Applying Deep Practice to Overcome Stumbling Blocks

[Ken Krause]

Anyone who has read the book The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle has heard of the concept of “deep practice.” You may have blown right by it but you’ve heard of it. Part of the key to deep practice is repeating movements over and over in ultra-slow motion. As I recall Coyle says movements should […]

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[Tatonka]

Talent Code is a great book, both DD's are really enjoying the Mind Gym also right now. Thx for the reminder Ken...after an appropriate break from college ball this summer we've been getting back at it and starting from the most basic fundamentals (trying to cement that muscle memory in place). Lot's of slo-mo and back chaining. Video and mirror work goes with it.

 

[kibadbo]

The concept makes sense, but I wonder how the lack of feedback affects how well the movement pattern is learned. A release point, for example, can look right, but being off even a centimeter can be the difference between a ball or strike. Couldn't this lead to unintentionally engraining suboptimal patterns?

Another issue I've noticed when trying this out is that it is difficult to replicate some of the forces that occur in real-time when moving in slo-mo. Pitching in particular is an explosive movement pattern and the body moves into positions that can't really be replicated when going slow. I wonder if that might actually affect timing negatively.

I'm not trying to pick the idea apart. I've read the book and using slo-mo to engrain patterns seems like a sound concept. But when I walked it through with my daughter, I realized that replicating the patterns wasn't as simple as I thought it would be.

I'd love to hear what your experience was regarding these questions.