Deliberate practice, defined by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, is the finding that how you practice matters more than how much. Focused reps with a specific goal and immediate feedback build skill far faster than unstructured repetition, which is exactly what 'just put yourself out there' is missing.
Repetition is not practice
Ericsson's research on experts across music, chess, and sport found that mere experience plateaus. People who simply do an activity for years often stop improving. What separates experts is deliberate practice: working at the edge of their ability, on a specific weakness, with immediate feedback, then adjusting.
Why 'just put yourself out there' is slow
Generic social exposure is real practice, but it is unstructured. You rarely get clear feedback, you cannot isolate one skill, and the stakes make it hard to experiment. So it works, but slowly, and the freeze can persist for years.
Deliberate practice compresses that timeline: pick the one skill that is failing, rehearse it at the edge of your comfort, get an honest read on what landed, and adjust on the next rep. That rehearse, recap, adjust loop is the entire idea, and it is why structured practice transfers to the real world faster than winging it.