Bounce The Myth of Talent

Bounce
By Matthew Syed
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IN A NUTSHELL
Matthew Syed was the three times Commonwealth table-tennis champion. He

wanted to explore what makes people be successful in sport (and also in life).
We tend to assign words like ‘genius’, ‘naturally gifted’ and ‘prodigy’ to people
who achieve success – yet Syed claims that excellence is primarily down to
sustained ‘purposeful practice’.
This cultural belief in giftedness creates problems at both ends of the scale: 1st
the ‘gifted’ believe they therefore do not need to work hard at something and
so squander their ability and 2nd ‘the non-gifted’, do not believe they have the
talent and therefore do not bother to make the effort. His book asserts that
with effort comes excellence (and through excellence, often comes success).
Thus we should praise effort – not talent.
Paul Arnold Consulting

STRATEGY – FACILITATION – TRAINING
paul_arnold@me.com
07768 775988

KEY FACTORS THAT DRIVE EXCELLENCE & SUCCESS

10,000 hours of purposeful practice
Syed supports Gladwell’s assertion that a major component of success is many
hours of sustained practice (cf 10,000 hours = 2.7 hours a day for 10 years).
Syed insists it more than just hours - the practice itself needs to be ‘purposeful’
with high standards and quality feedback.
Ericsson (‘91) looked at violinists at the Music Academy in West Berlin. They
were assessed into three groups (from most able to least able). The only
difference was the number of hours they had practiced – 10,000; 8,000 and
6,000 hours – and the rule was unbroken – all 10,000-hour students were in
the top category (and nor were there any 6,000 hour students in this top
category). They concluded, “The differences between expert performers and
normal adults reflect a life-long persistence of deliberate effort to improve
performance.”
Another study of British musicians found that the high achievers learned no
faster than others per hour – they merely did more hours.
This finding has been validated in many sports (e.g. Tennis – Agassi hit a
million balls a year). Even so called child prodigies (such as Mozart) put in the
hours (he had clocked up 3500 hours by the time he was 6 and had studied his
art for 18 years before he wrote his Piano concerto No 9 at the age of 21. Tiger
Woods started when he was 2 years old. Serena Williams started playing at 3,
her sister at 4).
Every now and then there is a new technique that dramatically lifts
performance levels (e.g. Fosbury flop). But these are not sudden sparks of
creative inspiration – they actually come from deep, sustained immersion in
purposeful practice. Picasso, Michelangelo, and research amongst poets have
all identified their creative inspiration came from hours upon hours of
dedicated practice.
A mindset of hard work (Innate Talent vs. Perseverance)

Dweck (‘78) – 330 students 11/12 years old given a questionnaire to assess
their beliefs about talent, then categorised into two groups – those with a fixed
view on talent (i.e. its innate) and the other who saw talent as something that
could be developed. They were then all given an IQ test with the questions
getting significantly harder. Those with the fixed view on talent tended to give
up sooner (as they labelled themselves as not clever enough – hence no
amount of hard work would compensate).

paul_arnold@me.com
07768 775988

Dweck conducted another experiment later on, where she took 400 11 year
olds and gave them a series of simple puzzles. Afterwards, she randomly
divided them into 2 groups. To the first she praised their intelligence (“you
must be really smart!”); the other half she praised their effort {“you must have
worked really hard!”). After the first test, they were given the choice to take an
easy or a hard test. Only 1/3rd of the ‘smart’ kids elected for the hard test,
whilst 90% of the effort kids took the hard test.
Finally, everyone had to do one extra test where Dweck found the effort kids
improved their score by 30% and the smart kids decreased their average score
by 20%.
Thus we need to be very careful when we set people up as being ‘innately

talented’ as it holds people back from trying (as they fear ‘being found out’)
and hence will reduce their long term performance.
Pushing well past the comfort zone

Excellence comes from constantly stretching to reach a much higher goal
(often a goal that only the coach/manger thinks is possible). Thus training with
(and being with) the best is critical to drive up performance (and mindset).
Tiger Woods used to push his practice balls into the sand to deliberately make
it more difficult.
One of the reasons Brazil is so successful at soccer is because most of the

footballers played futsal. The smaller, heavier ball demands greater precision
and encourages more frequent passing.
Expectations
Performance often rises (or reduces) to the level of expectations put upon
them.
Belief
Belief is a critical element to success. Often it’s the coach/mentor who has a
greater belief than the individual, but eventually the performer needs to
develop it as well.
Belief is also critical not only in driving long term motivation but also for the
event itself. Jonathan Edwards, when he won gold in the triple jump at the
Sydney games, had a belief in ‘The will of God’. This allowed him to relax and
perform at an unconscious level of mastery (‘choking’ is when the conscious
brain tries to take control of performance. Unfortunately most tasks are too
complex for the conscious mind to handle). Others find their belief elsewhere
(which can spread to quirky, irrational, superstitious rituals).
paul_arnold@me.com
07768 775988

Doubt is a dangerous virus that quickly spreads and paralyzes (so need to filter
out negative thoughts and instead focus on the many previous positive
reference experiences).
Arsene Wenger remarked, “To perform at your maximum, you have to teach
yourself to believe with an intensity that goes way beyond logical justification. No top
performer has lacked this capacity for irrational optimism.”
Be where the great are

Great players tend to come together in one place – thus it’s key to be in the
places where they are.
For example, the city of Reading produced more outstanding table-tennis

players than the rest of the country put together. Spartek (a small
impoverished area in Moscow) generated more top 20 women tennis players
than the whole of America.
Quality feedback
Feedback is key to learning. “If you don’t know what you are doing wrong, you can
never know what you are doing right”.
Learning from failure

Paradoxically, failure is a key part of excellence. Successful performers have a
positive attitude to failure.
For example, Shizuka Arakawa, one of Japan’s greatest ice-skaters fell over
more than 20,000 times in her progression to become the 2006 Olympic
champion.
Environment shapes
Environmental factors can help shape (or destroy) the potential.
Desmond Douglas (aka Speedy Gonzalez), played table tennis in such a small
room he was forced to play close the table. This shaped him into becoming the
fastest reacting player – he had learned to ‘encode’ the micro movements
involved in fast play.
The high altitude Nandi area in Kenya has produced more marathon runners
than anywhere else in the world. The area is so poor that children would
regularly run to school (up to 20Km away).

paul_arnold@me.com
07768 775988

The expansive capacity of the brain

Experiments have shown that the brain under constant stimulation can expand
and develop. Purposeful practice builds new neural pathways. The brain is able
to make sense of this wealth of data - accumulated over time and encode it
into useful information that then drives precise refined action of the elite
sportsperson.
For example the seemingly super sharp reaction time of various ball sports is
an illusion. Experiments have shown that often these top sportspeople are no
faster in standard tests than other people. The player is able to detect minute
subtle movement in the bowler/servers arm and shoulder which from years
and years of practice has led them to read the direction of the bowl/serve
before the ball has even been played. It’s this practice that has created
unconscious patterns and distinctions not open to the lesser trained.
“Gretzky’s (a US hockey player) gift…is for seeing…amid the mayhem, Gretzky can
discern the game’s underlying pattern and flow, and anticipate what’s going to
happen faster and in more detail than anyone else.”
The same is found in experts in many fields of decision-making. They

instinctively know - based on years of practice and an ability to pick up (often
unconsciously) minute distinctions and patterns that the rest of us are blind to.
Serendipity, luck & opportunity

Often it’s a series of lucky events and circumstances (usually outside of one’s
consciousness and control) that ‘conspire’ to make it possible for success (so
maybe a bit more humility in one’s success would be more appropriate).
Genetic makeup is not found to be the primary reason for sporting success.
Because Blacks are perceived to be better at sports they are more likely to be
picked and hence given more opportunity to excel (and the principle is
reversed in business).
CRITIQUE
Much of the content is a colourful restatement of already well-known key
factors for success. His main contribution is the way we help encourage
excellence through reinforcing effort as opposed to praising innate talent.
We can easily be seduced by Syed’s hypothesis as it appeals to our own hope

for personal potential. But that does not mean it is proven. Any hypothesis can
be supported by a few well-chosen ‘facts’. I would suggest that his treatise
does not disprove the role that innate talent also plays.

paul_arnold@me.com
07768 775988


paul_arnold@me.com
07768 775988

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Matthew Syed was the three times Commonwealth table-tennis champion. He

Thus we should praise effort – not talent.

Paul Arnold Consulting

KEY FACTORS THAT DRIVE EXCELLENCE & SUCCESS

A mindset of hard work (Innate Talent vs. Perseverance)

Paul Arnold Consulting

Thus we need to be very careful when we set people up as being ‘innately

Pushing well past the comfort zone

One of the reasons Brazil is so successful at soccer is because most of the

Be where the great are

For example, the city of Reading produced more outstanding table-tennis

Learning from failure

Paul Arnold Consulting

The expansive capacity of the brain

The same is found in experts in many fields of decision-making. They

Serendipity, luck & opportunity

We can easily be seduced by Syed’s hypothesis as it appeals to our own hope

Paul Arnold Consulting

Paul Arnold Consulting

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