Deliberate Practice and Why Talent is Overrated

Over the past few months I’ve been getting back in to a lot a of serious puppetry rehearsal and thinking about the concept of deliberate practice quite a bit. While the famous adage says it’s important to “practice, practice, practice”, that’s not how deliberate practice works. Hit the link for a really good article on the subject, but the basic idea is that how you practice is much more important that how much you practice.

Over the years I’ve noticed that the best puppeteers are intensely self-critical and have a remarkable ability to identify their weaknesses as performers. They often analyze seemingly trivial details – the way their fingers grasp a puppet, the way their muscles flex, the way they grasp an object in a scene – and continually experiment with ways to improve their performances.

Just some food for thought this weekend.