Deliberate Play > Deliberate Practice

The popularization of the 10,000 hours idea has had a real affect on the sports training industry and youth sports in general; both positive and negative.  Athletes now are getting much more personal and individualized instruction at younger ages, and parents are shelling anywhere from $30 - $100 per hour for specialized and individual instruction.  While practice and repetition is important to growth and skill development, the article here from Brian McCormick on the importance of deliberate play uses studies to show that 10,000 hours of deliberate playing time is a better way to create better basketball players than 10,000 hours of deliberate practice time.

Jean Cote defines deliberate play as unstructured, play-oriented situations: basically, going to the park and playing in your pick-up games.  As the article states, deliberate play is the most effective way to improve as a basketball player.  There is nothing like seeing new moves from your favorite players, working on them alone or even with a trainer if you would like, and then working on them in real-game like situations that are unstructured - like pick-up games, 3 on 3, or open gym runs.

The quote below talks about a study done comparing the results of 18 weeks of deliberate practice vs 18 weeks of deliberate games:

Greco, Memmert and Morales (2010) studied the difference in tactical performance improvement in 18 60-minute sessions of deliberate play versus traditional basketball practice in 10 to 12-year-olds. The deliberate play group played small-sided games and advantage/disadvantage games, whereas the traditional group engaged in a more typical practice which included a “large amount of structured game exercises with exact guidelines…and more isolated activities of skill training (e.g. dribbling, passing)” (Greco et al. 2010; p.851). 

Whereas the traditional group showed no improvement, the deliberate play group showed significant improvement in tactical intelligence and tactical creativity. Tactical intelligence referred to the ability to find the ideal solution to a given problem and is referred to as tactical decision-making or game skill. Tactical creativity referred to varying, rare, and flexible decisions in different situations. Tactical intelligence was knowing where to pass the ball, when or where to drive, and when to shoot: good decision making. Tactical creativity referred to the special plays: instead of seeing the obvious open player, the player created a better opportunity for a different player. These skills developed through deliberate play in 18 weeks, but not traditional practices.

Its important to get repetition to learn and for motor learning purposes, but the game is about decision making, choices and feel.  Its about spacing, movement and making very quick decision on the fly.  As state in the quote below, deliberate playing helps improve skill at the same rate as deliberate practice:  

Greco et al. (2010) noted that motor skill development was not measured, and one could surmise that the traditional practice led to improved shooting or dribbling. However, they cited Magill (1998) who found that implicit learning (i.e. deliberate play) improved motor skill execution as well or better than explicit instruction (i.e. traditional practice). Greco et al. (2010) discounted the likelihood of greater improvement in motor skill execution by the traditional group, although it was not measured.

Teach the skills, give them opportunities to get their 'reps,' but the real learning and growth comes from the playing.  Make sure that they hit the 10,000 hours of the 'playing reps.'