The great Chris Barrow wrote a blog on this subject recently but only because he had a discussion with me and I bought him the book!!
The first place to start with the essence of purposeful practice is Bounce by Matthew Syed
In this book Syed expands on the concept of the talent myth (Daniel Coyle) Syed suggests that there is no such thing as talent but only application and purposeful practice and I really, really am inclined to agree with this.
I reached the level of Captain of the Scottish under 17 basketball team and played 3 years of International basketball even though I wasn’t that good. All I did was play lots and lots of basketball and was able to see what was going on on a basketball court quicker than many other people. During my years at basketball we were coached - someone watched what we were doing and offered suggestions as to how to improve things. This is the essence of purposeful practice. Once the suggestions are made you go off and practice what has been suggested and when you come back you have improved. In essence this is one of the main reasons why I lecture when I am asked to do so. It is always a huge privilege to be asked to speak infront of a group of people regardless of how small or large they are but also, it gives you the opportunity to stand up and see some of you work on the big screen and wonder whether it is good enough.
I always keep the old lectures that we provide and I can now go back well over 10 years to lectures I provided previously and cringe at the standard of work I was presenting to people as my best at that time.
This is the theory of purposeful practice and we do this mostly at our practice through photography. Photography is a fantastic resource for patients and a great “selling tool” but its main purpose is purposeful practice and the development of clinicians. When I lectured recently at the ITI study club in Birmingham it was one of the best quality lectures I have ever provided and I had been purposefully practicing my lecturing for the past 12 years - de briefing each lecture to see what I could improve and do better based upon feedback. It is very satisfying to look back at the old stuff and compare with the new and appreciate how far things have come.
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