How does practice makes perfect? I mean , biologically .. what are the changes human body undergoes to perfect a skill ? .. how long it takes to perfect a skill ?? ..does our brain store the information or skill forever ?? ..
In: Biology
> How does practice makes perfect?
Because you’re more effectively exercising and training neural pathways pertaining to that skill you’re practicing than if you just read about it. No amount of reading how to throw a football is going to exercise the neural pathways of your whole body physically going through the motions, a whole symphony of coordination, and a feedback loop to correct for the lack of undesired outcome.
> how long it takes to perfect a skill ?
Your brain is developed to learn and adapt quickly, especially if you’re young. Under ideal conditions and especially attitude, you should be able to see basic proficiency in a skill after 20 solid (not continuous, but dedicated) hours of practice. It takes ~10,000 hours to reach top tier competitive competency. These aren’t guarantees – some of us aren’t cut out to be Field medalists and it’s just never going to happen for most of us, no matter how hard we try. That doesn’t mean you can’t still be a top competitor in a field or a skill…
> does our brain store the information or skill forever ?
Sort of. The information is encoded in the pathways you exercise, and thus strengthen. It’s not so much that there are limits to how much you can store, but you can weaken pathways, even effectively lose access to them. But you can often restrengthen them, or regain access to them. The timelines these things occur vary based on a number of factors. If you learned how to make cupcakes over a weekend a couple years ago, while you may remember the history of the event, you probably have no appreciable skill in it. Be a professional baker for 30 years, and I doubt you’ll struggle to produce a cupcake on demand, shy of dimentia or other mental loss afflictions.
1 & 2. Your brain is an incredibly complex network of nodes (called “neurons”), and connections between those nodes (called “synapses”). Every time information gets passed along one of those synapses, the synapse gets a little bit stronger and faster. As it does, that particular thought requires less effort to send, and therefore that thought or action becomes easier. Additionally, when muscles are placed under stress for long periods of time (as they are when you’re working out), they develop little tears, which will later be filled in with newer, stronger muscle fibers, which makes the muscle itself tougher. These two processes are how we learn and become stronger, which in turn makes the skill easier.
3. The common adage is that it takes ten thousand hours to perfect a skill. In truth, there’s no such thing as “perfection”: you will always be able to make mistakes. If you want to get better at something, just work on it, and don’t worry about how long it will take to get better. You will always be able to make improvements somewhere.
4. No. If you go too long without using a skill, it will degrade, and will eventually be lost, no matter if that skill is neuroscience, French, flying a plane, playing table tennis, or whatever else. It is easier to recover a lost skill than it is to gain a new one, sure, but that will still require practice.
When you do multiple tasks together or in sequence, your brain basically creates connections between the parts of it that are responsible for those tasks. This makes it easier for your brain to repeat those tasks. The more you do it, the strong the connection till you get to the point where it is almost automatic.
I like how my old chorus director used to put it.
Practice makes permanent.
Perfect practice makes perfect.
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