Deliberate Play Over Deliberate Practice
Repetition with improvisation beats repetition with correction for general learning.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
Kotler contrasts Anders Ericsson's deliberate practice — repetition with incremental correction — with deliberate play, which is repetition with improvisation. Ericsson himself noted deliberate practice only dominates in very precise disciplines; for general learning, play wins. The reason is partly emotional and partly chemical: play strips away the shame and embarrassment that block adult learning, reopening much of the motor-learning window, while the playful state floods the brain with endorphins and other neurochemistry that amplify learning and lower stress.
Origin
Kotler drew on flow science and body-cognition research to explain why he could learn park skiing at 53, concluding that adults lose learning ability less because of biology and more because they trade play for shame and time pressure.
Core principles
- 01Deliberate practice (Ericsson) is repetition with incremental advancement and is fastest only in narrow, precise disciplines.
- 02For general learning, deliberate play — repetition with improvisation — works better.
- 03Play removes shame and embarrassment, which reopens much of the motor-learning window adults think has closed.
- 04The feeling of play produces more endorphins, boosts the immune system, lowers stress, and amplifies learning.
How to run it
- 1
Repeat the base skill
Start from the same movement or task you practiced last time, preserving the repetition that builds competence.
- 2
Add improvisation
Layer a small flourish or playful variation onto each repetition instead of grinding the identical rep.
- 3
Drop the shame
Adopt a genuinely playful attitude where being bad doesn't matter, because that emotional shift is what reopens the motor-learning window.
Pro tip The playful mood is what triggers the endorphin and immune-boosting chemistry that amplifies learning.
Watch out Time crunches, embarrassment, and adult self-consciousness are what actually shut down learning — not your age.
In the wild
Kotler approached park-ski tricks as playful repetition with a little flourish each time rather than shame-laden deliberate practice.
→ He learned faster than anything in his life, crediting the play attitude for reopening his adult motor-learning window.
Common mistakes
Forcing pure deliberate practice on general skills
Applying narrow-discipline drilling to broad learning slows progress and reintroduces the shame that suppresses adult motor learning.
Is it for you?
Best for
Adults learning broad new skills — sports, instruments, languages — outside a single narrow discipline.
Not ideal for
Elite specialists optimizing one precise, well-defined skill where deliberate practice is proven fastest.
From the transcript
“When faced with just general learning, deliberate play works better than deliberate practice.”
“If you can shift back into that attitude of play, a lot of that motor learning window reopens.”
From the episode
Steven Kotler: Peak Performance Aging, How to Stay at the Top of Your Game in Your 30s, 40s, 50s, and Beyond
Steven Kotler