The Neuroscience of Effective Practice

Let’s not pretend I am smart enough to come up with this information on my own. I found it in PSYCHOLOGY TODAY. Aditi Subramaniam, PhD. I have just adapted the language to make it more relatable in a gymnastics learning environment.

KEY POINTS

• Deliberate practice involves paying attention, rehearsing with a clear goal, and repeating the process with purpose. 
• The benefits of deliberate practice include enhanced long-term memory retention and automaticity of skills. 
• Practice produces myelin around neurons, which increases the speed and efficiency of nerve impulses.

I recently delved into the art of drawing basic mandala designs, which have gained immense popularity for their mindfulness and relaxation benefits. Here is an example of a mandala:

Source: Alesia Kozik/Pexels

I first looked up basic mandala designs and went about practicing a few.

After dedicating approximately 20 minutes to practicing, I noticed an improvement in my mandala drawings. Though subtle, there was a noticeable increase in my confidence and precision, resulting in a neater and more refined final product compared to my earlier attempts.

If there is one thing that separates a great artist or sportsperson from an amateur one, it is practice. Practicing deliberately to enhance performance is not only crucial for acquiring expertise in an activity but it is also imperative. Studies indicate that while deliberate practice might not be the only factor that comes into play, it is an absolutely necessary one if someone is to achieve high levels of expertise in a domain.

Not All Practice Is Created Equal

Gaining expertise through practice involves more than just mindlessly repeating a task. For instance, a gymnast may spend several hours a week practicing their routine on Floor , but without deliberate practice, the results may be short-lived or inconsequential.

Experts emphasize that deliberate practice encompasses three fundamental aspects that differentiate it from rote repetition: attention, rehearsal, and repetition. By paying close attention to the task at hand, rehearsing with a clear goal in mind, and repeating the process with purpose, that gymnast can achieve proficiency and long-lasting results.

Example: When a gymnast goes out to practice their routine, WHAT IS THE GOAL? Is it to make a certain tumbling pass? To “stay on the music”? To keep their legs straight?

Once they do that- DO IT AGAIN- before they move on.

How Does Deliberate Practice Help?

While deliberate practice is an important and perhaps necessary component for achieving expertise, it is important to know that its impact varies across different domains, with certain fields such as music and sports showing a greater dependence on it than others. 

In addition to helping us achieve expertise in a subject matter, deliberate practice can have the following benefits:

1. Practice enhances long-term memory retention of new information. When we practice recalling and applying new knowledge, we are more likely to remember it permanently.
2. Practice helps us eventually apply our knowledge automatically and without much thought. Repeated deliberate practice can thus help to free up cognitive resources, which can allow us to handle more challenging tasks.
3. Practice not only improves problem-solving skills, but also enhances the ability to transfer skills that we practiced to new and complex problems.
4. The cognitive gains we experience from practicing can often motivate us to continue learning. 

The Neuroscience Behind Practice Effects

Gymnasts, musicians, and artists often speak about how, as they practice a skill, it seems to become second nature. While they might colloquially refer to this as muscle memory, it involves a structure called myelin, which insulates nerve fibers and increases the speed and efficiency of nerve impulses. The more we practice a skill, the more myelin we produce around the neurons involved in that skill, making them communicate faster and better. 

One of the remarkable effects of practice is that it can alter the brain’s structure by enlarging certain areas that are involved in the practiced skill. A famous example of this is the “London cab driver study,” which showed that the intensive training that cab drivers undergo to learn the complex routes of London and earn their licenses leads them to have bigger hippocampi than average. The hippocampus is a key part of the brain for memory formation and recall. 

How to Practice Most Effectively

• Avoid rote repetition. Rather than mindlessly repeating a new skill, incorporate the principles of deliberate practice into their learning routine. The gymnast must pay attention, rehearse in a goal-directed manner, and repeat.
• Break down a complex skills into its constituent parts (Part- whole method). Don’t start by trying to replicate an intricate and complex skill or routine That’s a formula for disappointment and injury. Start with practicing basic movement patterns, and once those become better and automatic, they can move to combinations of these patterns.
• Start slow. I mean, literally. If they are learning a routine- make sure they learn it slow first before you add the music. With a new Vault, make sure they have the body shapes statically, then move through them slowly before they try to put it together. Speed can come later. (This is why, very often, classical musicians insist their students start practicing playing one note per beat, and only then moving to faster tempos and more complex rhythms.)
• Don’t move to the next step without perfecting the first one. I have seen many coaches skip this part. They gymnast is at 60% of each part of the skill, then they throw it together and wonder why they have a less than 50% success rate. If they are learning a layout full twist on floor and they do not have good shape of the layout, what are you going to get? Go back and look if their round off back handspring is strong enough for them to have the power necessary for the layout. Set your gymnasts up for success- not failure.
• Patience is key. When we watch World class gymnasts in competition their abilities appear seamless and natural, which can be discouraging when we struggle to grasp the same skill. However, we often overlook the countless hours they put into practicing to attain such mastery. Instead of growing restless for immediate perfection, recognizing the beauty and significance of the learning journey can inspire us to dedicate our time and energy to mastering new skills.