Practice Makes Perfect?

We have all heard this and probably so often and for so long that we don't even question it.

But does practice make perfect? The answer is... kind of.

The more correct way of thinking is that Perfect Practice makes Perfect. The process of learning a new skill can be illustrated in a four phase process. For the purpose of this piece I am using cycling as the reference point, but the process is equally applicable to running, swimming, skiing, golf you name it.  

The sequence starts with Unconscious Incompetence – We don’t know what we don’t know Then moves to phase 2

Conscious Incompetence – We know what we don’t know. We are getting feedback from the pedals telling us where we have rough spots in our pedal stroke, but we don’t quite have the skills yet to fix it. The coaches job, at this point, is to give verbal cues to help direct you to a different movement pattern, then with perfect practice you move to phase 3.

Conscious Competence – We know what we are doing, but we still have to really pay attention for the skill to work properly. The new skill is something we have to deliberately do, versus something that just flows from us. Then with more perfect practice you move to phase 4

Unconscious Competence– We know what we are doing on such a deep level we don’t even think about it, it just happens* 

You will notice that I have used the term perfect practice more than once.

What does that mean? Perfect Practice is practice with a purpose. It is being mindful of what we are doing or attempting to do.

It is the polar opposite to “mindless miles”. I define “mindless miles” as the guy at the gym on the treadmill reading a book. He is not learning anything about his stride pattern. He isn’t developing his inner feedback loop. He simply has no connection to his body whatsoever. And really why are we doing any of this if not to experience the physical pleasure of movement? (but I digress).

Perfect practice does not mean that we have to be executing the new skill or movement pattern perfectly, that will come with time. Perfect practice is paying attention what the proper movement feels like, how you feel or what you are thinking about when your pedal stroke starts to smooth out. It is the active attention to the task at hand the speeds the process of getting from Phase 1 to Phase 2.

The more we actively pay attention to what we are doing the faster we move through the learning phases and the more deeply ingrained proper techniques become. The distinction between simple practice and perfect practice is important.

If you are simply practicing “what comes naturally” you may actually be reinforcing an incorrect movement pattern. In this instance your hours of practice are just making you better at a bad habit. On this note it is really important to recognize that new skills or changes in habitual movement patterns ALWAYS feel wrong and unnatural. Again this is where perfect practice (and a bit of faith) is so critical.

* A couple of interesting additional points:

The true superstars in most sports don't make great coaches. Often because they pretty much live in Phase 4. Don't get me wrong they have worked really hard and LOVE to practice. But things that they generally can't put their finger on what it is they are doing. Many years ago I saw a video with tennis great Bjorn Borg talking about tennis skills. You could see it in his eyes that he really couldn't explain what it was that he did. My guess (totally my opinion based on nothing other than a hunch) is at a fundamental level he probably has no clue why the rest of us find it so hard to strike a tennis ball correctly. This is the crux of the issue with the truly great. They don't have a frame of reference to understand most athletes struggles with something they find so basic. Look at one of the all time great coaches Phil Jackson. He was a journey man NBA player, worked crazy hard, learned the game inside out because he had to. He became one of the all time great coaches.

The other point was what happens after phase 4. In many cases a degree of complacency sets in and athletes slip back into Phase 1. Some small errors have crept into their movement patterns, that now throw everything out of whack. Think how many times Tiger Woods has rebuilt his swing. Now when you are at that level Phase 1 is still a pretty high level! But up until very recently every time when Woods went back to the drawing board he took a step back, in terms of performance only to emerge at a quantum level jump to higher performance.