Deep Practice Examples

Editor’s note: This content is a supplement to Unlocking the Bowling Talent Code – Part 1.

Australian sporting legends

As a proud Aussie, I want to briefly share the background about some of our country’s most legendary sports stars, as they all highlight the same process: they became infatuated with a single sport and then practiced obsessively from a young age, often using an activity that was more difficult than the sport itself they would later go on to master. Without realizing it at the time, they were all growing myelin through the process of deep practice, and I find the stories fascinating due to their similarities when viewed through the lens of skill development.

Evonne Goolagong Cawley

Evonne Goolagong Cawley is one of Australia’s most successful tennis players. She won Wimbledon twice, the French Open once, and the Australian Open four times. She was also runner-up in the US Open four years in a row in the 1970s. Goolagong Cawley was born in 1951, and by the time she was five she was obsessed with tennis balls. She loved hitting them up against a wall with anything she could use as a tennis racquet.

“I used to play this little game with the wall and myself and that was to see how many times I could hit the ball against the wall on one bounce, and then write it down,” said Goolagong Cawley.

Goolagong Cawley would play this game for hours on end, day after day. At the ...

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