Tuesday Blog- November 29

I finished my last book, and started my second book, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. 

"Making progress became a matter of small failures, a rhythmic pattern of botches, as well as something else: shared facial expressions" (Coyle, 13). 


The author, Daniel Coyle starts off the book by his daughter over hearing that her dad was going on a treasure hunt. He explains his first clue and how when he arrived to it, his expectations were met and exceeded, but only half the time. During the other half he witnessed something different. He witnessed moments of slow, fitful struggle, as he says. He compared this to a herd of deer who encounter a hillside coated with ice and how they stop, look, and think carefully about making each future step. The author then introduces us to an eleven year old, named Brunio. He is working on a new soccer move on a playground in Brazil. Coyle says, he is trying to learn the elastico, a ball handling maneuver in which Brunio nudges the ball with the outside of his foot, then quickly swings his foot around the ball to flick it the opposite direction with his instep. This skill is very tricky, and the first time they watched Brunio try the move, he fails, but thin stops and thinks. He tries again, this time more slowly, but fails again.

He stops and thinks for the second time. The third time he tries even slower, breaking each move down into different components- "this, this, and that". His eyes are focused, his body controlled, and they all of a sudden, something clicks: he starts nailing the skill each time. The author also introduces us to a twenty-four year old, named Jennie. She is a singer working in a Dallas vocal studio learning the chorus of a pop song. As she is trying to finish singing the last few high notes of the song, she fails. Just like Brunio, she stops, and thinks, then sings it at a slower speed. Each time she messes up a note, she would stop, breathe, and then return to the beginning. Then all of a sudden, something clicks: she gets it. The sixth time through she finishes the song perfectly.

Between Bruno and Jennie, they both failed multiple times, but in order to succeed one has to fail before success. It is like that saying "practice makes perfect." If one does not continue to practice they will not get better or perfect at what they are doing. In this chapter I feel as if the author was trying to get the point across that "making progress became a matter of small failures, a rhythmic pattern of botches." This is where I found my quote, in order to make progress along the way one will encounter small failures, but we learn from them, we grow from them, and practice to get better. Nothing in life is handed to us, we have to work for what we want.

I thought this quote connected to me because when I first started cheerleading eight years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. Absolutely no idea. I strictly remember walking into tryouts thinking to myself, "I may make a fool of myself, but I'm okay with that". I had some tumbling skills from doing dance cclasses and gymnastic classes the previous years but nothing outstanding. For years I tried to get a back-handspring which is when you do a back flip but your hands go on the ground. It took me forever and ever to get it. Of course I had failed multiple times, landing on my knees, or bending my arms, but I got right back up and kept trying. There were bumps in the road, including fracturing my ankle during the process of learning, but I healed and then started right up again. Eventually after tireless hours of failure and progress, I got my back-handspring and to be completely honest, I learned from this struggle. As I continued with cheerleading over the years I gained more skills, but it took the same steps, failure after failure, but I eventually got it. It is just a matter of time and never giving up.