Is deliberate practice all wrong?

Deliberate practice is the key to reaching high levels of expertise. Right? Not according to David Hambrick. New research from him and his colleagues argue that deliberate practice is not really as important as most people think it is. Are they right? Or does the evidence in favor of deliberate practice still fly? Let’s get to the bottom of this academic battle! 00:51 Where did the idea of deliberate practice come from? 3:32 David Hambrick’s position. 4:38 There are two questions here. 5:37 A flexible definition? 7:23 How do we measure deliberate practice? 8:18 My take. ****GAH! David Hambrick is actually faculty at Michigan State University (MSU) NOT UM. My sincere apologies to him and to MSU. Watch my other videos on deliberate practice: What people get wrong about deliberate practice - Practice more efficiently - Sign up to my email newsletter, Avoiding Folly, here: David (“Zach“) Hambrick’s photo was taken from: Anders Ericsson’s photo taken from: For David Hambrick’s (and colleagues’!) papers, see: Macnamara, B. N., Hambrick, D. Z., & Oswald, F. L. (2014). Deliberate practice and performance in music, games, sports, education, and professions: A meta-analysis. Psychological science, 25(8), 1608-1618. Hambrick, D. Z., Oswald, F. L., Altmann, E. M., Meinz, E. J., Gobet, F., & Campitelli, G. (2014). Deliberate practice: Is that all it takes to become an expert?. Intelligence, 45, 34-45. et al -- Deliberate Practice - Is That All It Takes To Become An Macnamara, B. N., Moreau, D., & Hambrick, D. Z. (2016). The relationship between deliberate practice and performance in sports: A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(3), 333-350. Hambrick, D. Z., Macnamara, B. N., & Oswald, F. L. (2020). Is the deliberate practice view defensible? A review of evidence and discussion of issues. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1134. For Ericsson’s responses to Hambrick’s arguments, see: Ericsson, K. A. (2016). Summing up hours of any type of practice versus identifying optimal practice activities: Commentary on Macnamara, Moreau, & Hambrick (2016). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(3), 351-354. Ericsson, K. A., & Harwell, K. W. (2019). Deliberate practice and proposed limits on the effects of practice on the acquisition of expert performance: Why the original definition matters and recommendations for future research. Frontiers in psychology, 2396. Ericsson, K. A. (2021). Given that the detailed original criteria for deliberate practice have not changed, could the understanding of this complex concept have improved over time? A response to Macnamara and Hambrick (2020). Psychological Research, 85(3), 1114-1120. For a non-Hambrick and non-Ericsson joint on the Hambrick meta-analysis, see: Miller, S. D., Chow, D., Wampold, B. E., Hubble, M. A., Del Re, A. C., Maeschalck, C., & Bargmann, S. (2020). To be or not to be (an expert)? Revisiting the role of deliberate practice in improving performance. High Ability Studies, 31(1), 5-15. For the original piece on deliberate practice, see: Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological review, 100(3), 363. The spelling bee research I mentioned is here: Duckworth, A. L., Kirby, T. A., Tsukayama, E., Berstein, H., & Ericsson, K. A. (2011). Deliberate practice spells success: Why grittier competitors triumph at the National Spelling Bee. Social psychological and personality science, 2(2), 174-181.