Discussion – “The Talent Code”

[Kai K]

Now regarding the 10,000 hour rule. John the Colombian and I were debating this last week: Who came up with this? I can't find anyone attributed to the origin of this.

Dr. K. Anders Ericsson

One of the core observation of Ericsson’s research is that expert performance seems to take a minimum of 10 years or 10,000 hours of ‘deliberate practice,’ progressively more challenging, and expert coaching, even with people labelled by others as ‘prodigies’ (see Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer 1993). As Ericsson, Prietula and Cokely (2007) describe, repetition is not enough:

http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson.dp.html

http://neuroanthropology.net/2009/05/20/talent-a-difference-that-makes-a-difference/

Myelin research by R. Douglas Fields

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/03/02/sports/1194817108368/the-brains-behind-talent.html

Attachments

• The Making of an Expert.pdf (81 KB)
• Fields2.pdf (97 KB)

Kai

[Kai K]

I hate to be this guy but I still feel the science is flawed.
There are a couple diseases that are caused from a lack of myelin.
Multiple sclerosis being the most serious. If we could grow it millions of people would benefit. Do we have an answer on that? My wife is a medical writer and she did a pharma training course on this diseases.

It's a disease, that degenerates the myelin. Maybe it's degenerating faster than it can generate?

From Wikipedia
More specifically, MS destroys oligodendrocytes, the cells responsible for creating and maintaining a fatty layer—known as the myelin sheath—which helps the neurons carry electrical signals.[4] MS results in a thinning or complete loss of myelin and, as the disease advances, the cutting (transection) of the neuron's extensions or axons. When the myelin is lost, a neuron can no longer effectively conduct electrical signals.[4] A repair process, called remyelination, takes place in early phases of the disease, but the oligodendrocytes cannot completely rebuild the cell's myelin sheath.[29] Repeated attacks lead to successively fewer effective remyelinations, until a scar-like plaque is built up around the damaged axons.[29] Different lesion patterns have been described.[30]

Kai

[hockeygod]

Ahh, You Da Man Kai! Thanks!

I forgot about Ericsson. I have a couple of his books sitting here… still waiting to be read. They are on the list!

Looking forward to checking out your links and attachments too.

Good thought about MS – the myelin could be deteriorating faster than it can regenerate.

How goes the battle with your team this year? I know you haven't posted much… busy with work and as a dad, but I am hoping things are good!!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Leafs sniper Kessel is all about ‘getting pucks on net’

James Mirtle, Globe and Mail, October 18, 2011

Everyone in the building knew it was coming.

Jean-Sébastien Giguère talked openly about being ready for it before the game. Phil Kessel’s teammates noted how they wanted to get him the puck to make it possible.

And the Air Canada Centre crowd went wild every time he did, even when he appeared well out of scoring position.

Somehow, however, even with all eyes on him and the opposition doing everything it could to stop him, Kessel found a way to dipsy-doodle through the neutral zone and flick a seeing-eye wrist shot past Giguère for the opening goal in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 3-2 loss on Monday.

While for many players there wouldn’t have been a chance, Kessel found the back of the net in an instant.

The goal was Kessel’s sixth in four games to open the year, putting him into the NHL scoring lead, and it looked remarkably like so many others.

He has scored 104 goals – tied for 10th most – dating back to and including his break-out 36-goal season as a 21-year-old in 2008-09 with the Boston Bruins.

Of those ahead of him, all but Sidney Crosby are taller and more physically imposing than Kessel, who at 6-foot, 200 pounds is just under the size of an average NHL forward.

The others, including big men like Rick Nash and Corey Perry, generate their goals in a variety of ways, including crashing the net, picking a corner or banging in a one-timer.

Kessel, meanwhile, has his one trick and does it really, really well.

It’s that flick of a wrist.

The talent

Linemate Tyler Bozak compares what Kessel does to a golfer. And one in particular.

“It’s not the biggest guys that are going to hit it the farthest,” Bozak said. “You look at Bubba Watson and he’s got a different style of swing than everyone else and he hits it farther than everyone else. And he’s a skinny guy.

“Phil just has that. I don’t know how he does it honestly. I can’t shoot like that. You can’t duplicate something like that.”

It is, in other words, a natural talent, not an acquired one and it’s hard to explain. It’s also why Kessel has been scoring the same way since he was getting a goal a game as a teenager.

The technique

But what exactly is Kessel doing with that unique ability? If it’s not brute strength, is it his aim?

“He just has such a quick release,” teammate Matt Frattin said. “He catches the goalie off guard. Like Giguère. A nice little quick snapper from the slot.”

“He just does it in stride,” linemate Joffrey Lupul added. “He doesn’t stop and give the goalie a chance to set. I try to do it – I’m not obviously as good as Phil. A lot of guys can’t really do it at all.”

The other key is Kessel looks for a way to simply get his shots past defenders rather than picking a corner of the net. Often – like on Monday – he scores with a body or two in front of him and finds a way to get the shot through.

“Whatever lane the defenceman gives him, that’s where he’s shooting,” Lupul said.

The shot total

When Kessel talks about a particular hot or cold streak, it’s never about how he’s shooting the puck – which really doesn’t change.

It’s about getting chances. And getting a lot of them.

“In most games, he gets the most shots out of any guy,” Bozak said.

Kessel generates just under four shots on goal a game, which puts him among the league leaders every season, but he really only scores on 10 to 12 per cent of them. Those shot totals, however, are what he considers vital to producing a lot of goals, more than where they come from.

That’s why Kessel is fond of saying – “they’re just going in” – when he’s on a roll like he is right now.

Frattin said when he asked Kessel for advice on getting his first NHL goal, it was all centred on putting as many “pucks on the net” as possible.

“A goalie makes mistakes, too,” Frattin said of the philosophy. “They’re human beings. Just catch them off guard and they might make that one mistake for you.”

As for where Kessel likes to shoot from, his centreman says he isn’t picky.

“Everywhere,” Bozak said.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

More about "The Dan Plan"… http://thedanplan.com/

WHAT IS THE DAN PLAN?

It’s a project in transformation. An experiment in potential and possibilities. Through 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice,” Dan, who currently has minimal golf experience, plans on becoming a professional golfer. But the plan isn’t really about golf: through this process, Dan hopes to prove to himself and others that it’s never too late to start a new pursuit in life.

WHO IS DAN?

Dan is an average man by most standards. When The Dan Plan began, he was a 30-year-old commercial photographer with no previous experience as a competitive athlete, nor was he in particularly good physical condition. Dan is slightly under average height and weight, had never played a full 18 holes of golf, and had only been to a driving range a handful of times. He was not even sure if he was a left-or right-handed golfer. Dan currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

WHY?

Through his journey Dan hopes to inspire others to start exploring the possibilities life affords them. Though his isn’t an easy endeavor and is quite possibly impossible, if it inspires even one person to quit their day job and find happiness in their own plan, then the Dan Plan is a success.

THE DETAILS

On April 5th, 2010, Dan quit his day job as a commercial photographer and began The Dan Plan. Logging in 30-plus hours a week he will hit the 10,000 hour milestone by October of 2016. During this time, Dan plans to develop his skills through deliberate practice, eventually winning amateur events and obtaining his PGA Tour card through a successful appearance in the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School, or “Q-School”.

THE THEORY

Talent has little to do with success. According to research conducted by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, “Elite performers engage in ‘deliberate practice’–an effortful activity designed to improve target performance.” Dr. Ericsson's studies, made popular through Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers and Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated, have found that in order to excel in a field, roughly 10,000 hours of "stretching yourself beyond what you can currently do" is required. "I think you're the right astronaut for this mission," Dr. Ericsson said about The Dan Plan.

BE PART OF THE DAN PLAN

Every step of Dan’s journey from novice to professional golfer will be documented. He will rely on a support network created through social media sites (Facebook, Twitter) and his website at thedanplan.com. Supporters can watch video footage, check out photos, offer advice and view The Dan Plan stopwatch as it counts down his 10,000 hours of training.

The Team:
Dan McLaughlin, Golfer in Training | Christopher Smith, PGA, Golf Instruction | Shawn Dailey, Strength Trainer | Kelsey Sullivan, Nutritionist | Jeremy Dunham, cinematography | Peter Lasser, Webisode Producer |

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Kai K]

Youth Soccer Training & Development: Myelin and Training – The Scientific Concept in Skill Development with Wayne Harrison

Wayne Harrison is a former professional player and has been a highly qualified professional coach for many years. He has held the position of Academy Director at Blackpool Professional Football Club in England and at Al Ain Professional Football Club in the UAE.

Wayne Harrison spent 9 years in Minnesota developing Eden Prairie Soccer Club with his specialized training. Harrison has held the UEFA “A” License since 1996 and holds the NSCAA Premier Diploma. He has also earned a degree in Sports Psychology and Applied Physiology. Coupled with this, he has published eleven books on Soccer Coaching and Player Development. In this article, Harrison explains the scientific background to his method.

A previous article introduced Awareness Training and explained how it helps players develop skills more rapidly than traditional training methods. In this article I want to explain the scientific background to Awareness Training and how the approach speeds up and improves decision making and the thought processes in soccer.

In my experience, there are three key ingredients for successful skill acquisition and development. They are:

Wayne Harrison's newest book on soccer is now available on AMAZON

This is the first book on this system of play; the 4-2-3-1 which is the most popular system now.

Deep Practice
Ignition, and
Master Coaching

These three elements work together within your brain to create myelin. Myelin is the neural substance that adds vast amounts of speed and accuracy to your movement, thoughts and decisions.

What is Myelin and why is it important to skill development?

Inside the brain information is transmitted through neurons. Human skill is created by chains of nerve fibers carrying a tiny electrical impulse from the brain to the body through these neurons. Myelin is the insulation that wraps around the nerve fibers in our brains and increases signal strength, speed and accuracy. Myelin is produced by a person thinking about and analyzing skill situations themselves.

All human skills are created by linking the nerve fibers in your brain that send signals to your muscles. Myelin plays an important role by serving as an insulator for these nerve fibers. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, “The purpose of the myelin sheath is to allow impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently along the nerve cells” (NLM/NIH: MedlinePlus).

It has been shown that the more insulation – or more myelin – wrapped around those fibers, the stronger and faster the signal becomes as fewer of these electrical impulses leak out. Therefore, skill can now be redefined as “myelin insulation that wraps neural circuits and grows according to certain signals.” The two – skill development and myelin – are married together.

Myelin acts like an elastic band around the nerve fibers squeezing them and forcing the signal through faster. In football (soccer), with each repetition, myelin responds by wrapping layers around the nerve fibers, speeding up and improving decision making and thought processes. With each additional layer of myelin added, the player increases the ability to process the football specific skill required.

Everyone has myelin and everyone can improve themselves through its production. The more myelin produced; the thicker the sheath, the faster the message; the quicker thinking the player becomes.

How do the “three ingredients” work to help create myelin and improve performance?

Deep Practice

For his book Talent Code, Daniel Coyle searched out what he calls “hotbeds of talent” around the world, including a soccer field in São Paolo, Brazil. Through his research, he developed a theory of what he calls “Deep Practice” that helps produce amazing success. This means “training on the edge of your capabilities.” Training in this dynamic capacity leads to mistakes being made, which increases the speed of skill acquisition. Players learn through making errors/mistakes and then correcting them. This method produces results 10 times faster than regular practice.

As deep practice is occurring, the player is wrapping even more myelin around each circuit and increasing skill. Simply put: mistakes lead to better skill acquisition. Deep practice is most important for players 6 to 12 years old. Their spatial awareness and ability to understand tactical concepts is still developing and at its height, and they have an unlimited capacity to acquire and develop new motor skills.

Simply put: mistakes lead to better skill acquisition.

Repetition of themes in small sided games is crucial, and especially in the “sweet spot” on the edge of the comfort zonethat produces errors but also teaches skills. This is where futsal comes in to play.

As Coyle explains in Talent Code, “Most Brazilian players learn their skills through futsal, the ssg equivalent of soccer. Futsal uses a half size and much heavier ball that doesn’t bounce; that promotes touch, technical and skill development. Sharp passing is paramount to have success. Futsal compresses essential skills into a small box, puts players into the ‘deep practice zone,’ making and correcting errors, constantly generating solutions to vivid problems. Players touching the ball 600% more often learn far faster, without realizing it, than they would in the vast expanse of the outdoor game.”

Deep practice needs to be on the edge of the players comfort zones, and maintained in game-related skill-developing situations.

Building myelin takes time, and putting ourselves in a position to fail actually helps fix our mistakes. Failing “better” and continuing this process until we accomplish the task is one of the quickest and most efficient ways to build myelin. We talk about letting players make their own decisions, allowing them to think for themselves – to problem solve; to self correct. Myelin production does just that.

This learning process can boost the brain's efficiency by increasing the speed with which a signal travels down the nerve fibers by up to 100 times. So think about it: if self-correcting could make signal transport over 100 times faster, why would you not want to help build this into a player’s mentality? By commanding the players, by telling them what to do, you are actually restricting this process from taking place.

Therefore, your players will actually think and react and make decisions more slowly and less efficiently because of this command style of coaching. Unfortunately, some coaches are still stuck in this old methodology of command coaching and it has to change. It doesn’t work.

What does this mean in terms of learning behavior?

Players should be encouraged to solve problems on their own, and not be told everything by the coach so they don’t have to think for themselves. By working through their own mistakes in practice, players train their minds to work faster and more efficiently. This is a scientifically proven fact. This will not happen if you continue to pursue the command style of coaching, where it is all about the coach and not about the player.

This is why we need to start this process at the youngest ages possible. There is a big responsibility to ensure that coaches for the youngest age groups begin this process of allowing the players self correction, and at the most: only guide them to the right decisions.

The secret is to develop specific practice to increase the layers of myelin to add more skill and speed. The thicker the myelin gets, the better it insulates and the faster and more accurate our movements and thoughts become.

What is specific practice? An example would be practicing the same theme over and over, initially as a technique and then as a skill. This could be one-touch passing, first in isolation as a technique and second in a game situation as a skill (when and where to pass).

They say that for a person to become an expert at something they need to do a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice. This means that deep practice times 10,000 hours should produce world-class skills. This is the ten year/ten thousand hours rule. There are no guarantees for this, of course, but this is the kind of minimum effort required to achieve these results.

Simply put, the rules of deep practice are: try again, fail again; try better, fail better; keep trying, succeed. In other words, coaches need to allow players to fail/make mistakes and learn from them in practice.

Ignition

Deep practice is a cool conscious act; ignition is a hot, mysterious burst – an awakening.

Ignition is the motivational fuel that generates the energy, passion and commitment of a person from within to perform deep practice. It is intrinsic motivation where the athlete has a self-willed drive to succeed. This is the catalyst, and it represents a huge level of commitment that can be borne out of a player’s deepest, often unconscious, desires to succeed.

A person’s motivation is not just intrinsic; it can also be ignited by an event in the outside world, such as being inspired to play for your country after watching the skills of the World Cup Champions. In a famous example, Roger Bannister broke the seemingly-impossible four-minute mile in 1954. This ignited everyone’s belief to go for it, and within three years, seventeen athletes had broken what was previously considered a physiologically impossible feat.

An athlete can also be ignited or inspired beyond the intrinsic by Master Coaches.

Master Coaches

Master Coaches are the final piece in the “jigsaw of success,” and can have an immense amount of positive influence on the player. These coaches create a learning environment where the players are actively engaged and are lead by guided discovery methods of coaching. Training should be player centered not coach centered, where coaches only need to step in at the appropriate moments to make corrections.

Real master coaches are like farmers; they are deliberate cultivators of myelin. They are talent whisperers, and can be the difference between success and failure for athletes.

The drawbacks of poor training at young ages

Myelin does not unwrap, it only wraps. And so myelin is the reason bad habits can be difficult to break in older players. This is why developmental training is so important, where skill development is the focus. We must help players develop good habits that stay with them, because the bad habits equally stay with them if developed at a young age. The ages of 6 to 12 are the most important in the training of players and can affect their success in the future.

In summary

The game of soccer is dynamic; situations change and new decisions have to be made every second. Players are continuously making and correcting errors and constantly generating solutions to ongoing problems. To be successful, players must be skilled at decision making, and to be skilled they need to be properly trained.

This training occurs in deep practice. The more you practice “on the edge,” the more decision making situations you find yourself in. The more decision making situations you are in, the more thought it takes to solve them. The more this all happens, the more myelin is grown, the faster the body and brain processes situations and the better the decisions are made.

So, to recap; myelin is the insulation that wraps these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy. The more we fire a particular skill circuit (it could be when and where to pass, for example), the more myelin is produced to activate and stimulate that circuit and the stronger, faster and more fluent our movements and thoughts become.

The three key ingredients for skill acquisition and development are Deep Practice (with specific practice), Ignition and Master coaching. These are required to help build the myelin wrap, which helps to speed up, strengthen and improve the accuracy of decision making. All three must be present to facilitate the maximum growth of myelin production and subsequent skill development.

In simple terms

The more Myelin the person produces the faster, stronger and more accurate the messages are from the brain.
Deep Practice ensures myelin is produced.
Ignition is the process that serves as the motivation for deep practice. Ignition supplies the energy, and deep practice translates that energy over time into forward progress (increasing the wraps of myelin). Ignition is caused by the inside energy of the person (desire, self belief) and the outside energy of the coach or outside events. Words are the signal most used to trigger ignition.
Master Coaches use the words that trigger ignition, which in turn motivates the deep practice that produces the myelin that speeds up and strengthens the decision making signals in the brain of the player. So, the types of words used can influence the player greatly. Negative words can have as much bad influence; as positive words have good influence. Coaches should take note of this important statement.
So, working backwards, the formula is: Master coaching creates Ignition, which encourages Deep Practice. Deep Practice – and especially specific practice – enhances myelin production, which produces improvements in accuracy and speed of decision making.

In conclusion

My method of coaching is, as you see, all about inspiring the players to think and make decisions for themselves. We need to encourage them to self determine “where, when, how and why” they need to play a particular way or make a particular decision in a particular situation.

It is encouraging, to say the least, that I have discovered this wonderful work – Talent Code by Daniel Coyle – which supports my work. This book proves scientifically that the way to develop players is to empower them and to give them the reins of thought.

The key is becoming a Master Coach. The Master Coach guides players and steers their path towards greatness. He applies his knowledge and experience to use the “less is more” approach in the right contexts of development. In a way he, is showing them without showing them, guiding them to the light at the end of the tunnel – without showing it directly – until the players themselves find and see it and go through it.

So please, let the players learn for themselves. With guided deep practice and appropriate ignition by master coaches, over time players will develop far better than coaches commanding and demanding and not allowing players to think for themselves.

Kai

[hockeygod]

Kai,

Another quality post – two in a row! WOW! Thanks for this one. I am going to look into this guy more deeply. Again, Wayne is sounding a lot like myself and John.

I will provide more thoughts on this later…

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Gallery: Wayne Gretzky – The Great 51
Happy Birthday to 'The Great One', Wayne Gretzky, who turned 51 on Jan. 26. To celebrate, here are some pictures from his illustrious career.

Calgary Herald, January 26, 2012

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Gallery+Wayne+Gretzky+Great/6056659/story.html

—–

Wayne – a January baby? Hmmm… Malcolm Gladwell… quarterly birthdates and relation to the liklihood of success?

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Kai K]

From The Talent Code blog:

Okay, it’s happened: 10,000 hours is officially in the mainstream. Athletes, musicians, students, businesspeople are counting away, waiting for their practice odometer to tick over and — presto! — they’ll be world-class experts.

Sorry, but that ain’t how it works.

Why? Because when you count the hours, it’s easy to lose track of the real goal: finding ways to constantly reach past the edge of your current ability.

The real lesson of 10K is not about quantity; it’s about quality. It’s about getting the maximum possible gain in the shortest amount of time — and to get that, you don’t focus on the time, but on the gain. You put your focus on improving the practice, which happens two ways: through better methods or increased intensity.

To be clear:

1. Certain kinds of learning — deep, or deliberate practice — are transformative.
2. That transformation is a construction process.
3. That construction process depends on your intensive reaching and repeating in the sweet spot on the edge of your ability.

You are what you count. If you count hours, you’ll get hours. But if you find a good way of measuring your intensity, or measuring your improvement, that’s what you’ll get.

For me, the best books are not the ones that come out of left field, dazzling you with their original genius.

No, the best books are ones that, the instant you read them, feel titanically obvious. The ones that take something right under your nose and show it to you in a way that makes the whole world pivot and seem fresh.

That’s why you should read The Power of Habit, By Charles Duhigg, who also happens to be a friend. Here’s the thesis:

Habits — automatic loops of behavior, triggered by cues, nourished by rewards, driven by cravings — make up a large percentage of our behavior.

To control your life, it helps to understand how these loops operate — to control the cues, rewards, and cravings. In short, the same neural machinery that makes you reach for a jelly donut can also make you reach for the tennis racquet or the math book, or perform a certain skill better, or build a productive practice routine.

In the book, Duhigg gives the example of the champion swimmer Michael Phelps. Phelps’s coach, the remarkable Bob Bowman, designed Phelps’s workouts as a series of strong, productive habits.

For example, each night Bowman would cue Phelps to “watch the videotape before you go to sleep and when you wake up.” There wasn’t an actual videotape — Bowman wanted Phelps to visualize himself performing every element of the perfect race. During practices, Bowman would have Phelps swim at race speed and tell him to “put in the videotape.” Eventually, at races, Bowman would simply whisper, “Put in the videotape.” (We know what happened next.)

There’s a great deal more, but my main takeaway is the crucial importance of the central craving. Strong habits are not built around a vague desires, but rather around deep and powerful cravings that dominate our conscious and unconscious minds, our identities.

To build good habits, then, put the craving first and foremost. Figure it out. Define it. Nourish it. Do everything to ignite and support the craving, because the craving is the engine around which powerful, productive habits can be built.

As Saint-Exupery said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t assign people tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Kai

[hockeygod]

Great stuff Kai. I haven't checked Coyle's blog for a while now; guess it's time to head over there again!

Quantity is NOT Quality. Deliberate Practice is highly focused (mentally and physically); not just 'putting in time to rack up the hours'.

I love how Coyle labels the root of motivation – serious motivation – as 'cravings'. Everything boils down to motivation. If one can determine their motivation, and harness it as their passion, good things will result.

I particularly like what Dr. Carol Dweck – "Mindset" – writes in her book. 'Open-mindedness' is the key… as is praising work ethic – 'TRY' – ; not telling someone they are 'SMART'.

Damn you Kai, now I will have to add Charles Duhigg's book to my lengthy reading list…. 😉

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Three updates from Daniel Coyle's blog…

How to Make Learning Addictive
April 10th, 2012

I’m about the ten-millionth person to make this point, but wouldn’t it be great if we could learn everything as fast and efficiently as we learn video games? If we could learn to play violin or write computer code as quickly as we learn Madden or Halo?

With that in mind, here’s a video-game term that might apply: replay value. It refers to how much a user wants to play a game over and over. You know the feeling — the irresistible itch to repeat a game just one more time, and just one more time after that (Angry Birds, anybody?).

Though the motivation feels internal, in fact replay value doesn’t come from the user; it comes from the design of the game itself. Games that provide lots of roles, lots of paths, lots of possible outcomes have high replay value — people love to play them, and get addicted. Games with few roles, few paths, few outcomes have low replay value; people play them once and then quit.

If you look at the practice routines of high performers, you’ll find they have high replay value. They are designed in such a way that you naturally want to do them again, and again, and again. For example:

Bubba Watson, who won Sunday’s Masters golf tournament with an “impossible” curving shot from the woods, learned to control the ball by hitting a small plastic ball in his yard when he was a small boy. The game young Bubba invented was to see if he could go around his house clockwise, then turn around and do it counterclockwise.
Earl Scruggs, the greatest banjo player who ever lived, practiced his sense of timing by playing with his brothers. The game went like this: the brothers would all start a song, then walk off in different directions, still playing. At the end of the song they’d come together to see if they’d stayed on time. Then do it again. And again.
Pretty much any skateboarding or snowboarding practice has a high replay value: think of how the sides of a half-pipe or ramp literally funnel the athlete into the next move. No wonder they learn so fast: the replay value in most gravity sports is off the charts.

The larger pattern here is that practices with high replay value tend to be practices the learners design themselves. One of the reason the learners can’t help but repeat them over and over is that they have a sense of ownership and investment — they’re not robots executing someone else’s drill; they’re players immersed in their own fun, addictive game.

Which leads to an interesting question: how else can we raise the replay value of our practice? Here are a few ideas.

1. Keep score — and I’m not talking about on the scoreboard. Pick exactly what you want to learn, and count it, or time it. Musicians could count the number of times they play a passage perfectly; soccer players could count number of perfect passes; math students could count the time it takes to do the multiplication table — just as they do in addictive math-learning apps like Math Racer and Kid Calc.
2. Provide multiple roles. Basically, switch places a lot. Everybody should periodically trade positions, to experience it from a new angle and come to a deeper (and more addictive) understanding. Batter becomes pitcher; salesperson becomes client; musician becomes listener.
3. Set near/far goals. The most effective goals have two levels, one near and one far. The near goal is today’s immediate goal; the far goal is an ideal performance far in the future which serves as a north star. Putting both goals out there (as video games do so well) add a dose of sugar to the practice process, and keeps people coming back for more.

How else can you make your practice more addictive?

—–

Q: What Stands Between You and Better Performance? (A: You)
April 4th, 2012

Call it “Flow” or “The Zone” — we’ve all had moments when it all comes together: when we can do no wrong, when our performance jumps to a higher level. The old cliche is that we go unconscious; our normal selves vanish and we’re replaced by someone better.

Now, science is showing us the useful truth beneath that cliche. Higher performance is not about addition; it’s about subtraction — specifically, subtracting the chatty, busybody part of your brain that focuses on your internal state. In fact, the lesson can be summed up as follows: get out of your way.

Exhibit A: Sally Adee, a writer for New Scientist, just wrote an extraordinary story that takes us inside the expert brain. The story involves a new technique called transcranial direct current stimulation, or TDCS, which sends low-voltage electricity to certain parts of the brain. The current turns off your prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that creates critical thought — and lets you act without interference.

The skill Adee tried to improve was marksmanship, via a military-designed video game. Before TDCS, Adee was average. After, she was transformed into an expert (she couldn’t miss!). Tests by the military show that TDCS more than doubles subjects’ ability to detect a threat. Other studies using related types of neurofeedback show similarly promising results.

The takeaway, I think, is not that we will all soon be sporting electrode caps (though we might!), but rather that the expert brain is a quiet place. A place where concentration and relaxation coexist, and where attention is 100 percent focused on the external, not the internal. Where the self, for a rare and lovely moment, disappears.

The other takeaway is that we should make a habit of developing this kind of relaxed, concentrated focus. It might be yoga, or exercise, or meditation, or prayer, or just a daily walk — it doesn’t matter, so long as it takes you to the sort of quiet place where you can vanish, and develop a sense for knowing when you’re there.

As Dan Millman writes: “The essence of talent is not so much a presence of certain qualities, but rather an absence of the mental, physical, and emotional obstructions most adults experience.”

(A belated, but big thanks to Rob Nonstop for the heads-up!)

—–

How to be Brave
March 26th, 2012

Girl's first ski jump

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ebtGRvP3ILg

I love this video because it shows something you rarely see: the anatomy of a courageous moment.

Improvement isn’t just about getting better — it’s also about getting braver. It’s about encountering thresholds, and taking big, scary steps across them; it’s about jumping into uncharted territory where you don’t know if you’re going to fly or flop. This girl, who’s in the fourth grade, is experiencing the same kind of moment that happens on a theater stage, or on an athletic field or in an office, and she gets past it with a great bit of strategy.

First, positivity. She assures herself that she’s going to do it, and she’s going to be fine.
Second, simplicity. She’s not caught up in remembering a bunch of stuff, but focuses on two things. (Go straight. Don’t snowplow.)
Third, a reference point. She reminds herself that this is like what she’s done before, just a little bigger.

It’s a good combination — a nifty three-step program for getting past a threshold — and shows us the old truth: courage isn’t about transcending fear; it’s about dealing with it and moving forward anyway.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

A Solution for “The Parent Problem”

Daniel Coyle, April 19th, 2012

As I’ve traveled around talking to teachers and coaches, there’s one refrain I hear over and over: The kids are great. The problem is the parents.

I think this is deeply true, most prominently in youth sports, but also in other areas, like music and the classroom. It’s not because parents are dumb or ill-intentioned — though, okay, some are — it’s rather because a lot of parents genuinely want to help, and don’t know how best to do it, so they helicopter around and that makes things messy (I’ve been there, done that).

With that in mind, check out this letter written a few years back by a new Little League baseball coach to his team’s parents before the season began. And what makes it slightly more meaningful is that the Little League baseball coach happens to be Mike Matheny, who’s gone on to be the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals (he coached Little League just after he retired from pro ball).

If you’re curious, I would recommend clicking this link

http://www.mac-n-seitz.com/teams/mike-matheny-letter.html?ref=nf&fwcc=1&fwcl=1&fwl

to read the whole thing, but here are a few excerpts:

I always said that the only team that I would coach would be a team of orphans, and now here we are. The reason for me saying this is that I have found the biggest problem with youth sports has been the parents. I think that it is best to nip this in the bud right off the bat. I think the concept that I am asking all of you to grab is that this experience is ALL about the boys. If there is anything about it that includes you, we need to make a change of plans. My main goals are as follows:

(1) to teach these young men how to play the game of baseball the right way,

(2) to be a positive impact on them as young men, and

(3) do all of this with class.

We may not win every game, but we will be the classiest coaches, players, and parents in every game we play. The boys are going to play with a respect for their teammates, opposition, and the umpires no matter what.

Once again, this is ALL about the boys. I believe that a little league parent feels that they must participate with loud cheering and “Come on, let’s go, you can do it”, which just adds more pressure to the kids. I will be putting plenty of pressure on these boys to play the game the right way with class, and respect, and they will put too much pressure on themselves and each other already. You as parents need to be the silent, constant, source of support.

I am a firm believer that this game is more mental than physical, and the mental may be more difficult, but can be taught and can be learned by a 10 and 11 year old. If it sounds like I am going to be demanding of these boys, you are exactly right. I am definitely demanding their attention, and the other thing that I am going to require is effort. Their attitude, their concentration, and their effort are the things that they can control. If they give me these things every time they show up, they will have a great experience.

I need all of you to know that we are most likely going to lose many games this year. The main reason is that we need to find out how we measure up with the local talent pool. The only way to do this is to play against some of the best teams. I am convinced that if the boys put their work in at home, and give me their best effort, that we will be able to play with just about any team.

The thing I like most about this letter is how it so clearly establishes the relationship, and does so in a big-picture, friendly, personal way. As a parent, I wish I would have gotten more letters like this. As a former Little League coach, I’m wondering, why the heck didn’t I send one?

Why don’t more teachers and coaches use this technique? Could it be possible to use letters like this as a tool to change the dynamic, so that parents might stop being a problem and start being more of an asset?

(Big thanks to John Kessel and Jennifer Armson-Dyer for the heads up.)

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

The Power of Small Wins

Daniel Coyle, http://thetalentcode.com/, April 25th 2012

Most of us instinctively spend a lot of time and energy seeking the big breakthrough: that magical moment when, after a lot of effort, everything finally clicks: when you play the song perfectly, ace the test, win the big game. Those moments are incredibly satisfying. But they’re also a problem.

Here’s why: focusing on the big breakthrough can cause you to overreach. It can create a steady diet of disappointment (after all, breakthroughs are rare, by definition). Worse, you stop focusing on the smaller, incremental things that really matter.

The best performers and teachers I’ve seen don’t get caught up in seeking big breakthrough moments. Instead, they hunt the little breakthroughs — the small, seemingly insignificant progressions that create steady daily progress. In short, they love baby steps.

Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer explore this idea in their fascinating book The Progress Principle. In it, they analyze 12,000 diary entries from 238 subjects to get a picture of the subjects’ inner work lives. They conclude that the common trait of highly successful subjects is that they are focused on achieving “small wins” — those tiny, daily progressions that don’t seem like much but which add up, over time, to big things.

The payoffs of a “small-win” mindset are clear: you tend to be less disappointed, and more motivated. You stay focused on the present. You don’t overreach by taking shortcuts and trying to do everything at once.

Perhaps most important, the “small-win” approach is aligned with the way your brain is built to learn: chunk by chunk, connection by connection, rep by rep. As John Wooden said, “Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens – and when it happens, it lasts.”

A few ideas for a small-win mindset:

Keep a daily notebook: Name the small changes you make each day.
When you get a small win, freeze: Don’t breeze past small improvements; instead, take a few seconds to acknowledge and celebrate them.
Aim for a daily SAP — Smallest Achievable Perfection. Pick one little thing to perfect in a single day — one move, one action, one chunk. Work on it until it’s polished, until you can’t not do it right.

I’d love to hear if you have more ideas for making small wins.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

The Kid Who Loves Music

Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code, April 27 2012

Ethan Walmark is six, he’s got autism, and he loves playing piano (he’s been learning by ear since he was tiny). Here, he plays one of his favorites: “Piano Man,” by Billy Joel. It’s worth a listen.

People talk about passion so often that it can sometimes feel like an abstraction. It’s nice to see a reminder what it looks like, and what it feels like.

(Not to mention where it can lead.)

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

The Social Power of Sharing Mistakes

Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code, May 3 2012

Much of the research about learning and the brain could be distilled into a few simple words:

Mistakes are good. Struggle makes you smarter.

When it comes to applying this lesson to our lives, the problem is not with the science, but rather with our powerful natural aversion to mistakes and struggle.

Try as we might to convince ourselves otherwise, mistakes feel crummy; struggle feels like a verdict. Also, mistakes often carry a social price — they can cost us our job, our money, our pride. So we instinctively hide them.

The question is, how to fix that? How do you overcome your natural mistake allergy?

One good answer: do it as a group.

Last week I heard of a nice strategy from the headmaster of a private high school in Utah. It’s called the Mistake Club, and it got started, as most of these things do, by accident.

Backstory: A new assistant headmaster (let’s call him Ernest) had been asked to speak to one of the school’s biggest donors about an upcoming project. For various reasons, the conversation didn’t go well; by the time it ended the rich donor was royally ticked off. Ernest’s first instinct, naturally, was to hide the mistake; to tell no one.

But for some strange reason Ernest didn’t. He did the opposite. He told the headmaster and staff the whole fiasco, describing each detail of the train-wreck conversation. Someone made a joke that they should start awarding points for each screwup.

The Mistake Club was born. Meetings were weekly; points were awarded on a 1-10 scale — the bigger the screwup, the more you “earned.” At the end of the year, a “prize” was awarded to the person who’d accumulated the most points.

The benefits, of course, go far beyond the pleasure of the joke. The Mistake Club established a culture of trust and communication. When someone shares the details of their mistake, the whole group learns vicariously. Social ties are strengthened. The meetings turn into coaching sessions; the organizational brain gets smarter.

Here are few other ways to do that:

Control expectations: I’ve seen sports teams and businesses sign contracts at the beginning of a season affirming that people will make mistakes, struggle will happen.

Deliver praise during the struggle: instead of praising someone at the moment of their achievement, praise them during their effort — since this is the behavior that really matters, and that you want to create again.

Encourage fallibility in leaders: it’s far easier for everyone to be transparent when leaders set the tone. For example, I recently heard of a hospital CEO who wanted to encourage hand-washing. She offered a reward of $20 to any worker who noticed her entering a sterile area without washing her hands first. Showing her own fallibility makes it easy for others to show theirs.

Legislate risk: Some companies build risk-taking requirements into their culture. For instance, Living Social, the online coupon company, encourages its people to take a business risk that scares them once a week.

The point is to find some way to create a safe social place where mistakes can be made and then used to accelerate learning — an inoculation for our natural mistake allergy. As with any inoculation, a small dose can have a big effect.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

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