Deliberate Practice and Proposed Limits on the Effects of Practice on the Acquisition of Expert Performance: Why the Original Definition Matters and Recommendations for Future Research

Abstract

Over 25 years ago Ericsson et al. (1993) published the results of their search for the most effective forms of training in music, a domain where knowledge of effective training has been accumulated over centuries. At music academies master teachers provide students individualized instruction and help them identify goals and methods for their practice sessions between meetings – this form of solitary practice was named deliberate practice, and its accumulated duration during development was found to distinguish groups with differing levels of attained music performance. In an influential meta-analysis Macnamara et al. (2014) identified studies that had collected estimates of practice accumulated during development and attained performance and reported that individual differences in deliberate practice accounted for only 14% of variance in performance. Their definition of “deliberate practice” differs significantly from the original definition of deliberate practice and will henceforth be referred to as structured practice. We explicate three criteria for reproducible performance and purposeful/deliberate practice and exclude all effect sizes considered by Macnamara et al. (2014) that were based on data not meeting these criteria. A reanalysis of the remaining effects estimated that accumulated duration of practice explained considerably more variance in performance (29 and 61% after attenuation correction). We also address the argument that the limited amount of variance explained by the duration of practice necessarily implies an important role of genetic factors, and we report that genetic effects have so far accounted for remarkably small amounts of variance – with exception of genetic influences of height and body size. The paper concludes with recommendations for how future research on purposeful and deliberate practice can go beyond recording only the duration of practice to measuring the quality of practice involving concentration, analysis, and problem solving to identify conditions for the most effective forms of training.

Variation in competition performance, number of races, and age: Long-term athlete development in elite female swimmers

“…Future studies should verify these findings, with a detailed analysis of the underlying mechanism. Despite the debate on the effect of age and accumulated practice over time among experts in the field of talent development [20][21][22], in this study older female athletes were more successful at the 2018EC. While swimmers may not improve their performance simply by aging, the present study should encourage swimmers under the age of peak performance, who did not reach semi-finals or finals at international competitions, to focus on mental skills and motivation to continue the hard work of high-level training and competition.…”

“…It is believed that a certain amount of practice, i.e., 10'000 hrs, within a given time span, i.e., 10 yrs, is required to achieve expert level. This theory is hardly discussed among experts in the field [20,21,[39][40][41][42][43] and talent development most probably involves multiple factors [44]. Still, the high technical demand and specifics of in-water locomotion [9,34] may favour volume based training approaches and accumulated practice over time to achieve elite performance [45].…”

“…Undoubtedly, talent development and success in elite athletes is based on multiple factors, i.e., genetics, economics, and support system [20]. However, there is a heated debate on the effect of age and accumulated practice over time on elite athletes' performance and level of expertise [20][21][22]. Indeed, age of peak performance in female athletes has increased throughout recent decades along with the improved peak performances [1,23].…”

Transitions in the Careers of Competitive Swimmers: To Continue or Finish with Elite Sport?

“…As regards the process of swimmers’ sporting development, the present research revealed a tendency to differences in the number of hours of structured practice between the groups. Although several studies have emphasized the relationship between the number of training hours of an athlete and the performance level ultimately reached [ 35 ], it should be underlined that this refers not to any practice but only to appropriate quality training (deliberate practice, [ 36 ]). Those who resigned prematurely from competitive swimming had more hours of practice; however, the first phase of development, called the sampling years [ 22 ] or exploration stage [ 11 ], was significantly shorter and the second phase, which focused on developing skills and competences (i.e., the commitment stage), was significantly longer.…”

Domain-Specificity of Educational and Learning Capital: A Study With Musical Talents

“…In terms of learning at school they had, on average completed only just over half of their schooling. Before eminence can be reached, or the extremely long periods of deliberate practice required can be achieved, many more years of engagement are necessary (Ericsson and Harwell, 2019). Similarly, the study participants were only at the beginning of the musical instrument lessons.…”