The prodigy myth, Wayne Gretzky and deliberate practice

The prodigy myth is the idea that someone has a natural talent for something, starts doing it at an early age and becomes great immediately. Wayne Gretzky was a hockey prodigy. Bobby Fisher was a chess prodigy. Tiger Woods is a golf prodigy. No puppetry prodigies come immediately to mind, but I am sure there have been a few.

But the more researchers study how and why some people perform at a higher level than others, the more they discover that the prodigy myth is exactly that - a myth. Scientists have done dozens of studies in this area over the past decade and they've turned up virtually no evidence that innate talent plays any role in high-level success. What high level performers - the Bobby Fishers, the Michael Jordans, the Wayne Gretzkys - do have in common is a fanatical dedication to deliberate practice.

Consider Wayne Gretzky. As an 18 year-old rookie he was probably the best hockey player in world. On ice he was virtually untouchable; he swiftly broke almost every hockey record there was to break. One of Gretzky's favourite tricks was to set up goals behind the net, which became known as "Gretzky's office" because it seemed like every time he went to work there he either scored or got an assist. Gretzky possessed a unique ability to sense and understand the flow of a game and once said he got "...a feeling about where a teammate is going to be, a lot of times, I can turn and pass without looking."

Gretzky started practicing early and often. His father taught him to play hockey as soon as he was old enough to hold a stick and as a child he pushed himself deliberately hard, often competing with boys nearly twice his age. By the time he made it to the NHL he had been engaging in regular, dedicated practice for almost fifteen years.

I used to be jealous when I would meet people who could just pick up a puppet and perform fairly well with little or no puppetry experience. I assumed they were "naturally talented", but what I eventually discovered was that most of these people had lots of training in dance, or theatre, or they used to spend hours everyday playing with their stuffed toys as a child. They weren't "naturally" talented at all! Whether they realized it or not, they had spent years acquiring many of the skills that puppeteers need to have.

It's the idea of deliberate practice - practice designed to help you acquire specific skills - that's key here. Here are some good tips for deliberate practice from a great article in Forbes Magazine called What It Takes To Be Great:

1. Have a goal every time you rehearse
   Practice doesn't necessarily make perfect. How you practice is as important as how much. Every time you rehearse or practice something you should do so with a specific goal or task in mind.
   
   
2. Focus on what's happening
   As you practice, focus on what's happening, what you're doing and why you're doing it the way you are. The more you understand what you do and why the better you'll be able to do it.
   
   
3. Get feedback
   As you practice, get feedback from people who you trust to give you constructive, critical feedback. Listen, learn and makes changes as necessary (this is a variation on the "Would anyone else besides your mother care about what you're doing?" concept from the Twelve Questions For Puppeteers post awhile back).
   
   
4. Build mental models
   Study how all the different pieces of what you're doing fit together and influence each other.
   
   
5. Repeat often
   Like an unknown puppeteer once said "practice, practice, practice...then practice some more."

Many researchers believe in the "ten year rule", which states that people need a minimum of ten years of hard work and deliberate practice before they can really perform on a world-class level.