Get Better by Training like an Athlete

Photo by Nike Labs

10,000 hours notwithstanding, practice doesn’t make perfect unless the way you practice is perfect.

In last week’s issue of The New Yorker , James Surowiecki explores the recent “performance revolution” in sports, and how that approach to improvement has also raised the bar in business:

[T]he way to improve the way you perform is to improve the way you train. High performance isn’t, ultimately, about running faster, throwing harder, or leaping farther. It’s about something much simpler: getting better at getting better.

Thanks to more sophisticated technology, ultra-individualized training, and “the mainstreaming of excellent habits,” athletes are working not only harder than ever but smarter than ever—and so goes for a range of other fields in which performance improvement is self-controlled and measurable, from manufacturing and airline safety to higher education and business.

For example, Japanese elementary school math teachers train rigorously, before and throughout their careers:

They’ve developed a vocabulary to describe successful teaching tactics. They spend hours talking about how to improve things… in a way that helps students learn. And they get constant feedback from other teachers and mentors. This method—with its systematic approach to learning, its emphasis on preparation, and its relentless focus on small details and the need for constant feedback—sounds like the way athletes train today.

With data analysis available for everyone these days, there’s no reason not to track your data (even if it seems fairly basic: amount of sleep, time of day, etc.) and experiment with your process in order to improve upon it. Whatever your field, cultivating a methodical, focused approach to advancement could have the most impact on your growth.

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