Comments on: Four Quick Cures for Poor Practice

By: djcoyle

djcoyle — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:30:12 +0000

Paul, That’s fantastic — and a great point about how language is situational. Having a radar for those “hot-button words” — the ones that cause the positive, effort-giving response in the learner — seems like an essential tool for any coach or teacher. It’s also one of the easiest things to share.

By: Lindsey Vonn’s Winning Strategy | Expert Sports Performance

Lindsey Vonn’s Winning Strategy | Expert Sports Performance — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:03:27 +0000

[...] focused attention is the very thing that’s going to advance your performance. The qualities of deliberate practice include presence, challenge and repetition. Deliberate practice is designed to improve performance, [...]

By: Tyree

Tyree — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:11:02 +0000

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writers? I’m planning to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on
everything. Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for
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By: Mark Upton

Mark Upton — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:48:41 +0000

Daniel/Richard,

on the basketball FT shooting, another way of doing it would be to intersperse different shots in between free throw attempts (which is really the same as Daniel is saying). This is called “variable practice” in skill acquisition.

There are a couple of theories why it works, but basically it forces the brain to work harder in producing the motor pattern for each FT rep, resulting in greater learning. When many FT’s are practiced one after the other (“constant practice”) the brain flicks the “auto-pilot” switch and less learning occurs (although more baskets can be made, fooling the player/coach into thinking things are going great!)

A bit simplified but hopefully provides some insight…

By: djcoyle

djcoyle — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:07:14 +0000

I love that. Ultimately, the poorest practice is the kind that never starts, for exactly those reasons.

By: donr

donr — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 22:32:33 +0000

“The biggest enemy of talent isn’t genes, or opportunity, or luck. It’s poor practice.”

No it’s not. The biggest enemy of talent is the combination of procrastination, fear and apathy.

By: djcoyle

djcoyle — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:39:59 +0000

Hi Richard, Could you explain why? There’s a fair amount of research (by Dr. Robert Bjork, among others) that shows the effectiveness of this method. The reason why: it helps improve the ability to modulate and adjust, and thus have more control over the shot. Bjork says that if Shaq had practiced FTs from 14 and 16 feet, he would have improved.

By: Richard Campbell

Richard Campbell — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:27:44 +0000

I found analysis to be correctly insightful, except in the FT shooting case. That “cure” is so wrong it’s scary.

By: David

David — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 22:52:43 +0000

Daniel,
Just a quick post to let you know I really enjoy reading your blog. This post is especially useful. The only two observations I would add are: create an environment which promotes rapid learning and surround yourself with people who keep your initial spark of motivation burning e.g. the following link is a video review showing one year in the life of a development athlete http://youtu.be/S4xxlU7z1VI. Enjoy.

I look forward to your next post.
Best regards
David

By: WalterStemberg

WalterStemberg — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 22:37:31 +0000

Really love these points and i can relate to all of them. Being a youth soccer coach for years ive gone through all of these steps. Even on our team, which is a top 25 youth team in our area, we have kids that vary in talent. It’s tough to have a generic drill for example that will challenge the better third so you need to be creative to make practice effect for them too or they will turn off quickly. I go through a variation of this very list every time we hit the field. Nice, Thanks