Overcoming Performance Plateaus Part 1: Deliberate Practice

Forget the 10,000 hours rule.

If you want to make performance gains in anything, it takes practice. Phrases like “practice makes perfect” and Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule may come to mind, which he proposed as the amount of time it takes to master a skill. Both of these mantras emphasize the time and commitment aspect of training. Gladwell’s decree, for example, echoes a belief held by many researchers that length of experience is the primary factor necessary for developing expert status.

Indeed, experts in any domain have spent hours upon hours perfecting their craft. The “first one in, last one out” stories that we hear about the greats like Kobe and Tiger are motivating tales of work ethic. But lengthy amounts of time training do not automatically equate to expertise.

You may have had the experience of putting in long hours of practice only to realize fewer and fewer returns on investment.

However, this plateauing effect does not have to be a limiting factor for what you want to achieve. If you want to want to take your performance to the next level, consider how your practice hours are spent.

Research from Anders Ericsson — a psychologist widely recognized for his contributions to understanding human expertise — shows that in order to move from “acceptable” to “expert” levels of performance, one has to continue to actively build their skillset.

“The select group of individuals who eventually reach very high levels do not simply accumulate more routine experience of domain-related activities but extend their active skill-building period for years or even decades, both forward and backward in time.” — Anders Ericsson

Ericsson referred to this type of active skill building as deliberate practice. If you are wondering if you are being deliberate in your own practice, ask yourself the following questions:

Are you just putting in reps? Or are you being mindful of each rep, bringing specificity and intention into each and every movement? Do you have a hyper specific technical, tactical, or strategic goal that you are working toward during training?

If you answered yes to these questions, congrats— but don’t dare settle! Deliberate practice insists that you continue to train on the edge of your capabilities (more on that later). If you answered no, don’t sweat. The section below outlines strategies to help you develop a more deliberate approach to training, no matter your current level of performance.

Developing a Deliberate Approach to Practice

1. Get uncomfortable. You don’t grow your muscles or aerobic capacity by giving 50% effort. Training on the edge of your capabilities creates stress in the body, which the body and the mind adapt to over time. Training with others or keeping a training log can help you avoid complacency and continue to expand your abilities.
2. Find a coach. Coaches help you find the gaps in your performance. They point out where you need to improve, and help you train on the edge of your capabilities. What makes up an “ideal” coach is rather subjective, but consider finding a trainer who has an expert understanding of your performance domain. This can help deepen your own understanding of performance so that you can learn to self regulate while executing, which is key to developing automaticity.
3. Concentrate your training. To be deliberate requires a concentrated focus of attention. This is two fold. The first part involves working to improve a very specific aspect of performance, such the height of your toss on your tennis serve, or the speed of your golf swing. The second part involves mental focus. Deliberate practice cannot be mindless; it requires intense concentration on the target area of improvement.
4. Follow a sequential approach. Emily Dickinson stated “If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves.” Start your training by focusing on the small stuff. Allow the fundamental aspects of your training to become automatic, then build on those fundamentals. This type of sequential approach to training can also help concentrate your efforts and allow it to remain purposeful.
5. REST! The importance of rest cannot be overstated. Even if you go to the gym every day and train on the edge of your capabilities, eventually you’re going to fatigue. Moreover, there is a limit to how much concentrated effort can be given at once. The body and mind need time to recover in order to adapt to the stressors it’s presented. If you struggle with taking breaks and knowing when to rest, try dedicating a specific day for rest and recovery, or have a coach program them in for you. Self care is essential in the pursuit of expertise.

“Do not mistake activity with achievement.” — John Wooden

This quip from John Wooden captures the essence of deliberate practice. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of being mindful during training. If you you want to move from acceptable to expert levels of performance, your training must be deliberate.

However, deliberate practice is not a direct substitute for time and commitment to training. Even with deliberate practice, developing expertise may take years of training.

For clarification, the 10,000 hours rule popularized by Gladwell was actually introduced by Ericsson’s study of expert violinists. 10,000 hours was the estimated amount of time that experts violinists spent training in order to achieve such status. However, Ericsson noted that Gladwell slightly misinterpreted his research, mainly overlooking the deliberate aspect of training. The majority of these students trained alone, concentrating on very specific aspects outlined by their teachers.

Thus, it’s not only about the time spent practicing, but the quality of that time too. Deliberate practice is a way of complementing the time and dedication you are already putting into your craft.

In Part 2 of Overcoming Performance Plateaus, we’ll expand on this idea of deliberate practice, and discuss the relationship between how we train, how we perform, and the mindset we hold in each of these settings.

Resources

Anders Ericsson: Dismantling the 10,000 Hour rule. Good Life Project. (2021, June 29). Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/anders-ericsson/

Ericsson, A. (2018). In The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and expert performance. essay, Cambridge University Press

O’Connor, E. (2017). The psychology of performance: How to be your best in life (E. O’Connor, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Amazon. https://www.amazon.
com/Psychology-Performance-Your-Best-Life/dp/B0758MHNS6 (Original work published 2017)