If 10,000 hours is the assumed amount of practice it takes to master a skill, then how many hours will it take to acquire competence? In my opinion, I believe it can take less than ¼ of that number to acquire competence.
Listen to the audio article on the Atlanta Tennis Podcast in your favorite podcast app.
Click the image to listen!
And what do we mean by competence? According to Oxford, competence is “the ability to do something successfully or efficiently.” When it comes to children, we have a phrase at TennisForChildren: “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect”, or as my wife says, “Practice Makes Permanent.”” With that we mean: as a young beginner tennis player, the main point of going to your group or private tennis lessons is to confirm proper technique. Whether or not you are successful in the attempt of any skill is of little consequence other than gauging your improvement or the efficacy of your current technique. In complete disagreement with those who wish to discredit the “10,000-hour rule,” we believe reminding young kids that setting aside frustration from a lack of early success is much easier when considering the required repetition of proper technique takes time.
To catch up those who missed the relevant background:
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called Outliers where he popularized the “10,000-hour rule” suggesting deliberate practice is required to master a skill. This idea is based on a 1993 study of elite violinists and was by no means exhaustive or directly related to young, beginner tennis players, however we believe the data is useful. In my recollection of the book, I don’t remember Gladwell claiming that “all it takes is 10,000 hours of practice to be the best in the world” as some would claim in attempts to debunk the idea. As my wife says, even with 10,000 hours of deliberate swimming practice, I was never going to beat Michael Phelps in the 100M freestyle. He has an obvious genetic advantage. He also is likely to have a better coach. However, with 10,000 hours of deliberate practice as a target (literally or figuratively) I can absolutely learn how good of a swimmer I can be.
10,000 hours of bad practice will solidify my bad technique and 10,000 hours of practice with a bad coach may not improve my chances. But as parents, we may not be expecting our little tennis players to be the best in the world. We may simply want them to be competent tennis players so they can enjoy the sport and make some friends. As coaches, we suggest that any child willing to put in 10,000 hours is understandably interested in mastering the skills to the best of their own abilities. This doesn’t guarantee they will ever be a professional tennis player, but they will certainly become the best version of themselves.
And now for the math:
- A typical full time (9AM-5PM) job is assumed to average 2,000 hours per year, therefore
- It takes about 5 years to reach 10,000 hours
- Children are unlikely to practice a skill for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and 48 weeks a year, so
- Let’s choose a more reasonable target for competence of 2,000 hours
- And divided by the typical once-per-week tennis class
- It will take your child over 40 years to become competent
- Divided by twice-per-week tennis class
- It will still take over 20 years
- Get the point?
Let’s consider your child is 7 or 8 years old and they want the opportunity to play on their high school tennis team.
- They have about 7 years to gain competence
- 2,000 hours divided by 7 years is about 285 hours
- So that’s playing for one hour a day, six days per week.
Therefore, I encourage you to encourage them to go practice as much as possible. On their own.
I don’t invite you to do the math on what 2,000 hours of tennis lessons could cost but I will encourage you to scrutinize the coaches, the consistency of the programming, as well as the amount of time your child practices on their own. For every hour they practice on their own, it can save you another hour of expensive tennis lessons. This is even more true if their coach is worth their salt. The reason the coach matters so much is because so many of the hours practiced by young players are with friends and family instead of paid lessons. Improving this practice with proper technique (remember: Practice Makes Permanent) will increase improvement time dramatically.
At TennisForChildren, we have incorporated the extra physical work needed by most children into our monthly and yearly schedules. By taking advantage of the typical ‘down time’ enforced by inclement weather, we take children on a physical path seemingly not offered by other programs targeting younger, beginning level athletes. We also offer AtHome practice videos encouraging parents and children to practice skills specific to their coaching for as many hours as they are motivated to do so.
· So much of the at home work helps your child improve:
o Spatial awareness
o Skill specific as well as general hand-eye coordination
o Physical strength, fitness, and flexibility
At TennisForChildren, we offer AtHome Practice Videos in addition to the tennis classes to help young children, as well as parents, get closer to their 10,000 hours, without spending too much of your hard earned money in the process.
March 2022
SjB
