Deliberate Practice: Training With Purpose

It is not uncommon for one to worry about the time it will take to gain experience in some field of professional activity.

And there being the theory that approximately ten thousand hours are needed, for example, to reach a more or less competent performance in things like artistic drawing, athletics and music, it may be that any expectation of a favorable result is dissipated considering how distant it sounds to achieve such a goal.

The ideal, however, would be to develop an apprenticeship that emphasizes the quality of the hours invested rather than their quantity. After all, there is no limit to knowledge, and in a certain sense, one never stops learning something new, regardless of the field of activity in question.

Consistency of training, in any discipline, is an objective nuance of criteria that contributes to emphasize the concentration applied in appropriate methodical approaches, and dismiss unrealistic expectations of immediate results. It is what is known as deliberate practice: working with clarity of thought and awareness of the particular factors influential in the improvement of a certain skill, and how exactly they are applied to develop that skill.

The purpose, then, of deliberately practicing and studying something, must be consistent with objectives that go beyond the temporary satisfaction of ephemeral achievements. Objectives that can only approach the transcendence of the virtue cultivated in conscious thought.

When practicing something deliberately, the goal is not only to enhance a skill but also to search for errors or weaknesses, in order to plan activities that help eliminating them in independent performance. Something that can be illustrated through the didactic processes that offer a productive continuity in feedback and introspection to learning. In chess terms, what does this mean?

• To analyze the games we play, regardless of their result. It is the only way to understand the reasons for our mistakes in order to avoid them in further battles.
• To frequently renew the repertoire ideas that we compile from our analyses. Thus can we be prepared for when an unfamiliar situation may arise.
• To exercise the faculty of precision by solving problems, in order to keep a fresh perception of calculation technique.

Actually, there are no shortcuts or formulas that substitute the value of consistent work directed by a reasonable purpose. By making his practice a constant activity, one can verify that the significance of the learning thus developed exceeds the eagerness of the hours and the expectations not related to the present reality. An effective training process must be balanced and proportional in time of study and practice. For example, if a subject is studied for a certain number of hours, it is necessary to invest a parallel number of hours in applying the knowledge acquired through sparring sessions or problem solving, so that learning and improvement may be always focused on the development of the pragmatic sense of play.

Such work, whose purpose is none other than to appreciate the objective qualities of the art developed, implies its own reward: independent perceptive understanding, cultivated only through consistency in the nuances that constitute it. And the thinking? Sharpened in silence.

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"The cognitive and physical changes caused by training require upkeep. Stop training and they go away."

- Anders Ericsson