One of my biggest goals in high school was to run a really fast mile as a member of the track team. As a junior, I was one of the top two milers on the team and I had lofty ambitions to improve dramatically on my PR as a senior. Unfortunately, I completely whiffed on my off season strategy because I did not follow or understand the law of specificity. In my defense, I had also never heard of the law of specificity.
To provide more backstory, I had a reasonably successful cross country season improving my 5K time almost 90 seconds from my junior year. After the season ended, it was basically winter in Minnesota and the team practices disbanded until track season. My very poor strategy I planned without consultation was to run 40 miles per week on average. Almost all my runs were both alone and at a much slower pace than what I wanted to run the mile in. Fast forward to spring and I wasn't any faster than the year before...I was actually slower. It was very frustrating to work so hard and then regress. I gave myself a gold star for effort;)
What is the law of specificity? It means that you should be mimicking what you would do in a performance in your training. The more you can replicate performance conditions, the better. What did my training do for my mile time? Not much. My training method was long and low intensity running wearing different shoes on a different surface than my future races. In retrospect, I would give myself an A+ for dedication and effort and an F for training strategy.
To apply the law of specificity, I should have been wearing the exact same spikes as race day, running high intensity intervals on a track surface that would have acclimated my body to race pace. The A+ strategy would have been doing speed training on a track 2-3 times per week at race pace and faster. Mixing in base runs would have been OK, but the improvement would have happened primarily through the anaerobic workouts. The mile requires at least 25% of your training to be anaerobic. In the 800 meters, it's closer to a 50/50 split of aerobic to anaerobic workouts.
Fortunately, I didn't let the first few weeks of track running slower times dictate my whole season. At some point, my father reached out to the BYU track coach who gave him the advice that speed training was what I needed to turn the season around. Once I applied the law of specificity, I improved dramatically in a different event: the 800 meters. My last race of the year put me in the top 20 all-time 800 meter performances in school history, which still stands today.
How does this law work in other arenas? I believe that standardized test taking requires replicating test conditions in practice. I've also learned that rather than looking up the answers before figuring them out, you should struggle with the question first. Your retention rate is much higher after you struggle and then learn the proper strategy.
I would think it would work in public speaking, playing musical instruments, giving presentations, etc. You are generally more prepared if you have already replicated the conditions of the performance in advance. If you are prepared, you shall not fear is a good rule of thumb.
