In Daniel Coyle’s, The Talent Code he studies talent and tries to explain how people become talented by going to several “talent hotspots”(12). In the chapter, “The Sweet Spot”, Coyle explains that people who struggle to do something “increase their learning velocity” (5-16). By struggling to do something you are more likely to learn faster. Coyle calls this method of training “deep practice” (16). Coyle tries to explain this deep practice by giving many examples of people who have unknowingly used this method before. For example, Coyle visited Brazilian soccer players to learn about how they became talented playing soccer. He finds out that they play a unique Minigame called futebol de Salao which is like soccer, but in a confined area where …show more content…
players have to struggle and learn to pass the ball or dribble it past the other players. In addition Edwin Link invented a flight simulator to train the pilots since many pilots were crashing in harsh storms due to lack of training. The pilots used to learn about flying planes on the ground and start flying without much practice in an airplane, with Link’s flight simulator pilots were able to practice more deeply by struggling at first with the simulator then quickly learn from those mistakes. Coyle then gets the reader involved by getting them to read a list in which they were to memorize it. Section A consists of the words completely spelled out while section B has missing letters in the word. Most people will remember more words in section “B” than “A” because of that small struggle the reader has trying to figure out the word (16). In the chapter “The Sweet Spot” Coyle does a good job explaining deep practice by giving multiple examples. His first example is about Brunio, a boy, who is practicing a soccer move called the elastico. The first time we watch Brunio try the move, he fails, then stops and thinks. He does it again more slowly and fails again—the ball squirts away. He stops and thinks again. He does it even more slowly, breaking the move down to its component parts—this, this, and that. His face is taut; his eyes are so focused, they look like they're somewhere else. Then something clicks: he starts nailing the move (13). This example shows how Brunio was struggling with the soccer move but with deep practice he starts to learn this move quickly because he is trying to learn from his mistakes by slowing it down into pieces and putting it all together. Next he uses Jennie, a 24 year old singer, trying to sing a song called “Running Out of Time.” She tries [the big finish] it, screws up, stops, and thinks, then sings it again at a much slower speed. Each time she misses a note, she stops and returns to the beginning, or to the spot where she missed. Jennie sings and stops, sings and stops. Then all of a sudden, she gets it. The pieces snap into place. The sixth time through, Jennie sings the measure perfectly (13). Just like the last example Jennie keeps making mistakes but then she learns from those mistakes and sings the big finish perfectly. With deep practice Jennie was able to learn to sing the big finish faster than other people could without it. However Coyle fails to talk about the academic setting when using deep practice.
The only example Coyle gives about deep practice in the academic area is with a group test. “Group A studied the paper for four sessions. Group B studied only once but was tested three times. A week later both groups were tested, and Group B scored 50 percent higher than Group A” (18-19). This example doesn’t show how people can study with deep practice in the academic area unless the teacher lets you take their test three times which is not feasible and highly unlikely. There is also a story of a girl in highschool and how she improved her grades with deep practice. “Catherine Fritz, one of Bjork's students, said she applied these ideas to her schoolwork, and raised her GPA by a full point while studying half as much” (19). All Coyle said about Catherine is that she applied deep practice to her school work and got a higher GPA, but he doesn’t explain how she did it.
Overall Coyle connected with the reader using great examples that help explain deep practice. However he doesn’t give any applicable examples for the academic side of deep practice. In “The Sweet Spot” you will learn that talent is not born into individuals but instead it is made and deep practice will help you achieve
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We, as a society, feel the need to draw imaginary lines to separate ourselves whether it’s the line between color of our skin, our religion differences, our political beliefs, or the status of our class. As much as I wish there wasn’t a defining line between high class and the educated vs. low class and uneducated, there is. In Mike Rose’s narrative essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” he describes his mother’s lack of education and her hard labor work which is the quote on quote the blue collar working class.
As play auditions got under way in Hillsboro, NH, the director asked Chelsy Starkweather,13, the first and youngest of the night’s auditions, to repeat her monologue, twice.
Blue Collar workers today are looked down upon by most of society. People think that if you have a blue collar job you aren’t smart and not successful. But in my opinion, blue collar workers are the backbone of our society, and deserve the same amount of respect as white collar workers. “Blue Collar Brilliance by Mike Rose” explains how blue collar workers are very smart and use a lot of brainpower to get their jobs done. Both his Uncle and mother were blue collar workers and that’s where he got his inspiration to stand up for blue collar workers around the world. He gives us examples of how his own family members were blue collar workers and how they were smart and how they excelled at their jobs. He uses his own experiences to show us that blue collar workers are in fact smart, able to adapt to many different situations, and deserve respect.
Is it better to be book smart or street smart? Is it better to be happy and stable or unhappy and ‘rich’? Blue-collar jobs require you to learn skills that college cannot teach you; Rose points this out in his essay, stating: “It was like schooling, where you’re constantly learning” (277). In the essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose, he talks about how his mother worked as a waitress and how his uncle Joe dropped out of high school, eventually got a job working on the assembly line for General Motors and was then moved up to supervisor of the paint and body section. Rose suggests that intelligence is not represented by the amount of schooling someone has or the type of job they work. In this essay I will be explaining why Rose
A college Degree used to be an extraordinary accolade but now its just another thing that we need in order to be successful, at this points its nothing more than a paperweight to some. Mike Rose states, “Intelligence is closely associated with formal education—the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long—and most people seem to move comfortably from that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Mike Rose 276). In other words the author of Blue-Collar Brilliance, Mike Rose, believes that blue-collar jobs require intelligence as well. I agree that those who work blue-collar jobs need to be intelligent, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe that those who work blue-collar jobs aren't intelligent and that why they have them. Although I also believe that
In Ain’t No Making It, Jay Macleod explains his theories and findings on social reproduction of inequality. He begins by telling us more about some authors and their theories. This helped me have a better understanding on what this book is really trying to portray. One author I found interesting was Bernstein who focused on language patterns and social reproduction. By bringing up issues like this one that most people usually don’t think about, I was able to look at the problems that the Brothers and Hallway Hangers faced from a whole new perspective. I would not have noticed this throughout the book if these issues were not mentioned right away. I come from a very traditional family that believes that success depends on how much work you
Through college Eric Davis was a baseball player who was forever looking for a way to improve his pitch, or how he could train better for longer without consequences to his body. “I was constantly looking for new ways to improve my body, or the way I did things. I was always interested in finding how much I could do without causing injury.” (Davis)
Daniel Coyle The Talent Code: Greatness Isn´t Born, It´s Grown: Here´s How. Bantam Book/May 2009, New York, New York.
No one can learn a skill without practicing and dedicating oneself toward his/her goal. Becoming a professional athlete requires continuous
11. Gyatso, Tenzin. “How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life” New York: Atria. 2002, pp 71.
Everyone wants to get better at something, but some want it more than others. In “How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium”, the narrator wants to get better at basketball, so he wakes up everyday at 4:30 to go with his dad to his work. Everyday, the narrator would wait 3 hours in his dad’s car until the gym opened, only to sit on the bench and watch the other men play basketball. Finally, one of the best players, Dante, tells the narrator he can play but he’ll get “smoked”. However, the narrator proved him wrong. The narrator learns that if you persevere, work hard, and have confidence, your dreams may come true. In How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place
When coaching athletes of the many things you do not want to happen is overlearning. Overlearning is when the practice goes beyond the amount needed to achieve a certain performance criterion. Extended practice of relatively simple skills could result in learners not continuing to engage in appropriate amounts of cognitive efforts. Players will being to daze off, become lazy in their efforts and not pay attention because they find the practice irrelevant. To prevent overlearning use a distributed practice technique, hold shorter practices and greater number of sessions with breaks in between. Next, you need to organize how complex you want your practice to be. If it is complex, start slow with isolation on the parts of the skill and progress to doing the entire skill, if simple then do the whole skill. Use any keys necessary in order to help the athletes learning process, visual, virtual, or written. Another way to improve practices is to make sure athletes have plenty of mental practice or strength. Have them mentally visualize themselves doing the skills that they performed in practice, it will help them to remember what they learned better and possibly increase their performance next time in
Source: "Practice Makes Perfect? Not so Much." MSUToday. Zach Hambrick, Andy Henion, 20 May 2013. Web. 04 May 2014. .
It is a practical way for individuals to explore the nature of their practice and to improve it.
Mastering one’s self is essential in reaching one’s full potential. In this paper I will attempt to articulate what it means to achieve personal mastery. I will first provide my own personal portrayal of personal mastery. Following, I will illustrate examples from my life, and what personal mastery means to me.