… perfect practice makes perfect …
“Élite performers, researchers say, must engage in “deliberate practice”—sustained, mindful efforts to develop the full range of abilities that success requires. You have to work at what you’re not good at. In theory, people can do this themselves. But most people do not know where to start or how to proceed. Expertise, as the formula goes, requires going from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence to conscious competence and finally to unconscious competence. The coach provides the outside eyes and ears, and makes you aware of where you’re falling short. This is tricky. Human beings resist exposure and critique; our brains are well defended. So coaches use a variety of approaches—showing what other, respected colleagues do, for instance, or reviewing videos of the subject’s performance. The most common, however, is just conversation.”
Awesome. This applies to philosophizing as well—I may steal this quote for my review of “Socratic method” and “Socratic wisdom.”
Coach Stephenson was the first one to get the “perfect practice” idea across to me in his batting technique “lecture” at WSU baseball camp so many years ago. I think I could still give the basics of that lesson—it was excellently done.