Skills Improvement Breakthrough

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!

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

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.