Thread by @SteveEnglishbey

I have written about the concept of "deliberative practice" quite a bit on my website over the last 10 or so years. Here's some insight into my thoughts about this concept in the context of developing a really good swing:

And here's some links/quotes that bolster my thoughts about this concept:
Here's some thoughts about Steve Jobs and his need for perfection:

"Jobs’ quest for perfection made him “complicated and exhausting,” but it also made him and his team really good at what they did."

"On reflection, this makes sense. When we declare something to be “good enough,” we are declaring that we have reached the limits of our comfort zone. A “good enough” outcome, in this respect, is a snapshot of our current ability level. "

" Pushing something beyond this point crosses a threshold into an ambiguous and uncomfortable territory, where we need skills we don’t yet have and which might be difficult to acquire and apply."

"This is a territory most of us avoid.

People in the orbit of Steve Jobs could not.

And they became the best technologists in the world."

I think most people [hitters included of course] tend to be guided by their need to feel comfortable about whatever they are practicing.

But as I have said many times, IF you REALLY want to develop your true potential you cannot let comfort be your guide. More to follow about this.

Here's the link to the article on Steve Jobs [and their are numerous articles about deliberative practice from this website]:
calnewport.com/blog/2011/11/2…

Deliberative practice is not so much a function of the volume of practice as it is a process involving what I refer to as "smart training." I won't try to define precisely what I mean by this here.

But here's a link from the above site that hints at what I mean by smart training:

calnewport.com/blog/2011/12/2…

One quote of relevance from the article: "Jeremy’s Strategies for Becoming Excellent…

Strategy #1: Avoid Flow. Do What Does Not Come Easy.
“The mistake most weak pianists make is playing, not practicing.

" If you walk into a music hall at a local university, you’ll hear people ‘playing’ by running through their pieces. This is a huge mistake. Strong pianists drill the most difficult parts of their music, rarely, if ever playing through their pieces in entirety.”

As "Instapundit" [Glen Reynolds] might say: "Read the whole thing." Certainly read the other 3 "smart" practice strategies the pianist talks about and utilizes.

More to follow.

I will only add to this, that from an instructor perspective, THE key to "smart" training is a function of the instructors ability to see and understand what they need to see and understand,i.e., they need to understand cause/effect issues.

From my vantage point of seeing and hearing MANY instructors, I would argue many do not. Quite a few do not even understand some basic notions of how an elite level swing happens.

For example, I recently saw/heard at you tube an instructor describing the swing as a "ferris-wheel" motion. And NOT a "merry-go -round" motion. This is thoroughly incorrect!

A ferris wheel kind of motion would occur along the frontal plane [think lateral bending of the spine/trunk]. This motion would result in displacement up and down relative to that plane. A good swing does not happen in that manner.

A ferris wheel kind of motion would occur along the frontal plane [think lateral bending of the spine/trunk]. This motion would result in displacement up and down relative to that plane. A good swing does not happen in that manner.

They tilt the trunk/spine towards the plate, so to speak.

They unload [swing] by trunk rotation around the axis of the spine [along the transverse plane].

Again the motion is VERY similar to a tornado.

But since they are tilted over, the motion is that of a ......"tilted tornado" [my term].

And not a ferris-wheel.