“When most people practice a task or skill, they focus on the things they can do effortlessly.
Expert practice is different. It entails considerable, specific and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well - or even at all.
Research across domains shows that it is only by working at what you can’t do that you turn into the expert you want to become.”
- S.W. Tyler
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It is believed that 10,000 hours (or when broken down into rational daily opportunity, 10 years plus) of purposeful practice will enable someone to become ‘excellent’ in their chosen field.
You may well be wondering, 'what exactly is purposeful practice?' And, 'how much have I done?'
Well the two P's hold the key to either success and potential greatness or mediocrity and standard performance.
The quality in any form of practice is the vital ingredient to any facet of expertise: the specialised learning used by top performers to attain *Mastery status and the deep absorption that is needed during each of those 10,000 hours to make them count.
The practice sessions of aspiring champions have a specific and never-changing purpose: progress.
Every second of every minute of every hour, the goal is to extend one’s mind and body, to push oneself beyond the limits of one’s considered capacities and to engage so deeply in the task at hand that one leaves the practice session a changed person.
Pushing the boundaries of practice methods is also a crucial component to achieving excellence. You’ll often hear it referred to as ‘training smarter.’ Sir Dave Brailsford, the GM of Team Sky, uses the term ‘marginal gains.’ Whatever the phrase or language, the need to always be looking for a competitive edge is vital.
One of the most striking things about modern research on expertise and excellence is how the body and mind can be radically altered with the right kind of practice.
“When the human body is put under exceptional strain, a range of dormant genes in the DNA are expressed and extraordinary physiological processes are activated,” says psychologist Anders Ericsson.
Long distance runners have larger hearts than average, not because they were born with them but as a consequence of training. Table Tennis players have more supple wrists, ballet dancers can rotate their feet through more degrees and so on. These are all traits and developed skills created through purposeful practice thus enabling excellence.
Whilst the adaptability of the human body is impressive, it is the plasticity of the human brain that has astonished researchers.
In an experiment led by Thomas Elbert of the University of Konstanz, it was found that the region of the brain responsible for controlling fingers in young musicians grew in direct proportion to the number of years training.
In a study of London taxi drivers who must pass a famously stringent set of examinations known as the Knowledge to gain a licence, it was discovered that the region of the brain governing spatial navigation was substantially larger than for non-taxi drivers and this region continued to grow with additional time on the job.
A key aspect of brain transformation is myelin, a substance that can dramatically increase the speed with which signals pass through the brain. A 2005 experiment that scanned the brains of concert pianists found a direct correlation between the number of hours practised and the quantity of myelin produced.
Purposeful practice also builds new neural connections, increases the size of specific sections of the brain and enables the expert to co-opt new areas of grey matter in the quest to improve.
*Mastery - The stage of learning beyond unconscious competence. At this stage, not only do you perform well, you perform with a magical touch. There is an aesthetic element to the performance so it isn’t just effective, there is a kind of beauty to it. In Sport, think Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi, Roger Federer, Usain Bolt and Michael Jordan. These athletes have a fantastic rapport between their conscious and unconscious minds.
A Game Changer says…
From all the research and case studies developed to date it is clear that the equation for top level achievement and excellence in any field or discipline is as follows:
10,000 hours (Quantity) + Purposeful Practice (Quality) = Excellence
To further amplify this belief and thought process, here are some facts, stats and quotes about and from a few names you may just recognise:
He started a programme of intensive training at the age of three. He began composing pieces for the violin and piano at the age of 5. He had clocked up 3,500 hours of purposeful practice before his sixth birthday! He produced many works before his tenth birthday. By his mid teens he had clocked up 10,000 hours of purposeful practice. He achieved masterpiece status for his Piano Concerto No.9 when just 21.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
He was given a golf club for Xmas, five days before his first birthday. At 18 months he had his first golf outing. At the age of 2 he entered his first pitch & putt tournament - he could drive a ball 80 yards and pitch accurately from 40 yards! By the age of 2 years 8 months he was familiar with bunker play. By the age of 3 he had developed his pre shot routine. At 4 years old he had his first professional coach. He won his first national major tournament at 13. By his mid teens he had clocked up 10,000 hours of purposeful practice.
- Tiger Woods
Tennis training began in earnest when they were 4 years 6 months and 3 years old respectively. The courts were riddled with potholes. Training would consist of 550 balls at a time delivered from a shopping cart. They would often practice with baseball bats and serve at traffic cones until their arms ached. The two once had a training session that lasted 7 hours. Serena entered her first tournament at the age of 4 years 6 months. When the sisters were 12 and 11 they moved to a tennis academy in Florida. By then, both Venus and Serena had already clocked up thousands of purposeful hours of practice.
- Venus and Serena Williams
He would take a football to the local park in east London as a young child and kick it from precisely the same spot for hour upon hour. ‘His dedication was breathtaking,’ his father said. ‘It seemed like he lived on the local field.’ “My secret is practice,” Beckham concurs. “I have always believed that if you want to achieve anything special in life you have to work, work and then work some more.” By the age of 14 Beckham was scouted and signed by Manchester United.
- David Beckham
“My father says that if I hit 2,500 balls each day, I’ll hit 17,500 balls each week and at the end of one year I’ll have hit nearly 1 million balls. He believes in Math. Numbers, he says, don’t lie. A child who hits 1 million balls each year will be unbeatable.”
- Andre Agassi
“Nobody but nobody has ever become really proficient at golf without practice, without doing a lot of thinking and then hitting a lot of shots. It isn’t so much a lack of talent; it’s a lack of being able to repeat good shots consistently that frustrates most players. And the only answer to that is good practice.”
- Jack Nicklaus
In Summary
Talent can take you so far…
Talent plus Practice can take you further…
But it is Talent plus Purposeful Practice that will allow you to achieve Excellence.