entire ice surface and saw plays in slow motion.  This was because he had deliberately practiced hockey drills and plays for years until he had perfected them.  His brain was then free to “see” the whole ice and the plays in fine detail that seemed slowed down to him.

We can see a similar effect when we drive a car.  Most of us do not think very much about driving because we have done it for so many years.  Sometimes our mind wanders, and we realize that we have driven the last few minutes without seemingly paying attention.  Of course, our brain was paying attention but because the road was probably clear and straight, we did not require much attention to safely operate the car. 

Athletes and musicians do the same.  They get into a “flow” state where muscle memory takes over and they can perform without thinking about the fine motor skills they need because they have practiced it so often.  It has become automatic.

The best way to deliberately practice is to do so in a non-competitive environment.  When Kobe Bryant practiced, he did it away from other people and not in a game.  Wayne Gretzky practiced for many hours on training rinks away from competitors.  The reason is that if you are competing, the pressure to win will cause you to hack solutions and ruin your practice form.  You will be more interested in ways to win in that situation than to work on your technique.  The best performers and coaches know that deliberate practice is most effective in a practice environment.

Try to deliberately practice a new skill and see how you will excel at it much more quickly.