What if I told you that professional athletes no longer have to stick needles in their arms or wherever else Jose Canseco discovered he could prick himself? What if rather than having a friend of a friend recommend the most recent anti-aging clinic in Florida*, where they hand out HGH like it was Halloween, you could actually make more visits to the practice field and court to improve performance? What if it was discovered that ultimate performance was actually the result of precise, smart, hard work? Now that’s a novel idea.
* By the way when was the last time you drove in Florida? News Bulletin: anti-aging clinics in Florida are not working!
Just had NY Times Best Selling Author, Daniel Coyle who just wrote “The Talent Code – Greatness Isn’t Born, It’s Grown, Here’s How”, on my “ABC’s of Sports” Sirius/XM Satellite Radio Show, last week. Coyle describes in detail how we all have the ability to create myelin in our brains that help a person learn complex skills faster. To explain in detail, myelin is a sausage-y strand that wraps around the nerve fibers of the brain. The more myelin that the brain produces the faster signals travel throughout the body, allowing for the accelerated development of complex athletic moves. And the great thing about it is we can produce it ourselves. There is no drug that produces or accelerates it’s production, it comes down to focused or what Coyle calls “deep practice”. The more you challenge a person through focused, slow deliberate repetitions, often brought on by encouraging and learning from mistakes, the brain senses the nerves firing which leads to the increased production of myelin wrapping around the nerve, therefore signals from the brain travel faster.
I strongly suggest, if you are a coach, teacher, or parent that would like to see your child improve their overall learning and performance, this is the book to read. Now be forewarned, in a society that frowns upon mistakes and only celebrates final results, you may have difficulty encouraging and even applauding mistakes. This however is very much the key to accelerated learning and improved performance.
Consider for a moment the decrease in performance of some of baseball’s best hitters, Boston Red Sox - David Ortiz, Detroit Tigers –Magglio Ordonez, amongst others. Rather than speculating that this decrease is a result of athletes no longer using steroids, maybe it’s time to consider their may be a reduction in myelin production. If an athlete is out for an extended period of time with an injury, certainly myelin is not being produced as it was when they were in peak form.
Now back to our entitled professional athletes that are always looking for a leg up on the competition, using any measure, even illegal ones to improve performance. As the new fad does not involve a trip to your backroom pharmacist, it actually involves good ole fashion practice and focused hard work. Unfortunately the downside A-Rod, it may not make you look good on South Beach.
