The Power of Practice

“Practice isn´t the thing you do once you´re good. It´s the thing you do that makes you good”
- Malcolm Gladwell

Many people dream of mastering a certain art, a specific sport or acquiring a desired skill yet they underestimate the importance and the POWER OF PRACTICE. During my development into a professional Tennis Player, I understood that endless repetition on and off the court was an irreparable part of my daily routines from an early age on. But what exactly is practice and why is it that important?

Per definition, practice is the constant repetition of an activity in order to improve a skill. You probably understand the concept but to give you an idea - just think back about the days you studied a foreign language, were introduced into your new job position or started a new workout routine. Unless you were already blessed with the required talent, you probably had to invest endless hours of work. Over time, you improved your skill until you mastered it and no longer had to think about it - it finally came to you with ease as a result of practice.

The success formula behind the simple principle of repetition are the following mechanisms:

Pattern: repetition ultimately results in patterns. Our brain matches information from a stimulus with information retrieved from it´s memory. Once a pattern is established, the action feels natural to us. Humans are surrounded by patterns in daily life - from the train schedule in your city to your business meetings over to your workout plan.

Memory: when an action is repeated over time, a long-term memory will be created. The need for attention, and therefore effort, decreases while efficiency, and therefore performance, increases using the memory system. This process gives the human brain more capacity to acquire other new skills. You could compare it to closing down a program on your computer which demanded high usage in order to free capacity to run other programs.

Familiarity: repetition leads to familiarity. Familiarity creates comfort. We are more likely to repeat a well-known than a foreign process. Comfort is powerful enough to lead to choices which are less productive - think about the last time a new software was introduced to your department at work and you probably found the majority of staff showing resistance. Familiarity ultimately results in “liking” and is usually preferred even before the unknown is explored.

These mechanisms are some of the most powerful in the human brain and therefore practice typically rewards us with steady improvements.

Earlier in the newsletter I mentioned talent. In sports, different types of art and in the corporate environment I kept noticing that some people tend to master a craft with more ease than others. Outstanding aptitude usually is referred to as “talent”. The inherent nature of aptitude is opposed to achievements gained through practice. Sadly enough, I have witnessed many talented people become less successful than the ones with significantly higher work ethics. The good news are: with hard work and determination you can acquire many skills and not much will be in your way on your road to success.

“Practice beats talent when talent doesn´t practice.”

Yasmin Ulrich
Former WTA Tennis Player
Founder of Power Frauen / A German network to promote healthy and positive lifestyles among women