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Use Deliberate Practice to get the most out of your Practice Sessions

rukket
Apr 16, 2014
2 min read

You may have heard the term Deliberate Practice, it’s a term created by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson. Erricsson is the researcher who came up with the magic number of 10,000 hours to become a true master in his landmark study in 1993 of violinists at a Berlin Orchestra. His study involved collecting data on all violinists, the mediocre and the elite. What he found was there was no significant difference between a “master” and anyone else besides their time doing deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice means focusing your training to get the absolute most out of your practice, not mindless repetition. You need to focus your practice to improve what you did before each and every time. When applied to your golf game this technique can seriously improve your abilities. Anytime you can squeeze in some practice time and use deliberate practice while you are at it you can accumulate the hours towards being a master though catching up with the pros that have been doing this since forever will probably never happen, you will in most instances be able to smoke your friends the next time you go to the course.

Here are the 4 keys to deliberate practice:

Practice is highly personal: No one knows what you need to work on besides you and maybe your golf coach. Your practice, and this is the biggest takeaway, has to push your comfort zone. Really think about what you are not good at and that should be your focus. It could even be having people watch you practice or practicing with distractions. Making it a little more difficult is key.
Do things that you still haven’t Mastered: Pushing just beyond what you are good at each time. Do not push it so far that a goal is out of reach. Hitting a lot of bad shots is part of the process, and that’s incredibly important. If its easy its not helping. Deliberate practice is hard because doing something you aren’t good at doesn’t seem as fun as something you are good at.
Constant Repetition: Think about stories of the greatest athletes. There are always stories about how much they practiced. The old saying “practice makes perfect” is completely true. Doing things over and over builds up your brains memory (there is no such thing as “muscle memory”)
Get Feedback: You can’t practice properly without feedback. Get a coach to help you out or use your cell phone to take video of yourself. You have to be scientific about what you are doing wrong, not just guessing what was wrong with each shot.