Is a Two-Hour Practice Too Long for Most Athletes?
One of the things coaches must spend more time thinking about is how long is too long for practice. Just because two-hour practice is how you’ve always done it doesn’t mean that’s how you should always do it.
The amount of practice time is not something a coach can define once. Unquestionably, every hour of practice is not equal. One hour with a group of extremely focused athletes practicing as hard as they can is exponentially better than two hours with a group of distracted athletes not giving their best effort.
It’s simply a fact that two, three, or even four hours of practice in a single day may work great on some days and be too much on other days.
So how do you know how much practice is too much practice? While this may seem like a difficult question to answer being that everyone is different, it’s actually quite simple. Renowned psychology professor and “expert on expertise” Anders Ericsson has the definitive answer for how much practice is too much.
Ericsson states:
Focus and concentration are crucial, so shorter training sessions with clearer goals are the best way to develop new skills faster. It is better to train at 100 percent effort for less time than at 70 percent effort for a longer period. Once you find you can no longer focus effectively, end the session. And make sure you get enough sleep so that you can train with maximum concentration.
So, there you have it. Once you see that a group of athletes’ focus dip to a level where their mind and body are no longer in sync they have practiced too much. At this point, they have reached the point of diminishing returns. It’s better to let them rest than to keep practicing.