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Here's his blog with some updated info: http://dannychampion.com/blog.php http://dannychampion.com/blog.php His improvement seems to be fairly rapid. I guess

Here's his blog with some updated info: http://dannychampion.com/blog.php http://dannychampion.com/blog.php His improvement seems to be fairly rapid. I guess if this is your sole pursuit, not that surprising. But nevertheless makes I'm rooting for him. I think it would be testament to the theory.

alecco 16y ago
Sports training usually shows diminishing returns. In particular, if you overtrain you plateau or get worse.
- scott_s 16y ago
  Overtraining is different from people's tendency to plateau. Overtraining is what happens when an athlete's training frequency is greater than their body's ability to recover. That is, by the time the next training sessions comes around, they haven't yet recovered from the last one. This can harm overall performance for obvious reasons. That may lead to a plateau, but I think plateau's happen more often when the athlete ceases to learn from training sessions. And that happens when they're just doing the same thing, over and over. All practiced activities show diminishing returns. If you practice 5 days a week (assuming your body can handle it), the benefit of practicing 6 days a week (assuming your body can handle it) is not going to be the same as going from 1 to 2 days. But if your body can handle it, you probably will still improve.
- jwb119 16y ago
  do you have a citation or any evidence for this?
  - alecco 16y ago
    Are you being funny or are you implying results can be linear? Have you ever seen personal bests charts? Save specific cases of breaktrhoughs, it plots very logarithmic for everybody. That is diminishing returns, more or less.
    - dereg 16y ago
      Are you not citing anything?
mattikl 16y ago
Being a golf pro requires a lot from the mental side as well. First you need the skills, which you can only acquire through countless ours of practice. But there are so many people with those skills that it's really about who performs best under pressure. So if he fails, it says nothing about the theory. Should he succeed, that's a whole another story and would be pretty exciting.
- triviatise 16y ago
  Part of practicing is practicing under pressure. The mental side can be trained as well, however the opportunities to train it may be more difficult
- egypturnash 16y ago
  I've seen animators go from rank beginner to pretty awesome in the hands of John Krickfalusi. And trust me, there are a lot of mental skills involved in animating. As well as a lot of pressure. How long did this take? About five years. He bitches now and then that he's the unpaid master class of the Hollywood TV industry. Not everyone (me, for instance) who's done time at Spümcø is working in the animation industry. But everyone who spent much time doing John's directed practice can draw rings around most people with their eyes closed. The hard part, IMHO, was putting in the time to practice and keep practicing. Even on a shitty day. This guy seems to have that down; he's been able to structure his life so that he doesn't have much to distract him from golf. If he keeps at it and doesn't get run over by a truck, I'm pretty sure he will either become a pro or burn out.
  - mattikl 16y ago
    It's always inspiring to see such examples of people going from novice to pro, and I'm sure the role of a great teacher can't be underestimated. But I'd say the biggest difference between sports and say graphics design or coding, is that in sports you're measured only by how you perform in competitive situations with everyone's eyes on you (and your mind easily wandering to what tomorrow's headlines are going to say). This is especially true in golf where a small glitch in your nervous system can cause you to miss badly. But the great animators or coders are those who can produce great value under normal working conditions, which are much more similar to practice conditions than the competitive environment in sports. I can think of one area in business, which is more like the competitive environment in sports: negotiating. The pressure caused by these situations shows easily in your non-verbal communication, and if you appear lacking confidence, it can undermine all your further efforts. The pressure makes some people to crack, but few people can gain extra motivation from it and are able to use it to their advantage. The sports experts often say this is what separates the very best athletes from the rest.

alecco 16y ago

Sports training usually shows diminishing returns. In particular, if you overtrain you plateau or get worse.

scott_s 16y ago
Overtraining is different from people's tendency to plateau. Overtraining is what happens when an athlete's training frequency is greater than their body's ability to recover. That is, by the time the next training sessions comes around, they haven't yet recovered from the last one. This can harm overall performance for obvious reasons. That may lead to a plateau, but I think plateau's happen more often when the athlete ceases to learn from training sessions. And that happens when they're just doing the same thing, over and over. All practiced activities show diminishing returns. If you practice 5 days a week (assuming your body can handle it), the benefit of practicing 6 days a week (assuming your body can handle it) is not going to be the same as going from 1 to 2 days. But if your body can handle it, you probably will still improve.
jwb119 16y ago
do you have a citation or any evidence for this?
- alecco 16y ago
  Are you being funny or are you implying results can be linear? Have you ever seen personal bests charts? Save specific cases of breaktrhoughs, it plots very logarithmic for everybody. That is diminishing returns, more or less.
  - dereg 16y ago
    Are you not citing anything?

mattikl 16y ago

Being a golf pro requires a lot from the mental side as well. First you need the skills, which you can only acquire through countless ours of practice. But there are so many people with those skills that it's really about who performs best under pressure. So if he fails, it says nothing about the theory. Should he succeed, that's a whole another story and would be pretty exciting.

triviatise 16y ago
Part of practicing is practicing under pressure. The mental side can be trained as well, however the opportunities to train it may be more difficult
egypturnash 16y ago
I've seen animators go from rank beginner to pretty awesome in the hands of John Krickfalusi. And trust me, there are a lot of mental skills involved in animating. As well as a lot of pressure. How long did this take? About five years. He bitches now and then that he's the unpaid master class of the Hollywood TV industry. Not everyone (me, for instance) who's done time at Spümcø is working in the animation industry. But everyone who spent much time doing John's directed practice can draw rings around most people with their eyes closed. The hard part, IMHO, was putting in the time to practice and keep practicing. Even on a shitty day. This guy seems to have that down; he's been able to structure his life so that he doesn't have much to distract him from golf. If he keeps at it and doesn't get run over by a truck, I'm pretty sure he will either become a pro or burn out.
- mattikl 16y ago
  It's always inspiring to see such examples of people going from novice to pro, and I'm sure the role of a great teacher can't be underestimated. But I'd say the biggest difference between sports and say graphics design or coding, is that in sports you're measured only by how you perform in competitive situations with everyone's eyes on you (and your mind easily wandering to what tomorrow's headlines are going to say). This is especially true in golf where a small glitch in your nervous system can cause you to miss badly. But the great animators or coders are those who can produce great value under normal working conditions, which are much more similar to practice conditions than the competitive environment in sports. I can think of one area in business, which is more like the competitive environment in sports: negotiating. The pressure caused by these situations shows easily in your non-verbal communication, and if you appear lacking confidence, it can undermine all your further efforts. The pressure makes some people to crack, but few people can gain extra motivation from it and are able to use it to their advantage. The sports experts often say this is what separates the very best athletes from the rest.