Want to develop skill? Define your own performance measures!!

More stuff from the Talent Code Blog....

Instant proverb of the day:
You are what you count.


Many of the talent hotbeds I visited for the book don’t rely on conventional performance yardsticks. Instead, they design their own.
The other day I met Graham Walker and Steve Robinson, who coach many of England’s fast-rising crop of junior golfers. Their most important teaching tool? A long piece of rope, which they use to mark off distances for accuracy-improving games they’ve designed. For instance, players make a series of wedge shots from 10, 20, and 30 yards, marking each result on specially designed scorecards.
Or there’s the technique of Pinchas Zuckerman, the great Israeli violinist, whose practice method consisted of a two jars and a bunch of marbles. Each time he played a piece perfectly, Zuckerman transferred a single marble from one jar to the other. When the second jar was full, he was ready.
In both cases, the strategy is the same: to realize that conventional measures (scoreboards, for instance, or hours of practice time) are far too loose and vague, while homemade yardsticks connect to real practice goals — improving accuracy or perfect repetition. All well-designed yardsticks share a few common features:

• Clarity. There are no gray areas; just cool, inarguable, trackable numbers.
• Stretchiness. A well-designed yardstick can accomodate a variety of abilities, and there’s an improvement ladder implicitly built in.
• Ownability. Feedback is direct, not filtered through a higher authority.

It’s not just what you keep track of — it’s also what you don’t keep track of. Unlike virtually every other company in the world,  dot-com shoe company Zappos doesn’t keep track of how long its employees talk to each customer. Instead, it actively encourages its employees to spend as much phone time as they need to make their customers happy — even to the point of helping arrange a pizza delivery to a hungry customer. The longest call so far? Four hours

Thoughts from The EGU Director of Coaching on County Coaching networks

Hi all, 


I thought I would share these thoughts from Peter Mattsson the EGU Director of Coaching with you all. He was invited to deliver a session for the coaches in Sussex and this is what he had to say afterwards...


"Last night I did a session for the so called Sussex County Coaches network. This network is part of the initiatives supported by the County Golf Partnership which in turn is supported by funding from Sport England through the England Golf Partnership. Pretty much each county that has formed a partnership should have one of these networks, designed to train, educate and develop the coaches and the coaching that operate within the county. What last night’s session made me realise is what a complete paradigm shift this is. Coach education has always been considered the job of the PGA by the amateur bodies. Even though it still is, these amateur bodies like the county unions and the national unions are now starting to realise that if we want the world’s best players, we will need the world’s best coaches. What I found last night was a group of young, aspiring, motivated and willing to learn people that almost without exception work full time in coaching. The times of the pro running the pro shop and giving lessons for a few hours per week are gone, at least if you really want to get into coaching. Coaching is a full time job that requires specialist training!"


I couldn't agree more!!

Subtle ways we can create and nurture talent

You might want to check out this link from the Talent Code website. Daniel has an interesting take on how talent is inspired and nurtured and I think it points to ways in which we can do the same.

Lighting Fires � The Talent Code

Take the England Golf 'Attitudes to coaching survey' - you could win an 'England Experience' at the National Golf Centre, Woodhall Spa

Hi all,

England Golf is conducting a survey of peoples attitudes towards coaching. It should only take 5 minutes and everybody who provides their opinions will go into a draw to win a unique coaching experience at Woodhall Spa with the England national squad coaches.

Click the link below to go to the survey

Click here to take survey


Thanks 


Stuart

The Toyota Way - 14 Management principles

I have a friend who works for Toyota, he is a mid level manager and has been there for a good number of years. He lives and breathes the Toyota management philosophy and whenever I get together with him we will chat about the principles behind the philosophy and he will give me his latest insights into how this amazing organisation puts these principles into practice.

I thought I would share this slide show with you as it gives an interesting insight that I think would benefit us all an whatever area we work, hope you find it interesting.

The Toyota Way- 14 Management Principles

View more presentations from C.K. Vishwakarma.

Deep practice in action

Hi all,

I thought I would share a blog I am following with with you. The following passage is from a blog called 'The Angle of Reflection' by Michael Reddick. Michael is on a 2 year journey to transform himself into a professional pool player. The blog URL is www.angleofreflection.wordpress.com if you are interested in reading more about his mission.

Anyway onto Michael's story....

"I recently experienced a set of events so profound, which excited me so much, that it took me a full two days to calm down enough to allow me to sit and write about it.  Where do I begin with this story?

In Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code, Daniel describes a curious phenomenon that he refers to as the HSE (Holy Shit Event).  If you’ve read chapter 4 of his book, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  The HSE is the feeling you get when a person who is “just like you” suddenly displays a quantum leap in skill level.  It’s the feeling of, “Where did that come from?”  Daniel describes the scene well:  A person in the process of developing talent is being watched by an outside observer, and the outside observer, while watching, is “…dumbstruck, amazed, and bewildered, while the talent’s owner is unsurprised, even blasé.”

I experienced a mini-HSE event on Monday afternoon, then another one on Tuesday.  As described in my blog posts from last Friday and Saturday, I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about shot making fundamentals and practicing away from the table (see October 28 & 29 posts).  This Saturday, I conducted a two hour deep practice session at Santa Clara Billiards working primarily on my stance, stroke, and bridging as they relate to rail shots (see my November 28 post).  The Saturday deep practice session was fantastic, and I thought about it all day Sunday.  On Monday, I stopped by Edgie’s Billiards in Milpitas, CA with the intention of doing another hour of follow-up work from the Saturday session.  When I walked into the room, guess who was already waiting for me?  Mike! (See my post “Eating Humble Pie” from November 16).

The Eureka Shot

Mike asked if I wanted to play a few games.  I had originally intended to do some deep practice work that day, but I didn’t want to be antisocial, so I accepted.  I broke the first rack but didn’t make any balls.  Mike made a couple balls, calculated that the table was too difficult to run, and decided to play a safe and leave me with a very difficult shot.  The shot that he left me is diagrammed to the right.  (There were other balls on the table, but they aren’t relevant for this discussion.)   I stood from my chair, walked to table, and an eerie calm feel over me.  I thought, “Hummm. This shot looks familiar doesn’t it?” It was almost the exact same shot that I had practiced on Saturday; it’s my “new friend”!   I carried out the exact same pre-shot routine that I conducted during my deep practice session; focusing on the approach, foot positioning, stance, level cue, rock solid rail bridge, smooth calm stroke, and then I pulled the trigger.  Cue tip and cue ball collided, the cue ball traveled up the table, cue ball and object ball met with a gentle click, the object ball rolled slowly up table at “pocket speed,” traveling to the far right corner pocket without touching any rails and with just enough energy to barely fall into the pocket.  A perfectly executed very difficult shot!  But here’s the funny thing: I wasn’t at all surprised; I was just doing what I had practiced on Saturday.  I stood up without saying a word, walked around the table, and kept shooting, and shooting, and shooting.  An hour later I looked up, and I was leading 8-1.  It wasn’t until I started unscrewing my cue stick that I realized that I had just played a nearly perfect match.

I know there will be good days and bad days.  I had a couple bad days recently, but after the Saturday practice session, it seems that I’ve somehow magically rewired my circuits.  My arm and body seem to be listening to my brain much better than before, almost on autopilot.  I had difficulty falling asleep Monday night.  When I woke up on Tuesday, it seemed almost like a dream.  I thought to myself, “Is it really possible to turn yourself around that quickly?  Surely not.  Probably just a fluke”. I was itching to get back to Edgie’s and practice more.  When I arrived the next day during my lunch break, Mike was not there, so I warmed up and hit practice shots for thirty minutes.  Everything seemed fine.  Everything was clicking.

Then for fun, I did something that I know I’m not supposed to do.  I grabbed two handfuls of balls, threw them out on the table, and started practicing run outs.  Usually when I practice run outs, I throw five or six balls out on the table, then try to pocket them in numbered order, similar to a game of nine ball.  This is one way to judge your progress and ascertain where you are in your skill development, but not necessarily the best way to practice.  I can usually run out about 40-60 percent of the time with six balls on the table, depending on how seriously I’m concentrating.  I looked at the spread in front of me, and realized that I had thrown out eight balls instead of six.  I have occasionally run out eight balls, but the percentages are very low, probably in the range of 2-10 percent.  “Oh, what the heck,” I thought.  I approached the table and started shooting.  I ran the table.  “Hah!  Bet you can’t do that again!”I chided myself.  I threw out eight more balls, and started shooting in order.  I ran out again.  A slight increase in heart beat.  A shortness of breath.  I threw out eight more balls.  I ran the table for a third time in a row.  Unbelievable.  I threw out eight more.  When the balls settled, two of them rolled up next to each other to form a cluster.  I was unable to break the cluster during my run, so I couldn’t run the fourth set.  I threw out another eight, and ran it out.  Now I’m freaking.  I stopped, sat in a chair, and looked around.  No one else was in the room, except for a handful of three-cushion players who weren’t paying me any attention.  I looked at my watch.  My lunch break was over, and I had to go back to work.  I guess it’s better to quit while I’m ahead."

I think this is a fantastic example of how deep practice can transform an individuals skill level as well as transform their beliefs and give them real confidence as they begin to develop that 'unconscious competence' that is so critical to the performance of skills in the sporting domain. It is clear to me that Michael has been able to really challenge himself in certain areas to take himself out of his comfort zone (Daniel Coyle would describe this as the 'sweet spot', the challenge that is just beyond our reach but not beyond our possibilities) which has made other areas of his game seem straightforward.

The Talent Code - Daniel Coyle

Here is a trailer for 'The Talent Code' a book by Daniel Coyle. This book is fantastic and really gives a different perspective on the development of talent. The concept of talent being derived from thousands of hours of 'Deep Practice' in places described as 'Talent Hotbeds' which are often pretty basic facilities (which actually encourages the work ethic which goes along with deep practice) and is ignited and encouraged by 'Master Coaches' (which are people that have radically different qualities and skills than the people we would normally think of as being master coaches), is inspiring and really changes your perspective.

Also, check out the talent code website at www.thetalentcode.com