NIGHTLINE - The Talent Factories
Innate or in-born talent versus good coaching, practice and good old-fashioned hard work. Talent is not born, it is made. Practice, practice, practice is the key, just as the old joke about "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice makes perfect, but not just any practice, deep practice. Developing myelin in the brain, the old concept of reinforcement. Muscle memory, yes. But remembering the fundamentally correct mechanics to perform. So not as much 'practice makes perfect' but instead 'perfect practice' that leads to talent development and therefore, success.
Great coaching. Who the teacher is, is very important. A knowledgable, patient teacher that demands the correct fundamentals repeated in the proper sequence leads to success. A watchful eye, making small but important corrections under deep practice conditions.
Total concentration. Finding and fixing small technical mistakes. Making corrections leads to better skill development. Getting in the proverbial "zone" in practice. Resilience and perseverance lead to Talent.
THE TALENT CODE - Daniel Coyle
A trailer for Daniel Coyle's book, The Talent Code, which explains how talent grows in the brain, and how you can grow more of it. Included are a discussion of tiny, wildly successful talent hotbeds in sports, art, music, and academics; their distinctive patterns of practice, motivation, and coaching; and a bit of neurology (after all, every skill is located in the brain). The clip also includes the author's performance of a Tiger Woods golf trick--a trick with an extremely unplanned ending.
How parents and kids can develop Olympic-style mental toughness - from Jim Murphy
Olympic athletes and parents can use the same tools to train themselves and their kids. Jim Murphy, author of the new book by McGraw-Hill, Inner Excellence: Achieve Extraordinary Business Success Through Mental Toughness, explains how to use the mental skills of Olympic champions.
1. Focus on values. If you want your kid to have more confidence in their sport, encourage them when they show compassion, teamwork, and discipline. When you focus on values, you give them the freedom to fail, which allows them to win more often. [Top Olympians lead with their heart and connect with what they value most.]
2. Detach from the outcome. If you're like most parents, you're happy when your kid succeeds in sports, and disappointed when they don't. It's natural. But it also connects your love to their success. Don't get too excited about the outcome (win or lose); it sends a subconscious message that ties their performance to your love for them. Go to their games, cheer for them, and love them for who they're becoming, not how they performed. [Top Olympians focus on how they want to feel and let the outcome take care of itself.]
3. Write 3-5 goals everyday as if they were already true. For example, if your kid wants to be the starting shortstop on the baseball team, you may have him write: I love playing baseball and being the starting shortstop. Have some school ones too. For example: I am focused and confident every day at school as I achieve a B average. [Top Olympians affirm their goals every day as if they were already true.]
4. Remember the great moments. Spend five minutes every day with your kid visualizing great performances from the past. Remind him or her of a great performance and ask about that moment and how it felt. Then tell your child to "re-live" that moment and get the feeling again. This can be a powerful time you spend with your kids every day. [Top Olympians are continually re-visiting great memories of past performances].
5. Weed out the negative thoughts. Every day you and your kids will have negative thoughts. This is perhaps the biggest obstacle either of you will ever face. Here's four ways to deal with them:
a. Wear a rubber band and snap it each time you have a negative thought.
b. Replace the negative thought with the complete opposite. (I'm going to fail becomes I'm going to succeed.)
c. Yell "stop!" in your mind and picture an oversize STOP sign.
d. Tell yourself, "It's only a negative thought" and go back to what you're doing.
Negative thoughts only have power over you by what you give them, and you give them power when you let them linger in your mind.
[Top Olympians develop keen self-awareness of their thoughts and feelings and continually direct them towards their goals and dreams.]
The essence of "The Cody Ross Experience". Explained by Cody Ross
"Every time I went to the plate, I knew I was going to do something, do some damage. When you feel like that, you've got to ride it as long as you can, because you rarely feel like that."
—Cody Ross, a month after the World Series, looking back at his fabulous postseason.
Ex scientia pecuniae libertas. - "Out of knowledge of money comes freedom."
No comments:
Post a Comment