McLaughlin quit his job at 30 to pursue a golf career and test a theory that practicing for 10,000 hours pays off.
(2 of 2)
McLaughlin might be a case study for coaches, teachers and anyone interested in how to learn faster and remember better, because his training routine incorporates interleaving. Pupils often receive the message that blocked practice, or repeating a task over and over, will improve performance: hit 100 drives, shoot 100 free throws, read a chapter three times. But on the golf course, you don't get 20 tries on the tee. Bjork's hunch is that interleaving, or mixing things up, is the right way to train, so McLaughlin is continually switching up clubs and alternating targets. As alluring as the 10,000-hour rule has become, the number of hours you put in might not be as important as what you do with them. Bjork scans the other golfers on the range pounding ball after ball and pities them. "Ninety-five percent of the people here are doing it wrong," he says.
Studies show that interleaving works. Novice putters who mix practice distances perform better on follow-up tests. College baseball players who hit 15 fastballs, then 15 curveballs, then 15 change-ups in batting practice don't improve as much as those who see these pitches in random order. Variety helps not just motor learning; Bjork has shown in experiments that interleaving improves recall too. In one study, college students learned art styles better by interleaving various painters. Bjork wonders, If students studied--and teachers taught--subjects in smaller, more randomized chunks, would they be better learners?
"What we're talking about is finding the biological sweet spot," says Guadagnoli. Interleaving gives the brain a better workout because mixing tasks provides just enough stress to trigger the release of a hormone called corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) in the hippocampus, the brain area central to memory and learning. CRF strengthens synapses. During blocked practice, by contrast, you're not reloading your circuitry by trying different tasks; you're under less stress, and your brain is bored and less engaged.
For McLaughlin (who blogs about his progress at TheDanPlan.com) all this just-stressful-enough slogging is paying off. "The fun of this isn't playing the rounds," he says between shots. "It's experiencing the payoff from practice. You work on something, and it starts to click. Those aha moments are gold." Then he sinks a 15-ft. par putt on 17. "First decent putt of the day," he says. And just 6,000 hours to go.