Deliberate practice

Ongoing research into the subject of expert levels of performance and how they are achieved, have come up with the term ‘deliberate practice’ to define this perfect practice. Irrespective of the domain, it has been shown that expert doctors, businessmen, athletes, musicians, pilots etc have all engaged in specific forms of ‘deliberate practice’ for extended periods of time, usually a minimum of 10 years, in order to achieve their expert levels of performance.

So what are the essential components of ‘deliberate practice’?

Firstly, ‘deliberate practice’ requires a carefully designed training program which specifically addresses the essential skill sets required. Additionally, the progressively more difficult skills being practised need to be at, or slightly beyond, the limits of your current ability, and are practised until they can be performed effortlessly. Initially these practice sessions will need to be designed and monitored by other more qualified people; however as you become more expert you will have to take over this role for yourself. To be able to do this you will also have to develop your own metacognitive skills, or the skills that allow you to think about your own thinking. Developing these metacognitive skills will also take time and effort, and similarly won’t develop automatically with ‘experience’.

Secondly, ‘deliberate practice’ requires opportunities for repetition, so you can work on the skill over and over again until you can perform it flawlessly. However this doesn’t mean automatically or thoughtlessly, despite what an untrained observer may think. Top tennis players can change their shot halfway through their swing to wrong foot their opponent, top golfers regularly stop their shot mid way if distracted, whilst amateurs usually continue with the swing with the inevitable miss-hit. Experts use automaticity to reduce the cognitive load on their working memory, but at the same time they do retain metacognitive control over their actions.

Next, ‘deliberate practice’ requires accurate and timely feedback. In sporting domains this is readily available, but in the more cognitive domains involving decision making etc you will initially need coaches and trainers to provide this for you. As your level of expertise increases, your ability to reflect deeply and critically on your actions will determine the level of feedback you receive. This ability to ‘critically reflect’ on your experiences is also a metacognitive skill, and is a form of expertise in itself. Hence your ability to ‘critically reflect’ on your own performance will need to be ‘deliberately practised’, since without with this skill you won’t be able to generate your own timely feedback.

Finally, ‘deliberate practice’ is hard work. Even in physically demanding sports ‘deliberate practice’ is mentally demanding, which is why there is a limit to how much of it you can effectively do in a day. As a famous violinist once said – “If you practise with your fingers you will need all day, but if you practise with your head two hours is enough”.

So in summary – in order to improve your flying skills you also need to work on improving your ability to think about, and critically reflect on, your own performance. Without continuously increasing these metacognitive skills you will be unable to continue to plan, execute and monitor the deliberate practice of your flying skills as the level of these skills continues to improve. In short – to become an expert you also need to continuously build expert learning skills.

Going to the golf driving range with a bag full of clubs to “work on your swing” is unlikely to qualify as ‘deliberate practice’ unless you know exactly which part of your swing you are working on, exactly what improvement you are trying to achieve and how you will know if you have achieved it. All of which are unlikely without having a teaching professional in attendance, or a video camera.

On the other hand airline simulator endorsement programs usually meet all the requirement of ‘deliberate practice’, which is why they are so efficient and successful. (1) These programs are carefully designed to teach specific and necessary skills in a progressively more difficult order. (2) Whilst the programs themselves are generally designed with opportunities for repetition, if any component needs to be repeated simulators provide an ideal environment to isolate and reinforce the specific skills needing further practice. (3) Accurate and timely feedback is provided by both the ‘in flight performance’ during the session along with the instructor’s comments, and also during the post flight debriefing. (4) Finally, as anyone who has been through an endorsement program knows, they are mentally exhausting. Whilst they can be a satisfying experience, very few people would ever call them fun.

Similar comments can be made about the line flying component of any training program, with the caveat that the ‘quality’ of the training captain, and the effort and preparation put in by the student, has a huge impact on success or otherwise of the program.

General line flying presents somewhat of a conundrum depending on how it is approached. The “fat, dumb and happy” approach meets few, if any, of the requirements for ‘deliberate practice’ and as a result the amount of expertise developed will fall well below what could have been the case given the amount of experience, but this doesn’t need to be the case.

Obviously there are many things that can’t be physically practised on an actual flight; but this doesn’t mean they can’t be practised mentally. Feedback doesn’t have to be given by a third party. Carefully reflecting on the completed flight, what was done well, what could have been improved, and importantly why, has the same effect. As has been repeatedly demonstrated, mental practise is just as useful as the real thing. Similarly, rather than enjoying the view during quiet periods, the cockpit environment and manuals available provide an ideal opportunity to think about and/or discuss scenarios and the different ways they could be handled, especially if you’re crewed with an expert captain (expert being a relative term).

Contrary to popular misconception, it has been shown that none of the experts studied demonstrated any identifiable form of superior innate ability that set them apart from their peers, other than the motivation to continue with greater amounts of ‘deliberate practice’ over their lifetimes. Just as Chuck Yeager said, experts are constructed not born.

Naturally there is some form of survivor ship bias in these results, since someone who is tone deaf isn’t likely to be in the group of budding young musicians studied over their lifetimes to see who became an expert. However, given that pilots are recruited based on the general abilities and competencies regarded as necessary for success in the profession, it is reasonable to conclude that the attained level of expertise in aviation is dependent on the amount of ‘deliberate practice’ performed. This will also mean that someone who is selected into an organisation or position that stretches them continuously (and supports them with appropriate training and / or mentoring) is likely to develop significantly greater relevant expertise than a peer who wasn’t – being in the right place at the right time really does count!

Being able to fly the aircraft is a necessary skill, learned the same way you learn to hit a tennis ball (practice and feedback). However, learning the increasing complex cognitive skills required in modern aircraft is more difficult because they are, almost by definition, hidden from view. Provided you develop the metacognitive skills so that you know what you are trying to achieve and can structure your experience, so at least some of it conforms with the principles of ‘deliberate practice’, these skills will slowly develop. As to the level that is ultimately attained – this is simply a function of the motivation of the individual concerned, the environment he or she is exposed to, the quality of the deliberate practice, the quality of the feedback generated and what use that is made of this feedback, and importantly the perseverance to maintain this deliberate practice regime for long periods of time.

Fat dumb and happy on the flight deck will make you into the same sort of driver as someone who thoughtlessly sits in a traffic jam every day driving to and from work – fat, dumb and useless when something unusual happens that requires more than basic skills.