HABITS • Issue 07
Deliberate Practice: The golden thread of effective PD By Rob Clark, FGCS
How long does it take to become elite at teaching (or any craft)? What do the people who master their goals do differently compared to the rest of us? John Hayes investigated the role of effort, practice, and knowledge in top performers. He studied the most talented creators in history, people like Mozart and Picasso, in order to determine how long it took them to become world class at their craft. Furthermore, he has investigated the choices and experiences that have led to their success. What were his findings? Not a single person produced incredible work without putting in a decade of practice first. These findings have been further confirmed by research from professors like Anders Ericsson, who produced research that revealed that you needed to put in “10,000 hours” to become an expert in your field. A finding that was later popularised by Malcolm Gladwell. However, as Hayes, Ericsson, and other researchers started digging deeper, they discovered that time was merely one part of the equation. Success wasn’t simply a product of 10 years of practice or 10,000 hours of work. To understand exactly what was required to maximise your potential and master your craft, you had to look at how the best performers practiced.
The term 'deliberate practice' was coined by Ericsson to describe a type of practice which 'is a highly structured activity, the explicit goal of which is to improve performance. Putting in a lot of time might make you tired, but simply working a lot (even if it’s 10,000 hours over the course of your career) isn’t enough to make you a top performer. It’s not the same thing as practicing deliberately. For example, many gym users who think they’re working hard are merely developing the skill of being in the gym, not the skill of mastering their goals.
Let’s dig a little deeper by looking at the career of Kobe Bryant. He is one of the most successful basketball players of all–time. The winner of 5 NBA championships and 2 Olympic Gold Medals. Kobe didn’t merely show up and practice a lot. He practiced with purpose; he practiced deliberately. In 2012, Bryant was selected as a member of Team USA. During this time, one of the athletic trainer’s for Team USA, a man named Robert, was working with Kobe to prepare for the Olympics. Robert described his first experience with Kobe and revealed one of the reasons the superstar became so successful.
For example, to make 800 successful jump shots, he deliberately focused on developing the skill of making baskets. The time he spent doing it was almost an afterthought. That sounds simple, but it’s very different from how most of us approach our work each day. When most people talk about working hard, they use the amount of time they worked as an indicator of how hard they worked.
Kobe always had a very clear goal during practice.
10 // HABITS // DECEMBER 2023
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