Learning
Deliberate Practice
More training is not identical to targeted improvement. Choose a specific skill, design an appropriate task and use feedback to shape the next attempt.
- Target
- Designed task
- Feedback
- Next attempt
A specific weakness leads to a targeted task, feedback and an adjusted attempt. The loop concerns improving the same problem.
An hour of training can leave your weakness untouched
You can get very tired doing something you're already reasonably good at. That's not necessarily a problem: fitness, enjoyment and training together matter too. But the defense that keeps arriving late won't automatically improve because you've performed more familiar combinations.
Deliberate practice starts with that particular weakness. What needs to change? Which task will make it visible? What information can help the next attempt? Those questions distinguish targeted improvement from simply working hard.
Make the problem small enough to work on
Take a boxer who attacks well but notices the partner's returning jab too late. A coach can design a gentle task where a short attack is sometimes followed by a jab. Sometimes it isn't. The boxer must keep watching; completing the same defensive sequence every time won't solve the problem.
Watch a few exchanges with one question in mind: does the boxer notice the response in time and retain enough balance to act? Discuss what you saw. Perhaps their gaze gets stuck during the final punch. Perhaps they finish so far forwards that any response becomes difficult. The next attempt addresses that difficulty, rather than every possible technical improvement.
If things move too quickly to notice anything, slow the response or temporarily reduce the options. If everything is effortless, add a relevant possibility. Challenging enough means there's something to learn, not that the partner should create the most trouble possible.
The research term has a narrower meaning
Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Römer described deliberate practice in their 1993 research on expert performance. Strict use of the term involves specially designed improvement tasks and expert guidance. People sometimes use targeted practice more broadly in sports classes. That's useful language, provided we don't assume every challenging round fits the research definition.
You can borrow the idea without giving your entire session that label. A short block investigating one recurring difficulty with a coach has a different job from an open round spent exploring or enjoying training. Both can belong in a session.
Harder isn't always more useful
Macnamara and colleagues' 2016 sports meta-analysis found a relationship between deliberate practice and performance, not a complete explanation of performance differences. Definitions and measurements remain debated. Guidance, circumstances, previous experience and individual differences also matter. A fixed number of hours doesn't guarantee expertise.
Extra work has limits within a single block too. If fatigue repeatedly removes the perception you need, another round may mostly rehearse the same difficulty. Include recovery and safe agreements in the design. Temporary misses can provide useful information; repeatedly forcing a task without being able to adjust does not.
Find out what remains without reminders
Agree beforehand on the behavior you're trying to change and how you'll recognize it. Later, stop supplying constant prompts. Return to the task next session. Improvement that appears only while a coach talks through every moment isn't yet the same as independently reading a response.
Feedback Loop helps adjust an attempt. Specificity of Practice asks whether this task fits the performance you need. Investment in Loss helps you tolerate the misses that appear when you finally work on a genuine weakness. Use those models when they sharpen your question. There's no need to turn the session into a giant checklist.
Sources and further reading
- Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Römer: Expert performance
Foundational 1993 formulation; not a fixed-hours guarantee.
- Macnamara et al.: Deliberate practice in sports
Meta-analysis addressing the performance relationship and limits of a complete explanation.
See an idea alongside another
Related models
Feedback Loop
Provides information for adjusting a targeted attempt.
Specificity of Practice
Checks whether practice fits the behavior you need.
Investment in Loss
Helps use temporary mistakes as information during targeted improvement.