How might we offer time as a variable? What if we practice on the edge of ability, setting goals just beyond our current reach? What if we S…L…O…W… D…O…W…N to attend to precision? Might we actually accomplish tougher tasks if we attend to the subtle, hidden elegance of learning?

Why does slowing down work so well? The myelin model offers two reasons. First, going slow allows you to attend more closely to errors, creating a higher degree of precision with each firing—and when it comes to growing myelin, precision is everything. As football coach Tom Martinez likes to say, “It’s not how fast you can do it. It’s how slow you can do it correctly.” Second, going slow helps the practicer to develop something even more important: a working perception of the skill’s internal blueprints—the shape and rhythm of the interlocking skill circuits. (Coyle, 85 pag.)

What if our culture called for encouraged productive struggle where every learned set goals, worked to reach them, reflected on any gaps between the target and the learning, and adjusted?

Deep practice is not simply about struggling; it’s about seeking out a particular struggle, which involves a cycle of distinct actions. (Coyle, 92 pag.)

Summer Reading using VTR: Sentence-Phrase-Word:
The Talent Code
Chapter 4: The Three Rules of Deep Practice

If you haven’t already, check out The Power of High-Leverage Practice on Daniel Coyle’s blog. The videos of Odell Beckham are amazing.

How might we offer opportunities to practice differently, to struggle, reflect, and select a new strategy to try?

Go slow. Attend to precision. Get in the game. Don’t practice for a month. Add frequent feedback loops. Continue to reach.

Coyle, Daniel (2009-04-16). The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.