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Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Vince Lombardi

I want to get two points across. The first being that practice does not make perfect. The second being that perfect practice can make anybody perfect.

The first one is easy to explain: if you practice the wrong habits you ingrain patterns into your muscles that enable you to repeatedly hit poor quality golf shots with expert precision. practice makes permanent. Whatever you practice you make a habit. Therefore if you are practicing hitting shots with a terrible golf swing you're just making it harder to change to a good swing (hence the importance of a professional to see that you're working on the right things).

Before I start on the second one I've got to tell you that I am a sceptical person. I'm not a pessimist but I feel that most "You Can Do It!" style motivational stuff is very unrealistic and false. You could say I'm a scientifically minded guy. I like to see evidence.

For a long time scientists have been asking the question: what makes some poeple great and other's not? The presumed answer to this for most people is that genetics is the determining factor. But the research actually says the opposite and the more evidence pours in the more convincing it appears. What it suggests is that natural talent doesn't really matter at all in the achievement of excellence. Hard work is what it takes to get what you want, but not just any kind of work. It must be "deliberate practice." This is the term coined by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson in his landmark study into the acquisition of expert performance.

He also procured the figure of 10,000 hours as his estimated amount of deliberate practice required to achieve mastery in most skills for any person. Now the question becomes, what is deliberate practice? Deliberate practice is quite simply goal orientated practice, whereby you set targets for yourself to maintain motivation, measure results and experiment to find what works. Over time you make micro adjustments until you get the results you want. And then you repeat it again and again and again.

The evidence that the theory of "deliberate practice" is based upon on is real life case studies of people who have achieved mastery in a field. A classic example of a person who signifies the deliberate practice model is Michael Jordan- arguably the greatest sportsman ever. Not many people know that he wasn't naturally brilliant at basketball to begin with. He was even cut from his highschool team because he wasn't up to standard.

So how did he go from mediocre highschool kid to the most succesful player in NBA history? He practiced. And practiced. And then he practiced some more. After his team had finished their gruelling training sessions he would stay behind for more. He set himself goals as he went along and wouldn't allow himself a break until he achieved them.

As far as golf goes, this means setting yourself goals as you practice. They must be achievable and yet challenging. As you go on you increase the difficulty and keep on practicing until you get there. It's a lot like setting SMART goals in business. Your goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Related.

For example, I must hole 5 putts in a row from 10 feet and I can't go home until I do this. The next day make it 6 putts in a row. Whatever. Or it could be- I must hit 8 out of 10 eight-irons to within 20 feet of a target 140 yards away. All this time you are monoitoring performance and making appropriate adjustments (a professional is often necessary for guidance in making these adjustments).

This kind of practice is particularly gruelling and takes a lot of energy but it works. There is no evidence of anybody in history performing to a standard of mastery without deliberate practice. Aimless practice just does not cut it. It could even make you worse. Unless you have something constructive to work on it is probably best not to practice at all. (Note: warming up does not count as practice in this sense.)

A lot of people like to think that they probably have a natural talent in something and should they find it then success will just flow easily, but it doesn't work like that. This is both encouraging and daunting. It offers us all a challenge: how much do you want it? Are you prepared to pay the price and to make the commitment to yourself to take what you want? Personally I say STEP UP.

Take this article as an introduction. On it's own it is hardly convincing evidence. This has barely scratched the surface and I wouldn't be convinced by this article if I was you. Do some more research into this topic and if you're like me you'll find it fascinating.

Fraser Hasell is the owner of www.goodatgolf.com