Specificity

There is a concept in physical endeavors called specificity. Specificity is what makes training we do effective or ineffective with reference to our goals. When a training stimulus is applied, the adaptations to that stimulus is specific. For example, if I were to do heavy slow squats, my strength would develop in those same motions and speed. The slow squat will not be very effective if my goal is to jump higher. If I want to increase my muscular strength in the legs, it is good. A simple form of resistance training is isometrics. Isometrics involves pulling muscle against muscle. The muscles are worked, but there is no movement. Gains in strength can be considerable, but the gains are greatest in a narrow range of joint angles on either side of the joint angle under isometric load.


Similarly, skill development is governed by specificity. The two person volleyball drill called pepper is very common, and is frequently used as a warm up activity. The problem is that specificity suggests pepper is not that effective. It gives the participants a lot of opportunities to touch a volleyball using common skills, and it only requires a ball and a partner. The place where it loses effectiveness is in not using skills as they would appear in competition. The times a ball is both coming straight at you from a server or attacker AND the setter you will be passing to are in the same line are very rare. The times a setter has a pass come straight at him or her and the attacker that will be set is in that same line are also rare. The times an attacker will have a set come from the direction of the upcoming attack are probably the most likely. A volleyball is almost always going to be coming and going at angles on every touch. Three players in a triangle are going to be set up better as far as specificity is concerned. Likewise, a practice activity that will somehow replicate competition activity will be of more value than pepper.


If you take that same concept to basketball, the kid who gives himself or herself a verbal countdown before taking a practice shot is going to be a little better prepared to take a shot in the closing moments of a game. Taking a lot of time to shoot free throw after free throw might help with technique, but stopping during a scrimmage to take 1 or 2 free throws is going to leave the player better prepared to shoot after being fouled. It all comes down to specificity.


Right after I graduated from college, I decided to read a book for pleasure. Given my reading speed, I didn't read much during my studies. My reading was almost exclusively from textbooks. I had to retrain myself to read for fun. I had to stop myself from reading the novel to find the bullet points that would help me prepare for a test that wouldn't happen. Again, specificity.


That's all well and good, but how does that help me improve as a writer? Specificity suggests that to become a novel writer, I need to write novels. To write short stories better, I need to write short stories. To write nonfiction better, I need to write nonfiction. Sure I will improve generally if I spend some time writing regularly, but I'm not going to become the next [pick your favorite author] by posting in my blog. I've heard Brandon Sanderson mention writing around 12 novels before he got published. Sure I could pour my heart and soul into a book and get lucky with the next great American novel, but more likely it will take a lot of work developing that skill. If the 1 million words rule of thumb applies, I need to write 10 novels that weigh in at 100,000 words just to get good enough. Specificity says those million words need to be words in a novel.


Moving forward with my 5 year plan idea, a part of the writing goals is built around this. Maybe not the specificity of what I'm writing, but it will make a difference in sitting down and hammering out a bunch of words in a blog post like this one, or reviewing a book or podcast. That's specificity that I can handle. At this point it is what I need as far as taking writing seriously at all. At this point I'm sitting at around 750 words. The last one was at around 1000. Sure, I didn't write these posts on consecutive days, but I did get close to 2000 words in a few days time. If I can maintain and improve on that so I'm hitting close to 1000 per day, specificity tells me that with practice I will be able to write about 1000 words a day. Eventually, I'll be looking at trying to maintain 1000 words per day while shifting focus to novels. When I'm there, I could hit that million word mark in about 3 years. That will be ahead of the 5 year schedule.



So take the concept of specificity and run with it. Realize that the things we do are not always effective. Pay attention to what it is you are practicing, and use that to your advantage.