This is a book review. It is kind of weird for me to be doing this because I hardly ever read any books in the normal sense, or at least I have not for the last 15-20 years. I read lots of technical manuals and special interest magazines by the truckload, but I am reading a book now that everyone who wants to improve their windsurfing skills really should read.

Ok, I admit it. I am cheating. I am 'listening' to the Audio book version! I have only 'read' two books in the last few years and both were audio books. (The other was 'A Short History of Almost Everything' by Bill Bryson. I very highly recommend it! www.jupiterscientific.org/review/shne.html )

Here it is. (Warning, much is this is stolen from another reviews or just put in my own words):

The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown - Daniel Coyle.

Talent. You've either got it or you haven't.' Not true, actually. In The Talent Code, award-winning journalist Daniel Coyle draws on cutting-edge research to reveal that, far from being some abstract mystical power fixed at birth, ability really can be created and nurtured. In the process, he considers talent at work in venues as diverse as a music school in Dallas and a tennis academy near Moscow to demostrate how the wiring of our brains can be transformed by the way we approach particular tasks. He explains what is really going on when apparently unremarkable people suddenly make a major leap forward. He reveals why some teaching methods are so much more effective than others. Above all, he shows how all of us can achieve our full potential if we set about training our brains in the right way.

The notion is based on research work by Russian psychologist names Lev Vygotsky in the 1920's who promoted highly targeted and error focused learning in what he called the "zone of proximal development". His studies showed how subjects working on the far rim of their ability, willing to err and accepting focused feedback, made markedly accelerated progress in their learning.

The concept Coyle expands on is myelin building, part of the latest breakthrough in brain research that shows how a specific kind of practice, coupled with drive to improve and timely teaching, builds skill.

Coyle writes: "The more we fire a particular neural circuit, the more myelin is generated, transforming narrow neural alleys into broad, lightning-fast superhighways. Myelin is meritocratic, those circuits that fire earn more wraps, especially those trained through "deep practice, sweet spot workouts where we are attentive, hungry and focused - perhaps even desperate to improve". The problem for many of us, at least in the beginning, is that deep practice can be hard to distinguish from what Coyle contrasts as "shallow practice ... marked by a lack of intensity, vagueness of goal, and/or the unwillingness to reach beyond current abilities." We think that if we put in our time, spend our money, take some lessons, we're bound to improve, if nothing else than some weird form of osmosis.

The key is a learning model based on what Coyle calls "chunking." We begin by studying the complete activity, the whole chunk, so to speak. Humans are born imitators. Studying an efficient way to do something establishes that vital full step of conceptualization.

My words: My earlier reference to "visual learners" in this thread ( www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/Carve-Gybing-2/?page=1 ) was based on my understanding of my own learning and teaching. The above paragraph starts to explain to me why that is. There are many studies that show that "mental practice," or "visualisation" of yourself doing a particular activity skill, actually builds the neural pathways and very strongly mimics very good actual physical practice. In other words, you can practice your gybing by carefully watching a good example of the movement as a whole and then repeatedly visualizing yourself doing it, and you can do that anytime, anywhere!


http://www.amazon.com/The-Talent-Code-Greatness-Grown/dp/055380684X

I especially recommend the audio book version - great listening as you drive to work or to the beach!

The keys to gaining high level skill in any area.
1. Drive
2. Persistence
3. Perfect practice. Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
4. Persistence.
5. Drive

All these build the neural pathways that train our brains to make what was impossible the new normal.

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sailquik said..

This is a book review. It is kind of weird for me to be doing this because I hardly ever read any books in the normal sense, or at least I have not for the last 15-20 years.

What is it you do as a job again, Daff??? Oh yeah, thats right....a teacher!

Yes fits with all latest brain studies, the new plasticicty of brain research and development of neural pathways, told myself for 45 years I had no musical talent, and therefore it was not worth practicising. Last 4 years practised heaps and now play in 3 Bands DOH!!!!!!!!! When you feed yourself bull****......CRAP is the result!

I'm going to keep asking for a sailquik gybe clinic. Persistence and all that

"Breakthrough"? Gybing pills would be a breakthrough.

Actually it's sounds pretty right to me. The only time I make any progress in this sport is when I really apply myself.
The good news is that you can always improve and you can teach old dogs new tricks.

It was interesting to hear Robby (in "Robby Naish Gentleman Windsurfer") say that he learns his windsurfing carefully with lots of forethought and visualisation before the trial and error.

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hardie said..

Yes fits with all latest brain studies, the new plasticicty of brain research and development of neural pathways, told myself for 45 years I had no musical talent, and therefore it was not worth practicising. Last 4 years practised heaps and now play in 3 Bands DOH!!!!!!!!! When you feed yourself bull****......CRAP is the result!

I've seen you sail Hardie. I searched youtube for " GoPro, guitar, Hardie ". Any more of you on youtube you can point us to?

10,000 hours practise and you will be top in any field

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choco said..

10,000 hours practise and you will be top in any field

That was the old benchmark, I gather this approach to practice reduces it to say 5,000hrs ? That gives hope to the average windsurfer in his 40s.

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drift said..

sailquik said..

This is a book review. It is kind of weird for me to be doing this because I hardly ever read any books in the normal sense, or at least I have not for the last 15-20 years.

What is it you do as a job again, Daff??? Oh yeah, thats right....a teacher!

Cheeky fella!

Like I said... plenty of articles and technical stuff...

No time for novels and entertainment books, too busy windsurfing and doing stuff!

Besides, who has the time after trawling through all these forums.

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choco said..

10,000 hours practise and you will be top in any field

Maybe, but not necessarily. 10 mins really good practice is worth 100mins or more of poor, unfocused practice. It's in the book!


I am pretty sure that if you examine the practice history and routines of most top athletes and performers, you will find they have a great deal on common regarding the way they approach their practice.

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hardie said..

Yes fits with all latest brain studies, the new plasticicty of brain research and development of neural pathways, told myself for 45 years I had no musical talent, and therefore it was not worth practicising. Last 4 years practised heaps and now play in 3 Bands DOH!!!!!!!!! When you feed yourself bull****......CRAP is the result!

Yep I used to have the idea I was lousy at maths ( despite being an A student). One day I realised I was actually quite good..
On another note I used to do XC downhill skiing . We'd trek uphill out into the back country for a few hours till we got to the steep wilderness runs and telemark down and crawl out and then home. I skied with some ultrafit guys who went out in ANY conditions and always felt I was unfit compared to them and a bit scared slogging and doing the trips.No worries on the runs as I was equal best skier.
One day our group split off from the main group who were traversing the main ridge and we dropped off into the valley for a run. We plugged back out with me muttering under my breath about not keeping up and I heard someone from the main group yell to my ski buddy who topped the rise first- 'Where's Sue?''. He replied " Coming. You couldn't kill her with an axe!!!"
Lightbulb moment.. He's right you know....
Bugger - after that I was ready for anything but got RSI the next year and have hardly skiied since.. This year..

I learnt to juggle a few years ago by visualising what I was doing and practicing a Few minutes each day and felt I was getting no-where for a few months. Then I really concentrated on it for about two weeks.... and finally one day I picked up the balls and was just juggling quite happily. It really felt like a switch in my head had just flipped on and I now had neural pathways that weren't there before.

What did it give me. Excellent peripheral vision... and excellent hand eye coordination and spacial understanding. I 'know' where and object in space is in relation to me at an instinctive level now without having to think about it and can catch a ball I've thrown without needing to look at or see the catch.

So I reckon he's right that author.

Actually Todd Sampson from the Gruen Transfer did his own three part show last year that covered this and related topics around training your brain. Was very good and informative and one episode covered visualisation as a learning pathway. I highly recommend watching it.

Is it a long read? I have a short drive to beach and a short span of attention.

Hoping it will help my 'lack of talent' on the guitar.

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Waiting4wind said..

Is it a long read? I have a short drive to beach and a short span of attention.

Hoping it will help my 'lack of talent' on the guitar.

Don't know yet. I'm still in the first chapter. I keep replaying it over and over!

I have a long trip to the beach this weekend. I am sure it will be a lot more interesting than usual!

OK. Finished the audio book now - most of it at least twice. I feel like I need to listen to major parts of it at least another time or two to really get it to sink in. Every time I go through a chapter I notice more things that resonate with my own experiences and inspire me more.

It was long trip to Sandy Point this past weekend and then on to Melbourne and back for a family get together so I had at least 7 hours of total driving. I think the audio book goes for about 5 hours. (5 parts of about an hour each).

Not only is is very instructive of how we learn and the reasons we learn, but it is also very entertaining and thought provoking. Easy listening, but I imagine it is very easy to read as well! I am getting the book as well!

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choco said..

10,000 hours practise and you will be top in any field

So how come I still don't sleep that well sometimes?!?

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choco said..

10,000 hours practise and you will be top in any field

That's a lot of porn. Challenge accepted.

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hardie said..

Yes fits with all latest brain studies, the new plasticicty of brain research and development of neural pathways, told myself for 45 years I had no musical talent, and therefore it was not worth practicising. Last 4 years practised heaps and now play in 3 Bands DOH!!!!!!!!! When you feed yourself bull****......CRAP is the result!

There's even an iPad app that improves your eyesight. No, really.

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In a study published this week in the journal Current Biology, Seitz worked with 19 players on the University of California, Riverside, baseball team, and showed that his app UltimEyes lengthened the distance at which the players could see clearly by an average of 31 percent. After using the app for 30 25-minute intervals, players saw an improvement that pushed many of them beyond normal 20/20 vision, including seven who attained freakishly good 20/7.5 vision?meaning that at a distance of 20 feet, they were clearly seeing what someone with normal vision could see at no farther than 7.5 feet away.

www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a12915/this-app-trains-you-to-see-farther-16506910/

Lots of questions and answers and discussion about it here:
www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1y9m6w/a_neuroscientist_has_just_developed_an_app_that/

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sailquik said..

... I am reading a book now that everyone who wants to improve their windsurfing skills really should read.

The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown – Daniel Coyle.

Thanks for the suggestion, sailquik! I bought it after reading your post. I'm only two thirds through it, but it's definitely a great book. It goes way beyond the "10,000 hours", explaining in detail how to learn and coach effectively. I have had a lot of windsurfing instruction, and what the book describes as the essentials of good coaching matches my experience exactly - the best coaches provide frequent short, focused feedback, backed by knowledge and experience to see what exactly needs to be corrected first.

The two key principles in the book are "deep practice" with focused error correction and "ignition" (initial motivation). I can explain just about all of my windsurfing skills (or lack thereof) with these two principles. For example, I'm reasonably good at light wind freestyle - the "ignition" there happened 35 years ago, regularly waiting for wind on a lake, having fun fooling around, and seeing myself as being able to do all the tricks I saw in a book. But ignition really never happened for new school freestyle - it seems cool enough, but (almost) everyone who does it seems to belong to a different species (or at least generation).

Ever noticed how you tend to improve when you sail with better windsurfers for a while? I thing the error-correction part of "deep practice" comes into play here. Watching better windsurfers lets you identify what you can do different and better. Almost every time one of our fast guys show up for a speedsurfing session, my speeds improve. Unfortunately, that's just a few times a year, not really enough for "deep practice".

The book has let a whole lot of puzzle pieces fall into place for me. The timing was perfect, too - I'll start to teach windsurfing this year, and there's a lot of useful information for teaching (as well as for learning, of course). The short, focused, frequent feedback is always important; it's a reason to take a SUP to follow beginners, rather then letting them go off on their own. But the difference in coaching styles early on compared to later that the book describes is also very important. After all, one reason for teaching is to get new people into the sport - adjusting the teaching style to "instill the love" certainly makes sense.

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hardie said..
Yes fits with all latest brain studies, the new plasticicty of brain research and development of neural pathways, told myself for 45 years I had no musical talent, and therefore it was not worth practicising. Last 4 years practised heaps and now play in 3 Bands DOH!!!!!!!!! When you feed yourself bull****......CRAP is the result!

4 years ha. I have another 2.5 years to go and I'll get the book, need all the help I can get with my musical talents!