Controversial thought for improving mathematics education... What's wrong with Drill & Kill?

Today I watched my beloved Rafael Nadal lose to the amazing Novak Djokovic. This coincided with the last day of our 2020/21 school year and a series of teacher meetings where we spent a considerable amount of time discussing how to improve our efforts going into the new school year. This is a tried a true part of the educational merry-go-round where we philosophize about how to get better at our craft. I have now been doing this for almost a decade, split between the formal training completing my masters program and teaching in the classroom.

A common refrain from educational leaders is this, we need to find newfangled ways to get the materials across to our students, be it through project based learning, real world examples, spiraling of materials, and countless other means. I certainly agree with all of those things and one constant feedback that I get from fellow teachers who observe my classes, from current and former students, and from parents, is that my class is fun and ties in the learning targets to applications found in every day life. That is great. But thinking back to Rafa and Nole, and how they have reached the pinnacle of their sport, while managing to stay there for 15+ years despite challenges from generations of young up and comers, I cannot help but think that we need to revert back to first principles in the classroom as well.

The tennis greats hit countless forehands, backhands and serves virtually every single day of the year. Tiger Woods and other golf champs hit drives, chips and putts over and over again. Steph Curry has almost singlehandedly reinvented the sport of basketball by draining 25 foot jump shots 1,000s of times. Enough with the sporting analogy you say, fine... Musicians and singers practice their craft by playing the same scales, songs and melodies for hours on end.  A constant refrain I hear from best selling authors is that the only way you can get to a certain level in their craft is by setting aside time to write each and every day. Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch, two investment gurus of the last half century said that the way to find the best investments is by researching and reading about dozens and dozens of companies, and then you might find one gem. I could go on. My point is this....

In the case of education, and math education in particular, there has to be a place and time for worksheets, drill and kill, repetition, and practice of basic skills. Of course students will enjoy the fun and exciting projects that involve calculating net present values of projects, trajectories of space launches, and scaling up/down models more than filling in multiplication worksheets, or evaluating maxima and minima of functions dozens of times. However if we expect out students to truly master topics and be able to progress with higher level math, what is wrong with including exercises such as this, in addition to the fun and games mentioned above. 

Can't we both chew gum and walk at the same time? Why get rid of the repetitive practice that allows for students to reinforce certain basic skills. If the great athletes, musicians, writers, etc... repeat the same drills over and over again in order to achieve their fullest potential (and in some cases true greatness such as Nadal and Djokovic), I truly believe that by incorporating both, we will improve the skills of our scholars and help bridge the gap with other nations.