Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better

I read this with my book club, and we really enjoyed it. As teachers and musicians, we could easily relate to the concepts the author wrote about.

If I'm being honest, this book just isn't for me. I had to purchase this book for a college class. The message is so heavily supported by sports examples and I just don't care about sports at all so it was hard to get through. I get what the author is trying to say, but the message kind of gets lost in all the sports examples. I'm definitely not the intended audience for this book.

One of the top reviews claims this is just for educators. I don't get it as this is full of non-educational examples. But also let's face it, this is a book about learning how to get better. It is ultimately about education applied to life. As I tell my kids, everyone in life needs to be a manager and a teacher whether they like the job or not, even if they are just managing their own lives and teaching themselves. I began applying principles from this book almost immediately after starting it in everything from my basketball game to how I teach my kids.As you will learn from the book, just reading it won't do a thing for you. You will have to practice the rules for yourself. But if you do, I think you will be richly rewarded.

In addition to giving the reader "42 rules for getting better at getting better", Practice Perfect helps us practice "smarter". The concept of "Practice the 20", where one practices the 20 per cent of things that are the most important, is huge because it focuses attention on what counts instead of the other 80% that wastes so much of our time. My golf should benefit because at my age I only need to practice chipping and putting!I could have also used the business applications of Practice Perfect 40 years ago. Back then, no one practiced sales presentations for fear of looking foolish in front of one's colleagues. But what Practice Perfect shows is that we missed something valuable - "the gift of feedback." What a loss. But the good news from this book is that it is never too late to learn, provided we practice focusing on the solutions instead of the problems.

Strong book, filled with content on how to improve practice techniques. I selected this book because of my passion and enjoyment for the Talent Code, Talent is Overrated, and Bounce. The book has a strong emphasis on how to effectively practice and improve teaching skills. Enjoyed the book very much.Quick take ways on how to improve your practice: quick feedback, videotape, break the skill down into different parts, give these parts names, make every minute count, make it fun, more drills less scrimmage.

An excellent companion to Daniel Coyle's "Talent Code" and William Baumeister's "Willpower". If you teach, coach, instruct, or in any way develop or train other people this is a must have book for your path to getting better at getting better. I have used this book for professional development in my military unit I command and we have put into practice several of the "42 Rules". In running our competitive marksmanship team we especially use the "chunking" rule and the "practice until you cant get it wrong" and the 80/20 rule of perfecting strengths before trying to perfect weaknesses.

Loved the comprehensiveness and scope. Lots of great ideas. Yet, I struggled as I wondered how I could implement all of it. The Monday morning sections are a step in the right direction to help us think through implementation. Perhaps a few more of these would help inspire the reader to fully implement all the rules.

I run a dog training school, and train my own dogs for competition obedience and hunt tests. Practice is vital for both sports. A large part of my success over the many years I've been competing is the result of my willingness and enjoyment of practicing. A dog training friend recommended this book, and I found it nicely thought provoking. I'm trying out some new ideas gleaned from the book to help my students with their practice sessions with their dogs, with some positive feedback already.

So good! This book is packed with powerful insights about learning. Some of the ideas challenge dominant practices, but they are well evidenced and Doug and the guys are highly credible > I am a teacher educator, and have been working in the field for many years > this is a future classic.

I have trained teachers for a while now and always felt that drilling to perfect a skill, particularly for behaviour, would be very useful. I stopped short of actually doing it though because I thought it was a bit 'out there' and that the teachers I was working with may think I was even weirder than they already thought me. This book has given me the confidence and methods to set up practise situations that can lead to positive change. Great read.

Fantastic, well-written book full of useful approaches.

I enjoyed the book and the strong message that no matter what your field, intelligent practice will see you improve. Some of the references to other fields may still be little obscure and appear irrelevant or difficult to apply to every setting. The balance of teaching and non-teaching examples used to overcome this was interesting to read.

For anyone interested or involved in coaching/teaching this is a god send, so good I purchased the audio book as well. A book full of light bulb moments.