SFH #205: Deliberate Practice
First, paint the fence 🥋
Have you ever wanted something so much that you enjoyed the discomfort of figuring it out along the way?
When I decided I wanted to do my first triathlon at age 25, I was determined to figure out how to get across the finish line. One of the most vivid memories was when I clipped into my road bike pedals for the first time on the W&OD Bike Trail. It was terrifying! I was surrounded by a large group of people who had experience and knew what they were doing. And I remember feeling like I was a stiff breeze away from landing on my side, both physically hurt and deeply embarrassed. And yet, I fully embraced the fear and challenge. I was tapping into the desire to improve and get feedback (whether that was direct coaching or a bruise on my hip 🤷♂️). I wanted to get to a place of a comfortable and proficient road biker.
The psychologist Anders Ericsson and colleagues define Deliberate Practice as "the individualized training activities specially designed by a coach or teacher to improve specific aspects of an individual's performance through repetition and successive refinement."1 Put simply, it is highly structured activities that aim to improve one's performance.
The theory of deliberate practice emphasizes quality over quantity of experiences. It also values the student's ability to process and integrate improvements in targeted skills. As I was learning through my years of triathlon training and coaching others, deliberate practice focuses on tasks beyond our current level of competence and comfort. In some cases, achieving expertise can take at least a decade. I've been riding a road bike for two decades now. While I'm not a professional cyclist or triathlete, my bike-handling skills are at an expert level. I feel more than comfortable in any situation being clipped in and needing to physically and mentally navigate all given conditions.
Can you think of an area that you've deliberately practiced to gain expertise-level skills? Is there a skill you would like to be working on today?
https://sentio.org/what-is-deliberate-practice#:~:text=Defined%20by%20the%20psychologist%20Anders,278%E2%80%93279).