Renato, one of my Jiu Jitsu instructors, convinced me to get back into grappling in a kimono. “It will be hard at first,” he told me. “But after a few months, when you go back to fighting without the gi, your game will be better.”I know he’s right. But when he worked with me on it yesterday, I felt like a white belt again. He was slapping arm bars, foot locks, and collar chokes at the rate of one per minute.
At the end of my hour-long class, I was ready to cry.
I’ve been practicing this sport for seven years now. But when I put on that kimono, I regressed. Big time. Renato, who competes at 145 pounds, was tossing me around like a rag doll. And I outweigh him by 50 pounds.
I know from experience, though, that if I keep on practicing, I’ll get better. A month from now, after I’ve relearned my gi defenses and have regained a little confidence, I’ll be
giving away fewer submissions. And one day, I’ll give none.
I
have no great natural talent for submission wrestling, but
I am improving every day because I am willing to do what
it takes. Making myself a better wrestler is no tougher than
improving my Spanish language skills. I simply have to set
myself specific goals, put in the time to practice, and keep
at it until I succeed.
There
is almost nothing you can’t accomplish so long as you are
willing to put in the time. This is something I’ve been
saying for years – and now there is a substantial
academic work that confirms my view.
K.
Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State
University, has studied the subject of “expert performance” pretty
much his entire professional life. Thirty years ago, he performed
an experiment in which he trained people to hear and repeat
series of numbers. Untaught subjects were able to remember
about seven digits in a row. After 20 hours of training,
their memory had improved to the point where they could remember
a 20-digit sequence. After 200 hours of training, they could
remember a sequence of more than 80 numbers.
Later
experiments led Ericsson to conclude that whatever
innate capacity a person might have for remembering, that’s
nothing compared to how much he can learn by practice.
All
of Ericsson’s research and findings were put together
in an 800-page book titled The
Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. The bottom line: “Talent
is highly overrated.”
MarkFord
The idea that there are more good and qualified people who want to find jobs than there are appropriate jobs for them is a myth (perpetuated by academia). The opposite is true. There are plenty of good jobs, but most people who apply for them are unqualified to fill them.