The Seven Skills Steps - Performance Practice
Forget Practice Makes Perfect and Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.
By Wayne Goldsmith
Three Key Concepts:
"Practice makes perfect" is wrong - Performance Practice creates champions
Seven progressive steps from basic learning to competition mastery
Training must replicate competition conditions: speed, fatigue, and pressure
Image and Seven Skills Steps Concept Copyright Wayne Goldsmith.
"Practice makes perfect" is the biggest lie ever told in sport. It's right up there with "money can't buy happiness". The truth is more nuanced and infinitely more powerful: it's not practice that makes perfect – it's performance practice that creates champions.
Beyond the Practice Makes Perfect Myth:
Traditional coaching follows a depressingly predictable pattern: teach the skill, drill the skill and repeat the skill until it looks textbook perfect. Then we wonder why athletes who dominate training sessions fail under the pressure of competition. The missing link isn't more practice – it's the right kind of practice.
Performance Practice is a systematic seven-step progression that bridges the gap between learning a skill and executing it when and where it matters most. Each step builds upon the previous one, creating a logical pathway from basic competence to competition mastery.
The Seven Skills Steps Revealed:
Here's the progression every coach must understand:
Step 1: Learn the skill – Basic introduction and familiarization. This is where most coaches stop, believing the job is done.
Step 2: Perform the skill very well – Technical mastery under controlled conditions. Still in the comfort zone.
Step 3: Perform the skill very well at speed – Now we're getting somewhere. Competition happens fast, yet most skills learning practices happen slow.
Step 4: Perform the skill very well at speed under fatigue – The danger zone in every sport. The last five minutes of the game, the final 50 meters of the race.
Step 5: Perform the skill very well at speed, under fatigue, and under pressure – Adding the psychological / emotional pressure component that separates participation from performance.
Step 6: Perform consistently – Reliability under all the above conditions. Champions aren't lucky once; they're consistent repeatedly.
Step 7: Execute in actual competition – The ultimate test where everything comes together under real competitive conditions.
Why Most Athletes Fail at Step 7:
Athletes don't fail because they can't perform the skill – they fail because they've never learned to perform the skill under competition conditions. You can spend thousands of hours perfecting a golf swing on the driving range, but if you've never practiced that swing while feeling the pressure of playing in a tournament, while fatigued from walking 18 holes, while dealing with wind and course conditions, you're not preparing to win – you're preparing to hope.
The magic happens when training becomes more challenging and more demanding than competition. When you've practiced shooting free throws while exhausted, with simulated crowd noise, under time pressure and with consequences for missing, performing to expectations in a game becomes realistic and achievable.
Summary:
Performance Practice transforms skill learning from mechanical repetition into competition preparation. The seven steps provide a roadmap for developing skills that don't just look good in training but deliver when the scoreboard matters. Champions aren't made by perfecting skills in isolation – they're forged by mastering skills under the exact conditions they'll face in competition.
Learning and Self-Reflection Exercises:
Step Assessment: Choose one fundamental skill in your sport. Honestly assess which step most of your athletes currently reach. What specific training changes would move them to the next level?
Competition Simulation: Design three training activities that replicate the speed, fatigue and pressure conditions of your sport's most challenging competitive moments.
Training Audit: Review your last month of training sessions. What percentage of skill practice occurred under steps 5-7 conditions versus steps 1-3? What does this tell you about your athletes' competition readiness?
Check out Wayne's latest book - THE TALENT MYTH - WHY TALENT ISN'T WORTH SHIT - available now on paperback https://www.amazon.com/Talent-Myth-Isnt-Worth-Shit/dp/0987155717?ref_=ast_author_dp
Copyright Wayne Goldsmith. All Rights Reserved.
Terrific logic & truth🫡