This book has fantastic ideas that really changed the way I think about how I practice...just about everything. However, it was extremely repetitive and had large sections I thought were fairly superfluous. Doug Lemov, please learn to pare down your lists to reasonable lengths! (<20 would be great)(less)

A little overwhelming, but great and practical information, mostly for the profession of teaching, but some parts were applicable to other professions, as well as coaching athletics.

The best part of the book was the middle section on feedback (Rules 23-30), including advice such as "Practice Using Feedback (Not Just Getting It)," and I also found the recommendation to immediately implement feedback and try it BEFORE reflecting (or deflecting) on the validity of the feedback to be great advice. It was a little ironic that one of the rules was about limiting feedback and not overwhelming people with too many things to try or change at once, given that the subtitle of this book is "42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better."

Overall, the book is more of a complete program or system that is packaged and ready for an organization to implement as a whole, although some of the "rules" do stand alone. I thought that Appendix A (which tied some of the rules together in groups that enhanced the likelihood of implementation and adoption) and Appendix B (with some designed activities) were a very useful way to conclude the book and give the reader some next steps to put the program to use immediately and have an opportunity to judge its merit.

In spite of the constant feeling that I wasn't the target audience for this book, I was still able to take some valuable lessons from it and from the way I have been studying and practicing several of the things I have to do. For most part of it, the book not only makes it clear the importance of feedback and diligent practice, but also the act of consciously forcing yourself out of your comfort zone. This is the sort of thing we hear a lot from productivity articles, but Practice Perfect actually helps you breaking down your goals, figuring out what's wrong with your methods and how to fix it. I have to say that the book is definitely more focused for teachers and mentors, but it's still passes some knowledge that can be thoroughly used.

If I were a martial art practitioner I'd probably have knew many of these rules before; I met some of them in the books I studied to become a coach and others are from the PNL, but it's important and the way they are explained in this book and why it would be helpful to try to remember the one that have a special meanings for us and for our life.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND WILEY FOR THE PREVIEW

This book was recommended to me by someone who’s opinions I highly respect. He told me that this was a good read if you wanted to look at how to plan, execute, and follow through with the perfect practices; and the word “practice” imply practicing skill and techniques in general terms. The authors are teachers and their focus are on helping teachers practice their craft on their students as well as with their peers. I was looking for a book for best practices which incorporates lessons learned regarding the latest research in the cognitive sciences. This book sounded intriguing, so I gave it a go.

I had dual purpose, I was looking for ways to improve my coaching processes as well as for my teaching processes. One is in junior sports, the other is in collegiate level STEM education. Most of the time, people feel like teaching is a relative simple task and that we can just teach as we have been taught, that might be true in some specific instances but that is not true if you was aiming to be efficient and effective in their teaching and coaching roles. Indeed, this book incorporates many of the latest results culled from academic researchers on how people learn. The results debunks many myths that we had all taken for granted. The detailed descriptions of the process and the sequence which the teacher needs to practice their craft is also quite enlightening.

The book is divided into seven parts with 42 different “rules” distributed amongst the seven parts. The seven parts are:
• Rethinking Practice
• How To Practice
• Using Modelling
• Feedback
• Culture of Practice
• Post Practice: Making New Skills Stick
• Conclusion: The Monday Morning Test.

The seven parts neatly encapsulates and help the reader build the process of learning about the practice and how to best plan out and deal with practices. The seven parts easily leads the reader into a logical sequence of concepts and ideas. The first two parts were of the most interest to me, as the the first part is making the argument for reconsidering the standard pedagogy. The third and fourth parts walks the reader through the process by which they can obtain the best results. The fifth part talks about the most difficult part: how to be disciplined and how to develop a culture which will sustain a continuous culture of diligent practice. The last two parts are excellent reminders to the reader about how to successfully implement and execute the rules.

In a many way this is a very rational and attractive structure for the book, as the readers are led easily through the material. The “rules are” discussed in chapter and explained via copious amount of details and examples. Each of the rules ends with a list of individual bullet points to remind the reader of the key salient points of emphasis. The narrative is very well done and the examples, while very much focused on teaching and education, they are explained in relatively broad terms, enabling the reader to easily extrapolate the lessons to other areas.

In some way’s however, in their haste to make the 42 rules into 42 easily digested lessons, I felt that there is some amount of connections that have been sacrificed in the simplicity of the book structure. The authors apparently feel the same way as they are quite cognizant not missing any connecting knowledge, they refer to the succeeding and preceding rules to create a connecting whole, but it is still noticeable.

The best thing of the book is that it is readily understandable, and it is flexible enough to be many things because of its structure. One can use the book as a reminder of a specific list, or it can serve as a very specific outline of the best practices in teaching and coaching.

The authors have put forth a very readable and usable book. The lessons in the book are readily integrated by the reader, practical, and well rooted in the education world, and it was a very enjoyable read.

What a magnificent book. The premise speaks for itself, and the prose powerfully makes the case that most of what people do in life is a skill that can be developed. It is that simple fact that is overlooked and explains the many failures of people in all types of situations and positions. With a broader view, I believe it tacitly makes the case that we need more and better teachers in our lives in all manners of form (managers, supervisors, instructors, etc.) I highly recommend this book if you at all want to become better at something, or lead people in any way.

Takes way too long to get to the point.

I had to keep picking is book up - while it's not a long book, the ideas, "rules," take time to digest. And, I think it'll take multiple readings as I put individual rules Into use.