A collection of general sports and fitness related posts.
Vitality! Conference
Discovery Health hosted the 7th annual Vitality Wellness and Fitness convention in May. I was lucky enough to attend a number of really awesome seminars by leading experts in all manner of health related fields. Below is a picture of "baby" Jake Matlala and I at the conference squaring off before our fight. I lost.
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| What do Iron Mike, Roy Jones Jr and "Baby" Jake all have in common? They've all been inducted into my "Favourite-boxers-of-all-time" Hall of Fame |
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| Former Bafana Bafana captain, Lucas Radebe, showing off his famous Aquafresh smile |
Sweat or Skill? What does it take to be elite?
There is an old boxing adage, “punchers are born, not made” supported by some of the best trainers on the planet, among them Teddy Atlas and Manny Pacquiao’s long-time coach Freddy Roach. In his presentation "Engineering excellence: the strategy and delivery of high performance” Dr Ross Tucker reveals that he shares this assertion in part although he considers the matter far less clear cut. Dr Tucker is also concerned with the notion that anyone has the ability to become an elite athlete provided they put in a sufficient number of hours to make them “an expert”- it’s not quite as simple as that either.
Discussed in Dr Tucker’s presentation are points raised in Malcolm Gladwell’s non-fiction offering Outliers in which he explores the success of people who operate at such a high level that it is a statistical anomaly. The book begins with Gladwell's research on why a disproportionate number of elite Canadian hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year. The answer, he points out, is that since youth hockey leagues determine eligibility by calendar year just as we do here in South Africa, children born on January 1 play in the same league as those born on December 31 in the same year. Because children born earlier in the year are bigger and more mature than their younger competitors, they are often identified as better athletes, leading to extra coaching and a higher likelihood of being selected for elite hockey leagues. Dr Tucker uses this example in his presentation as well as statistics collected from South Africa’s junior national teams specifically in rugby – the theory holds true for the home-grown data. This phenomenon is dubbed "accumulative advantage" by Gladwell and is a term Dr Tucker uses most generously to describe how a flawed identification process may lead to a disproportionate amount of prospective young athletes flying under the radar. In a discussion with established football journalists I had some years back they identified one of South African football’s biggest development problems – the selection process at a very junior level tends to ignore players of bigger stature, taller and better built but at that stage clumsier, and favour the quicker more skilful players. What this tradition translates into years down the line is a chronic shortage of players with the ability to play roles reserved for stronger and bigger men. Selectors at junior level neglect to consider that size cannot be taught whereas skill and speed, but to a lesser degree, can be learnt skills. Like Outliers then, Dr Tucker asserts that success depends on the idiosyncrasies of the selection process used to identify talent as much as it does on the athletes' natural abilities.
Lately many people have taken to blaming their weight issues on a predisposition to obesity. Why then should it be unreasonable to assume that a certain individual could be predisposed to greatness in any given sporting endeavour? It shouldn’t be an unreasonable assumption but it should be one approached with care, cautions Dr Tucker. Natural ability in any sport needs to be supplemented by hours of practice evidenced by the "10,000-Hour Rule", based on a study by Anders Ericsson. Dr Tucker however questions whether simply crossing this threshold qualifies you as elite in your field. Due to apparent incoherencies and lack of depth in the study he concludes that the answer is an overwhelming no, although is quick to point out that the hypothesis of requiring a hugely substantial amount of time to become very good at something is generally sound.
The study neglects too many factors though; not least among them is the issue of when training (to become elite) should begin. According to Dr Tucker there is no single pathway to success in sport. If there were, we wouldn't be able to compare the stories of Chrissie Wellington, who discovered her remarkable talent late in life but went on to dominate Iron Man Triathlon within a few years, to that of another endurance athlete, say Floyd Landis, who began cycling at school, with a single minded focus that took him to the professional level many years later. There are countless cases of both examples, not only in endurance sport, but in skill-based sports - cricket or rugby players who arrive in their 20s, compared to the "prodigies" who are ear-marked for success from their early teenage years, or even earlier. Surprisingly, as Dr Tucker reveals that in a Danish study of athletes there emerged two separate categories of Elite and Near-Elite candidates with statistics showing that during formative years, up until the age of 18, the Near-Elite athletes had put in more training (sometimes double the amount) than their counterparts who went on to outshine them. This tells me that natural talent trumps training, but one without the other will get you nowhere either.
I could work out a regimen more intense, and using superior techniques, to what Usain Bolt uses to train. I could spend more time per day training and use better supplements and better recovery techniques than him. Would he beat me in 100 m dash? Would he run the last 10 m backwards grinning at me as I came in behind him? I can say almost completely assuredly, yes on both counts. By the same token though, the man to beat Bolt over 100 m could be packing your groceries at the local supermarket or filling your car with petrol but without the proper training he will never fulfil his potential.
So what does it take to be great, talent or training? It takes 100% talent and 100% training.
