K. Anders Ericsson’s “10,000 hour” rule might be more of an average hour rule for skill mastery, but the reality is excellence requires practice. Coach Lombardi said, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” So, be your best today; be better tomorrow. Enough today’s and one can pursue perfection.
I try to drill it into my children that, in school and sports, it is “one-hundred percent, one-hundred percent of the time.” Anything less is not effective. In sports, anything less cheats your team, your opponent, and yourself.
Growth—i.e., pursuit of perfection—requires regular overload. If one does not push the limits of one’s abilities—the comfort zone—there is no stress and no challenge.
Today is the day to make mistakes because you have tried something of which you are unfamiliar. Mistakes lead to learning. (Thus, failure is a good thing.) Then, tomorrow, when the stakes are higher, success is more likely.
What separates elite athletes from good athletes (in addition to—and, sometimes, despite a lack of—natural endowment) is the hours dedicated to skill perfection. Practice to the point at which performance becomes “instinctive”. Reactions are natural.
We tend to think that elite athletes have far better reaction times than the average person. In fact, most hover around 200 ms, which is average. It has been reported that Albert Pujols, one of the greatest hitters in major league baseball, tested in the 66th percentile for reaction time. How then does a major-league hitter manage to make contact with a ball within only 400 ms? They are pretty much guessing—albeit an informed guess. The know from experience where the ball is going the minute it is released from the pitcher’s hand. The same goes for pretty much every sport.
Think in practice so you don’t have to think in the game. There is really no time to react. Anticipation wins in sports. Anticipation is not taking a lucky guess. It is “knowing” what comes next.
Whatever we pursue in life, practice (perfect practice) makes perfect. Try and fail until you do and succeed. Be your best (give your best effort) today; and be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!