Human Limits

Exploring performance and health with Michael J. Joyner, M.D.

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Posts Tagged ‘000 hours’

10,000 hours: The Saga of Hayden Smith

I want to do a final post on the idea that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice can make anyone world class at anything.   This follows the recent posts on the general topic of talent and some of the nuances or even urban legends about the so-called 10,000 hour rule.   To do this I want to tell you the story of Hayden Smith who is the cross country coach at Albion College.

 

Hayden Smith 1.0

The first version of Hayden happened in the late 1960s when he competed for Albion.   He was a 5’8”, 145 pound sprinter/jumper who could run the 100 yard dash in 10.2, long jump 23 feet and high jump 6’5”.  In an e-mail he told me his best time for the 220 yard dash was:

 

“23.1……always faded because it was too far!”

 

Hayden graduated from Albion in 1970.

 

Hayden Smith 2.0

The second version of Hayden emerged in the early 1970s when he began to teach and coach at Flowing Wells High School in Tucson, Arizona.   For some reason he decided to start running long distances.  In 1974 Hayden ran his first marathon.  Here is the progression of his personal bests along with some notes about his body weight over that time.

 Date               PR             Weight (lbs)            Site     

12-01-74          3:14:30            142                  Culver City

02-15-75          3:01:54            142                  Tucson

06-14-75          2:56:13            140                  Palos Verdes

12-20-75          2:49:43            138                  Fiesta Bowl

06-20-76          2:47:05            138                  Toledo

12-11-76          2:40:26            138                  Fiesta Bowl

12-10-77          2:38:20            136                  Fiesta Bowl

02-18-78          2:32:30            135                  Tucson

12-02-78          2:31:44            135                  Fiesta Bowl

04-16-79          2:30:37            135                  Boston

09-09-79          2:26:28            133                  Eugene

12-01-79          2:26:10            134                  Fiesta Bowl

 

While Hayden was getting better and better over the years he was part of an informal group of about 10 people in Tucson who all had personal bests for the marathon under 2:30.  The group lasted until the early 1980s when people either started running less, moved away or got into other sports.  From time to time true elites with times near 2:10 like Ed Mendoza, Thom Hunt and Don Janicki would train with us.   More frequently Blair Johnson and Nick Martin, who both had personal bests of around 2:15, ran with us.

 

Most members of the group had a history in endurance sports and broke 3 hours the first time they ran a marathon, frequently off minimal training.  They then got better quickly and in a year or two were running near 2:30 or faster.   By contrast Hayden showed a slower start and a five year progression to a sub 2:30 time.  During those years he was averaging between 80-100 miles per week of running or more, doing hard core interval training, and long runs in the mountain trails around Tucson on Sundays.  In other words Hayden was training the way elite runners were at the time and still do!  He was also regularly running shorter road races.  Hayden continued to train at this level through most of the 1980s and ultimately he broke 3 hours 55 times.  However, his personal best is from 1979.

 

If there is anyone in the world who has spent 10,000 hours of deliberate practice at anything it is Hayden Smith.

 

Hayden vs. 10,000 hours?

Hayden is a great example of both the power and limitations of the 10,000 hour concept.  First, he became a truly accomplished distance runner in spite of the fact that he started out in what might be called “fast twitch” sports where he was also way above average but not great.  So, Hayden got good at distance running even though it was probably not exactly where his “natural talent” lied.  Second, no matter how much he trained his upper limit was still a long way away from world class.  That was true for all of the other members in the group as well.   Everyone found a talent barrier somewhere in the 2:20 to 2:30 range no matter how hard any of us trained.

 

So, when anyone tells you that talent doesn’t matter don’t believe them.  And, when anyone tells you the practice doesn’t matter don’t believe them.

 

Talent & Achievement: Beyond 10,000 Hours!

In my last post I summarized an ongoing e-mail exchange I was having with David Epstein, Terry Laughlin and Amby Burfoot.   The focus of our exchange was on talent in general and the idea the champions are either born and then made or simply made via intense and deliberate practice.  When this topic comes up the first thing that pops into many people’s mind is the “10,000” hour rule as popularized by Malcolm Gladwell.  The basic idea is that practice beats talent and that with enough of it “anyone can become world class”.   

 

The conversation is continuing and David got Jonathan Wai involved.  Jonathan is one of the world’s leading experts on the nuances of intellectual and creative talent, and it has been fun to get his perspectives.  It is also interesting to see how ideas about talent, practice and achievement in academic and creative fields are the same or different than for sports.  So what have I learned in the last 10 days as the exchange continues?

 

Dr. Ericsson I Presume?

At least some of the ideas associated with what Terry Laughlin described in our exchange as the “10,000 brand” come from K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida State University.  Ericsson is now either back tracking from some of his original ideas or perhaps they were misinterpreted and oversimplified to begin with.  Here are a few caveats to think about:

  • Many of the groups used to make the 10,000 hour argument are elite or nearly elite to begin with.   So perhaps among the most talented people, more practice makes a difference.
  • The distribution of practice times to “elitehood” is highly variable and reflects potentially complex interactions between talent, exposure, and what might be called trainability.  Average values rarely tell the whole story.
  • There are obvious talents like body size, which trump all sorts of things.  You will never find small shot putters or big gymnasts.
  • For academic and creative efforts there are many parallels with sport.  That having been said kids who do really, really, really well on early tests of academic ability end up (on average) with higher levels of academic and professional achievement later in life in comparison to the merely seriously above average.  Practice and motivation matter but so does talent.

 

Rage to Master!

One of the more interesting topics that came up is the so-called “rage to master” concept.  The idea is that a very few people are both gifted in a given domain and also develop an early interest in pursuing it like their “hair is on fire”.   There are some great examples from the visual art world that include people who draw well early.  There are also well known examples like Picasso.   The image below is the “First Communion” that Picasso painted when he was about 15.   I am not an art historian, but it is pretty clear that he had mastered what might be called classic 19th century European painting at an early age before moving on to his later innovations.

firstcommunion

The other interesting thing about highly precocious highly motivated kids is that they seem to “pull” their environment as opposed to being pushed by parents; again their hair is on fire.   David Epstein sees Tiger Woods as a classic example of pull that went along with any physical talent he had plus the early exposure.   It is also easy to see how under the right circumstances all of these factors can amplify each other with success leading to more motivation, more practice, and then more success……..

 

Go For Broke!

Tiger Woods (at least the Tiger of old) also conjures up what might be described as the “go for broke” mindset.   Amby Burfoot wonders if that is part of the success of the E. Africans in distance running.  They go out hard and push the pace.  Many crash and burn in big races, but if someone is really on that day, and conditions are right then the odds of a breakthrough time improve.   As I thought more about this it occurred to me that one of the reasons Tiger Woods is not as dominant as he once was is that the wave of golfers just behind him (the 20 somethings) saw him go for broke and now all do it.   Thus, on any given day at least someone almost as good as Tiger gets hot and is there to challenge him.

 

Practice, Practice, Practice

Terry is a very effective advocate of deliberate practice and he has shown repeatedly that technique and skill matter in swimming, and that it is way more than getting in the pool and mindlessly working out.   He sent a link about the 17 year old Ski phenomenon Mikaela Schiffrin.  The story reinforces many of the ideas we have been e-mailing about:

  • She obviously has some ability and is the perfect size.  The picture in article shows what appear to be powerful legs and a low center of gravity.
  • She got intensive early exposure but also developed well-rounded athletic skills like juggling while riding a unicycle.
  • She seems to have the “rage to master” and by master I mean focusing on flawless and efficient technique.

 

Where to Leave It?

The conversation is continuing, but where to leave it for now?  There are all sorts of pieces of advice that might flow for our discussion but one thing that is for sure is that we have at least some control over our effort and how well we practice.   The story of Mikaela Schiffrin juggling and riding a unicycle along with the observations in last week’s post on “sample early and focus “ make me think that focusing on general motor and intellectual skills and that mastering a few fundamentals at any age has a lot of merit.   That having been said, here is something about Vince Lombardi explaining his basic plays  in 1965 to center Bill Curry.  Curry was a rookie and Lombardi used nothing more than a yellow legal pad and a pencil:

 

“Our system is complete, simple, and comprehensive,” he went on. “We can attack the whole field. We have very little trickery. We really don’t need it.  We win with execution. Something works, not because it’s a brilliant piece of strategic or tactical thinking, but because our team has practiced the same plays, the same movements, and the same fundamentals over and over and over again.”

 

How great a teacher was Vince Lombardi? The best way to answer that is to tell you that, 43 years later, I remember each one of the plays he outlined for me that day. I can draw each assignment, make the calls, and teach their installation. I remember the coaching points for the guards, tackles, and tight ends. I remember it all, as if it were yesterday. “

 

In sports the fundamentals include superior technique, foot work, balance, timing, and conditioning.  Together they are tough to beat.  They can make the gifted elite and permit the rest of us mere mortals to develop high levels of skill and immense personal satisfaction.