Purpose: In the context of the question of how entrepreneurship education can contribute to entrepreneurial competency development, this paper aims to outline the deliberate practice (DP) method and showcase how it can be applied in entrepreneurship education. To this end, this paper presents a learning innovation in which DP improves entrepreneurial competencies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes an entrepreneurship training in which participants, over a seven-week period, learn about DP and use this approach to develop an aspect of an entrepreneurial competency of their choosing. Findings: Evaluations show that participants find both short- and long-term gains in their competency development, and value having learnt a competency development method as well. Practical implications: The presented format is designed in accordance with the DP principles as originally described in the literature on expert performance, and shows that DP can be applied in the context of entrepreneurial competency development at lower levels of proficiency. Entrepreneurship educators interested in competency development can consider to adopt (aspects of) the described approach. Originality/value: The format applies DP principles as described in the literature on expert performance. The value lies in the short- and long term effects of the training.