Lecture 29: Deliberate Practice

Question 1

Define deliberate practice.

Answer 1

Structured
Purposeful
Relevant

Question 2

What key predictions did Ericsson make of elite athletes and their participation in sport at a young age?

Answer 2

More hours spend in deliberate practice
Start deliberate practice at a younger age
Specialise at a younger age

Question 3

What are the differences between deliberate practice perceptions in general life and sport?

Answer 3

General life:

Increased effort and relevance
Decreased enjoyment

Sport:

Increased relevance, mental effort and physical effort

Question 4

What did Ericsson et al. discover as qualities of the best violinists?

Answer 4

Sleep more
More practice along
Less leisure time

Question 5

What did Ward et al. identify about deliberate practice between elite and sub-elite footballers?

Answer 5

Elites partook in more team practice (key determinant) and began at an earlier age
Playful activities have very little bearing on development of elite performance

Question 6

What were some of the implications of Ward et al.’s football study?

Answer 6

Concentration is essential
Increased emphasis on psychological skills and deliberte practice during TID
Continuous improvement is possible
Continuous practice is important
Cannot achieve excellence with only practice

Question 7

What did Patterson & Lee identify as essential for deliberate practice training sessions?

Answer 7

Feedback
Repetition
Challenged
Goals are well-learned

Question 8

What are the recommendations for coaches and athletes in terms of deliberate practice?

Answer 8

Make the most of every practice
Motivational Barriers
Focus on strengths not weaknesses
Monitor progress

Question 9

Why can’t deliberate practice be sustained for a long time?

Answer 9

Requires too much physical and cognitive effort

Question 10

What kind of practice is performed to prevent burnout from too much deliberate practice?

Answer 10

Structured practice

Question 11

Define structured practice.

Answer 11

Training in organised sport settings aimed to improve performance without the rigors of normal practice

Question 12

What did Hutterman identify about the relationship between age and skill level on deliberate practice?

Answer 12

There was no difference between age groups (both used more structured practice)
High expertise levels used more deliberate practice
Low expertise levels used more structured practice

Question 13

What measures did basketball players and volleyball players complete in Vink et al.’s intrinsic motivation study?

Answer 13

Sport motivation scale (IM)
Training diary (DP)

Question 14

What were the results of a study looking at the relationship between intrinsic motivation and deliberate practice?

Answer 14

They have a reciprocal relationship
More deliberate practice predicts future IM
More IM predicts more DP

Question 15

What were the results of Macnamara et al.’s meta-analysis on domain (sport, music, education) and deliberate practice?

Answer 15

Found that deliberate practice had very little effect on performance (12%)
Did find that sporting domain (games the highest) and method of data collection (questionnaires the highest) were moderators of DP success prediction

Question 16

In summary, has there been a causal relationship or a correlation found between deliberate practice and performance?

Answer 16

Correlation

IM may just mean more enjoyment and motivation leading to more DP (not vice versa)

Question 17

What were the measures for Lombardo and Deaner’s meta-analysis on sprinting success and deliberate practice?

Answer 17

Autobiographies
World-record times
Data obtained from a questionnaire for world championship sprinters

Question 18

What were the drawbacks of Lombardo and Deaner’s sprinting study?

Answer 18

Taken from autobiographies
Said DP could make a 3.3% improvement which is huge in sprinting
Used data like: sprinters were better at sprinting at a young age, whereas, throwers were better at throwing