I’ve thought about "practice makes perfect" since I readMalcolm Gladwell’s chapter on 10,000 hours in his book, Outliers.Gladwell contends that people who are really good at what they do havepracticed for more than 10,000 hours. It’s hard to disagree. He includes stories about TheBeatles and Bill Gates in his list of practitioners.
Now there is more research on practice, specifically whatkind of practice makes perfect - it's deliberate practice. There is no betterexample of this than the way my husband and I play golf. He goes to a practicerange weekly and hits 100 or more balls, carefully making adjustments to hisstance and swing. He also plays 18 holes once or twice a week. I, on the otherhand, play nine holes twice a month. I sometimes go to the practice rangebefore play, but not often. I have a good time - sometimes. It’s not worthkeeping score. My husband improves his game steadily.
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According to the research of improvement comes from the laborious process of determiningwhere we are erring and self-correcting until our achievement is up tostandard.
See the full article by Annie Murphy Paul, author of Origins.Paul is currently working on a book about the science of learning, practicinguntil it’s perfect.
