Practically speaking, what does deep practice feel like?

How do we know when we’re actually doing it?

If you’ve ever wondered, Daniel Coyle breaks it down in The Talent Code.

Once you know the 3 rules of deep practice—and how they feel—it’s like putting on X-ray glasses.

You’ll never look at learning the same way again.

The 3 Rules of Deep Practice:

1️⃣ Chunk it up: Break the skill into small, manageable pieces and focus on mastering one at a time.

2️⃣ Repeat it: Work the same chunk over and over until it becomes automatic—but never mindless.

3️⃣ Learn to feel it: Pay attention to the tiny details of what’s working (and what isn’t). Build a mental map through trial and error.

Coyle explains:

“Deep practice feels a bit like exploring a dark and unfamiliar room. You start slowly, you bump into furniture, stop, think, and start again. Slowly, and a little painfully, you explore the space and start over, attending to errors, extending your reach into the room a bit farther each time, building a mental map until you can move through it quickly and intuitively.”

It’s slow.
It’s frustrating.
It’s messy.

But it works.

Once you see deep practice for what it is—focused, deliberate struggle—you’ll see it everywhere:

🏀 A player repeating a single move until it’s flawless.
🎸 A guitarist practicing one chord change over and over.
📝 A writer rewriting one paragraph until it feels right.