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Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

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Re: Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

#31
post #16

Here's his blog with some updated info: http://dannychampion.com/blog.php His improvement seems to be fairly rapid. I guess if this is your sole pursuit, not that surprising. But nevertheless makes I'm rooting for him. I think it would be testament to the theory.

Sports training usually shows diminishing returns. In particular, if you overtrain you plateau or get worse.

Overtraining is different from people's tendency to plateau.

Overtraining is what happens when an athlete's training frequency is greater than their body's ability to recover. That is, by the time the next training sessions comes around, they haven't yet recovered from the last one. This can harm overall performance for obvious reasons.

That may lead to a plateau, but I think plateau's happen more often when the athlete ceases to learn from training sessions. And that happens when they're just doing the same thing, over and over.

All practiced activities show diminishing returns. If you practice 5 days a week (assuming your body can handle it), the benefit of practicing 6 days a week (assuming your body can handle it) is not going to be the same as going from 1 to 2 days. But if your body can handle it, you probably will still improve.

Re: Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

#32
It depends on the sport. For example Javier Sotomayor (high jumper) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Sotomayor - made it from 0 to no.5 in 4 years, and there are other examples in this particular sport where people made it in 2 years or so. That's one of the reason I don't appreciate any sport, it depends on lots of factors apart from your mental discipline (golf is more or less only mental discipline OTOH).

Re: Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

#34

I have been playing golf since I was 6 years old (I am now 25, running a YC company and whiteyboard). I've played competitively, going all over the country and even got a full scholarship to a NCAA Division 1 university for the sport. I can honestly say that this guy does not stand a chance, and here is why. 1. Golf, especially when it comes to playing professionally, is more of a mental sport than physical (both str…

If somebody is willing to put 10,000 hours in anything it requires dedication and the mental strength. If someone was extremely dedicated you can put in 40 hours a week it would still take 5 years to accomplish this. This guy has a decent chance to make if he does do this. My thoughts he probably won't finish.

Re: Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

#35

I have been playing golf since I was 6 years old (I am now 25, running a YC company and whiteyboard). I've played competitively, going all over the country and even got a full scholarship to a NCAA Division 1 university for the sport. I can honestly say that this guy does not stand a chance, and here is why. 1. Golf, especially when it comes to playing professionally, is more of a mental sport than physical (both str…

But do you not think it possible that your perspective (as a golfer from a young age) is skewing the reality of your statement? I specifically state this because you talk in such absolutes.

One's brain will typically dismiss a "n00b" trying to become good at something that one is good at without the experience that one has. I believe this is possible because if they do succeed it will invalidate ones own experience which can be a reality our brain wishes to shelter us from.

To make this more relevant to our industry I occasionally bump into the same problem when applying for coding jobs due to my lack of degree and the possession of a degree by the person advertising for the position.

Re: Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

#36
post #15

To me there's a sort of a Bayesian logic working against any hypothetical "adult novice puts in 10,000 hours of work and becomes a pro" story, which is that anyone who has the willpower and passion to put in that much work probably has already. If you are so excited about a sport/instrument/game/hobby that you're willing to put 10,000 hours into it starting from scratch, why weren't you working on it before? I recent…

What was the name of the music theory book? Seriously interested.

Re: Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

#39
post #15

To me there's a sort of a Bayesian logic working against any hypothetical "adult novice puts in 10,000 hours of work and becomes a pro" story, which is that anyone who has the willpower and passion to put in that much work probably has already. If you are so excited about a sport/instrument/game/hobby that you're willing to put 10,000 hours into it starting from scratch, why weren't you working on it before? I recent…

This seems logical. It doesn't seem shocking to propose that considering the way he went about this 10000-hour experiment decision, he'll soon find something new to worry about and quit before he finishes.

Re: Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

#40

I have been playing golf since I was 6 years old (I am now 25, running a YC company and whiteyboard). I've played competitively, going all over the country and even got a full scholarship to a NCAA Division 1 university for the sport. I can honestly say that this guy does not stand a chance, and here is why. 1. Golf, especially when it comes to playing professionally, is more of a mental sport than physical (both str…

I am (...) running a YC company and whiteyboard

How is this relevant?

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