Tuesday, March 10, 2015

DEEP PRACTICE

Going over some old clinic notes and came across some great practice concepts from Del Harris:

Targeted, mistake-focused practice is essential to increased learning efficiency.  Daniel Coyle, in his book "The Talent Code" refers to this as "deep practice."

#1 The key is that when a mistake is made in execution of an action that you start from the positions everyone was in and show the correct action from the beginning point and complete the actions as opposed to starting all over again.

#2 It is important to isolate the error and do the correct movement.  Doing the correction is worth multiple times more than any demonstration or verbal correction.  "One real encounter is worth several hundred observations" is the mantra.  Important to understand that video is not the total package in correcting.

#3 Slow it down -- learning to do it over and over slowly allows perfection and the body and brain to correlate the activity.  Seeing oneself in slow motion also speeds up execution which is where video can play an important role.

#4 Repetitions -- must be attentive repetitions.  Fire the impulse, fix errors and hone the circuit.

#5 It is only repetition from "deep practice" that matters.  Work ethic is overrated because it always involves a time equation when one speaks of it.

#6 Spending more time is effective only when you are in the "sweet spot" of your effort, attentively honing your circuits.  Practice that is focused, passionate, even desperate is the ultimate state.  Keep it interesting and helpful.