Hi Folks -
About once a year I teach a "practical pistol" class. I do a section called
"Learning how to Learn". I cover about a dozen learning methods / techniques
that can be applied in your practice sessions. This is so important and so
fundamental, and yet - it's never been taught to me in any firearm class I've
taken. Furthermore, in my academic education (kindergarten through college)
this was never taught to me either.
Has anyone on this list ever been taught "How to learn" or more specifically
"How to train to become a better pistol shooter?"
Please share your thoughts - I'd love to learn from you!
Thanks & best wishes,
Jack
Move Five Steps Closer to Mastery
One key to mastery is what Florida State University psychology professor Anders
Ericsson calls deliberate practice – a ‘lifelong period of… effort to improve
performance in a specific domain.’ Deliberate practice isn’t running a few
miles each day or banging on the piano for twenty minutes each morning. It’s
much more purposeful, focused, and, yes painful. Follow these steps – over and
over again for a decade – and you just might become a master:
- Remember that deliberate practise has one objective: to improve
performance. ‘People who play tennis once a week for years don’t get any better
if they do the same thing each time,’ Ericsson has said. ‘Deliberate practise
is about changing your performance, setting new goals and straining yourself to
reach a bit higher each time.’
- Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repetition matters. Basketball greats don’t shoot
ten free throws at the end of team practise; they shoot five hundred.
- Seek constant, critical feedback. If you don’t know how you’re doing, you
won’t know what to improve.
- Focus ruthlessly on where you need help. While many of us work on what
we’re already good at, says Ericsson, ‘those who get better work on their
weaknesses.’
- Prepare for the process to be mentally and physically exhausting. That’s
why so few people commit to it, but that’s why it works.
