learning mastery

“The only difference between an intermediate player and an expert in chess is in how well they apply the basics.”
- Alekhine

When the world’s best martial artists practice, they don’t practice flashy moves. They practice basic kicks and punches and holds. Over and over. They practice simple balance and good posture, and they practice moving faster and more precisely.

In the movie “Karate Kid”, the master teaches the kid only four basic moves (“Sand the floor. Paint the fence…”). The kid spends days practicing these simple moves, and then goes on to win a major karate tournament. (Yeah, I know it’s a movie. But it makes a good point.)

It’s not the flashy good-looking moves that win tournaments. It’s better mastery of the basics. (though I have to admit, a double-leg flying kick looks just awesome )

Back to the Basics

The slogan “back to the basics” has been cheapened over the years. In schools, some educators use it to push reforms that bring us back to times when kids had to memorize long passages of text without any idea of what they mean.

It’s not that “back to basics” is bad. But most people in education can’t even agree what the basics are, let alone how to teach them. What are the basics for reading? Phonics? (learning to pronounce different groups of letters). Or is it reading simple stories, and learning to pronounce words while reading them? In mathematics, should students memorize the multiplication table? Or is it more important (more “basic”) that they understand the mathematician’s mindset – curiosity, stretching principles to breaking point, basic proofs?

Before you can focus on the basics, you need to know what they are. If you want to get better at something you’re already good at, sit down and figure out what the basics are. If you’re learning a new skill, ask some experts. They will be glad you asked, because even experts sometimes get lost in the complicated stuff and forget the basics.

I’ll show you a few examples. These are skills where I’m reasonably good, and I think I know what the basics are.

Chess:

• checkmates (if you’ve seen thousands of basic “chekmate in 2″ and “checkmate in 3″ problems, you will start to see them in the game. And you will start to see them several moves ahead – before your opponent is even aware of the threat. You can then use the threat to win some pieces.)
• endgame (If you practice all the basic endgames, you can start to see them ahead. As in “Well, if I take this piece, it will lead to this forced exchange, and then I’ll end up with a rook and pawn against a rook. In this case it will be a draw, so I might be better off keeping things complicated.”)
• mobility (letting your pieces have plenty of move options. At the beginning, this usually means fighting for the center of the board.)

Notice I don’t consider learning openings to be the basics. Mobility is the true basic principle behind most openings. Practicing mobility inside out will get you a much deeper understanding of openings – and it will let you play confidently in openings you don’t know.

Blogging:

• use simple, direct sentences (“The boy kicked the ball.” instead of “The ball was kicked by the boy.”)
• write as you speak
• write about your passions

If you’re good at some skill, you can let the rest of us know what the basics are. Just leave a comment. I would especially like to know what the basics are in rock-climbing, dancing and programming.

Practicing the basics

Ben Seeley, a past world champion in Othello (the board game), was once telling me a story of a man he taught online. The man was a professional bridge and backgammon player, and was learning to play Othello for fun. He was getting angry because he kept losing, and couldn’t understand why.

Seeley talked to him and explained the basics. The man then practiced those, and started winning some games. Seeley had to leave for work.

When Seeley came back some 24 hours later, the man was still there, playing. Seeley says it was incredible how much his game has improved. The man had truly practiced the basics like no one else. He achieved a rating (a measure of skill online) in a single day that most people achieve in a few months.

Then he quit because he decided Othello was too easy for him.

Now, this man was a master learner. He really understood the value of the basics, and how to practice them. Most people (including me, and probably you) wouldn’t practice that diligently.

I’ll choose an example you will hopefully understand. Let’s say you were learning to play chess. A grandmaster would explain to you the basics of mobility (having plenty of options for your pieces), and that a simple way to achieve that is to take over the center of the board.

You would most likely practice the principle at the beginning of the game, fight for the center, and after the middle, you would switch to your usual ways of attacking the enemy king. That’s what a good learner would do, practice the basics.

But it’s not what a master learner would do. He would take the one principle, and practice it to its death. He would fight for the center with all his might, leaving everything else behind. He might leave his king almost unguarded. In some games, he would try sacrificing some pawns and even pieces to gain a hold of the middle of the board. He would reject simple easy ways to take pieces at the edges, and strengthen his hold of the middle instead.

In short, a master learner takes the principles to the absolute extreme.

Because you really need to push and overstep the boundaries to see how far the principle applies. If you just sort of apply the principle, and then switch to something else when it looks more convenient, you won’t find the boundaries. The goal isn’t to win the first couple of dozen games. The goal is to truly understand the basic principles inside out.

How to practice the basics

When you first learned to drive a car, you had to think about every detail. You had to focus on signalling correctly, looking in the mirror and so on. But after a while, you just started doing all those things automatically.

It’s the same with learning anything. At first you need to consciously focus on every detail, but soon bits get delegated to your subconscious and you do them automatically.

When you practice the basics, you improve the way you do them. More precisely. Faster.

Practicing the basics comes down to trying little tweaks. Let’s say you’re practicing your balance by walking on a narrow ledge. Try looking forward instead of at your feet. Try bending your knees a bit more. Try hunching over forward more, or leaning back. Try closing your eyes and keeping balance.

Notice what happens, then do your best at the end of the practice session.

Make sure you read my Learning Mastery 2 – Post Practice Improvement. There I describe exactly how to practice to make sure you grow your skills the fastest. It’s especially important when practicing the basics, because that’s a lot about committing new habits to your subconscious.

Right now, you can try to figure out what the basics are for a skill you’re learning. Then, next time you practice, focus on that skill.

If you know what the basics are for rock-climbing, dancing or programming, please let me know in the comments. And if you’d like to know what the basics are for some other skill you’re learning, ask also in the comments. Another reader or I might know.

Happy learning!

Previous: Learning Mastery 4 – Teach it And Hypothesise

{ 18 comments }