Thursday's Blog- December 8- Ignition

Ignition

Recently, I have learned a good amount as to what deep practice is. However, deep practice is not so easy. It requires energy, passion, and commitment. It also requires motivational fuel. Remember that word, motivational fuel because it will be very important given it is the second element of the name of the book, the talent code. In the section of the book I am currently reading, I learned how motivation was created and sustained through something called ignition. Ignition and deep practice work together to produce optimum skill. Ignition supplies the energy while deep practice converts the ignition over time into progress (myelin). Deep practice isn't easy and takes time. An example the author uses to describe how deep practice takes time is through an Oxford medical student named Roger Brannister who was the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes. He earned headlines around the world and lasting fame for what many professional illustrators called the single greatest athletic accomplishment of the twentieth century. As time went on, another runner, an Australian named John Landy, also broke the four-minute barrier. The next season a few more runners did too. And then the next season more runners did also. Within three years more than seventeen had matched the greatest sporting

accomplishment of the twentieth century. Nothing extreme or intense had changed. The training was the same and the genes were the same but what did change was how the athletes were responding to something outside of themselves. The seventeen plus runners had received a signal saying, "you can do this too". This is how ignition works. Deep practice is a conscious act while ignition is an awakening. "Ignition works through lightning flashes of image and emotion, evolution-built neural programs that tap into the mind's vast reserves of energy and attention." Ignition leads us to the thoughts of "you can do this" or "this is what I want to be", it creates our identity. Sometimes individuals say to themselves, "if she can do it, why can't I?"

Another example the author used to show us readers is through his family. The author, Daniel Coyle's has a family of six, his daughter, Zoe is the youngest and the speediest. Her foot speed seems natural, yet this is how Coyle started learning and reading about myelin. He was wondering how much of Zoe's foot speed was inborn, meaning natural, and how much of it stems from the combination of practice and motivation she gets from being the youngest.?

Below, Daniel Coyle gives us the birth-order ranks of the world-record progression in the 100-meter dash, with the most recently set world record first, then second, third, and so on.

1. Usain Bolt (second of three children)
2. Asafa Powell (sixth of six children)
3. Justin Gatlin (fourth of four)
4. Maurice Greene (fourth of four)
5. Donovan Bailey (third of three)
6. Leroy Burrell (fourth of five)
7. Carl Lewis (third of four)
8. Burrell (fourth of five)
9. Lewis (third of four)
10. Calvin Smith (sixth of eight)

Of the eight men on the list, (Burrell and Lewis appear twice), none of them were firstborn, and only one was born in the first half of his family's birth order. On average, history's fastest runners were born fourth in families of 4.6 children. We also find a similar result with the top ten of all time NFL running backs in rushing yards. Here we see a pattern. This pattern may strike many as surprising because speed most times looks and feels like a gift, however it not just a gift but a skill that grows through deep practice, and that is ignited by primal signals. In this case the cue is: "you're behind-keep up". Myelin also plays a role in this because myelin connects to impulse speed- the more you have, the faster your muscles can fire and it is useful for sprinters to fire your muscles faster. This does not mean being born last or late into a big family automatically makes that individual fast, but it does say that being fast involves a bunch of factors that go beyond genes, but directly related to motivational signals that provide energy to practice deeply and produce myelin. As I continue reading, I will learn more about  ignition and how it can be triggered, but as of now I have learned about primal signals.