Or does imperfect practice ingrain poor performance?
I’ve been working since February to learn to swim. My goal is to complete my first sprint triathlon in mid-August. The bike and run segments are fine. Swimming is not. Most people learn to swim at 5 and not 50-something. As with most things that are difficult, it is rich in learning – far beyond the actual swimming. Practice is one of those things I’ve learned a lot about.
My Mother, a very wise woman, taught me that, “Practice makes perfect.” However, after 5 months of diligent practice, I was not getting close to passable, let alone perfection. And if that adage was truly the case, the folks on the job that had done it the longest would be the best. Clearly not my experience in swimming or in life.
I recognized that my practice was imperfect. I was perfecting imperfect technique – and only getting marginally better over time. So I hired a personal coach, who in two sessions moved my swimming skills farther than they had come in two months. Now, when I am practicing, I am practicing better and improving faster.
I still believe that practice is the price you pay for excellence. However, there are two important aspects of practice that need to occur as well, in order to improve your performance at any skill:
- A feedback mechanism (in my case, the coach) so that you get immediate feedback about what you are doing well and where you need to do something differently
- A challenge – continually reaching just beyond what you can currently do to increase your capability and reach
I clearly have the challenge part down with swimming – my missing ingredient was feedback during practice.
