To make our athletic pyramid as broad as possible so that
in later stages we have a wide range of bio-motor abilities to utilise,
we need, as previously asserted, to begin our journey in as generalised
manner as possible.
This generalised phase is essentially
divided (although not discretely, it’s always a continuum based on the
individual, their history and the current environment, rather than
‘you’ve reached this age, you are now going to perform activities that
this stage requires’. This may or may not be right for the individual or
their situation.) into two main aspects; initiation and formation.
Athletic
initiation usually occurs from the ages of <6-10 and should not be
in anyway oppressive. The emphasis should be on fun and enjoyment, with
performance not even on the radar.
As already maintained, the
fitness’ that needs to be programmed into early ‘training’ is more skill
related. So acceleration, catching and throwing, balance and agility
type activities are in, long endurance type activities should be absent.
Let me qualify this last point, even 400-800m of continuous running is a
long way for children, this type of activity shouldn’t be programmed.
Yet I’ve seen many sessions where this was the warm-up, the warm-up! By
the time the kids begin the session they’re fried. Do you really think
this is the ideal situation for learning to take place? Of course not,
the kids need to be fresh; this is how the nervous system learns best.
All movement is neuro-muscular, it is THE most important factor for
performance.
To keep the kids motivated, the sessions should be
based around games that are designed to incorporate skill development.
To maximise the child’s participation games should ideally be small
sided with plenty of opportunity to experience various positions and
movement skills. So games like ‘pairs cricket’ are ideal, as the
participants experience a variety of roles within the game, with each
role only having a short duration so that extended periods of
concentration and attention are not required.
Within these games
the equipment used also needs to be considered. Take Tennis for
instance, I remember using solid plastic racquets with sponge balls
(usually with a chunk removed by I’m assuming a particularly ravenous
school-mate?) in infant and junior school. However these have a
completely different feel and response than does a proper stringed
racquet and tennis ball, so the actual skill learnt using this equipment
is less transferable than would skills developed using an appropriately
sized stringed racquet and a modified tennis ball (lower pressure to
reduce the bounce).
During these modified games, you can
introduce simple rules that require the development of basic tactics so
that positional awareness and teamwork skills are developed. A small
area 2 v 1 game will cover many skills all at once such as moving into
space, feinting and tight control etc while providing maximum
participation.
Towards the end of the phase, you can begin to
increase the demands placed on the children, albeit very cautiously, so
that although fun is still the dominant factor, the children are
starting to be challenged and stretched. The sessions should be
programmed so that ratio of success to failure should be about 8 to 1.
However, even when the child has been stretched slightly beyond their
current level, the emphasis should still be on positive reinforcement of
what they did correctly and what they could do next time to gain
success. There is no need to emphasise what went wrong, that information
is already there, what is needed is the information required to be
successful.
Combined, the above brief points should point you in
the right direction to begin appreciating how to develop a multi-lateral
foundation. In the next step, once this foundation is built we can
start to arrange our programming to begin forming a highly skilled
athlete.
In the BATHG 1.3 I introduced the idea that development
should follow a format that goes from general to specialised as the
training age of the individual increases. Relevant to this conversation
is the current event occurring in Tennis; the French Open (2013). The French
Open is one of the major events during the year and is played on clay
courts, which is synonymous currently with one name; Rafael Nadal. Nadal
has been recognised as one of the best players in the world for about a
decade now, and he is currently still only 26 years of age.
Nadal
is especially pertinent to this discussion for many reasons, but I’ll
very quickly address only two for the sake of brevity. It’s common
knowledge that Nadal has been trained by his Uncle ‘Toni’ since he was 3
years old, which ties in nicely to our ‘Decade’ rule for mastery of a
discipline, however, it goes against the suggestion that ‘elite
performers should develop a broad range of ability early on and then
specialise later’ or so it seems on the surface.
Nadal did begin
playing tennis early on, if you read the above posts again, it was never
suggested that this shouldn’t be the case. What was suggested was that
focusing solely on one specific discipline too early is more than likely
to limit the absolute peak of performance. So in light of this, how did
Nadal reach the level he has so far attained? For one, he didn’t solely
focus on Tennis. Nadal was also a very talented Football player (and
I’m sure very capable in many more sports), and it wasn’t until he was
12 years old that he began to partition more of his time towards Tennis.
So he would have spent at least 8 years in a generalised pattern of
movement development before specialising, which is completely different
to the image that many people have of a young pre-teen Nadal exclusively
practicing Tennis endlessly under the eye of Uncle Toni.
In
addition to this slight, but very important, mis-perception, Nadal is
also not a natural left-hand dominant player; for all intents and
purposes he’s a right-hander albeit when playing Tennis. Nadal, again
showing his high level of general ability in movement patterns was
ambidextrous in his tennis strokes, but was shortening his range by
using a bi-lateral (two handed) grip in many of his shots. As a tactical
manoeuvre it was decided at a later stage that he would develop
(specialise) a left-handed game, one that has served Nadal well since
that inception. So again, Nadal exploited the general to specialism
pathway in his development.
The more you look at the development
of Nadal and his successive success, the more you realise in contrast to
the perception that he was a child prodigy who from a young age showed
an amazing aptitude for a specific discipline, was in fact, consciously
or not, prepared perfectly to allow his innate talent to express itself.
Development of Talent
So how do we begin to
develop talent? If we are absolutely sure we want pursue a particular
endeavour and we’ve identified that we have particular traits that are
ideally suited for that specific activity, should we then put together
and follow a program that trains only for that endeavour
(‘specialisation’). You could, and the likelihood is that you would
progress to a reasonable level, especially in the short term. However,
the premise of this thread is to develop talent to its limit, both in
performance and in terms of longevity, and that, requires a different
approach.
Regardless of whether you have decided on taking a
particular route or not, the best way to approach both is through a
model of long term athletic development. The model goes through a number
of stages that go from general (early on) and becomes more specialised
as the time increases.
There are a number of reasons for this,
but the most important is because of neural plasticity. Most of the
bio-motor abilities we have identified as being needed for Batman (our model for ultimate athletic performance), have a
huge neural component, and it makes sense to focus on development of
these skills at a stage of life that allows for the greatest adaptation to
occur in these systems.
If you, for example, have decided that you wanted to become an
ultra-distance athlete and trained specifically for this, then the
endurance components of your training, which have a smaller neural
component, would by virtue of the requirements of the event need to be heavily prioritised
in your program.
However, if you began specialisation too early,
then you would be limiting your exposure to the other fitness
components, which if you find out years later are limiting your
performance, then you’ve missed the biggest window of opportunity for
development of these bio-motor abilities. The more neural the component,
the more trainable it is at an earlier stage. The less neural
components however, are still very trainable at a later stage. But once,
you’ve missed the boat on the neural dominant components, although they
are still trainable, the ability to do so is drastically reduced.
So
early on in a plan to develop talent, it’s best to be exposed to a wide
range of stimulus, but it’s especially important to focus on those
factors which are more neurally dependent. What are these factors?
Agility, Balance, Co-ordination, Speed, Speed of Reaction and in all
likelihood flexibility. The Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance,
Cardio-Respiratory, and by virtue of a combination of the above factors;
Body-Composition can all be trained and improved at later stages in
development.
So those Parents and Guardians out there that push
their Children into a particular sport such as Football too early (with,
I’m sure, great intentions) are actually doing the Child a disservice
in terms of being able to reach the absolute pinnacle of the discipline.
It would be better to introduce them to a whole range of activities so
that all the different requirements of the different endeavours
challenge all of the different aspects of fitness. If it’s feasible to
only offer one activity then the best choices would be gymnastics and
martial arts, which cover the whole gamut of bio-motor abilities. These
two activities provide a great generalised springboard for later
specialisation in the biggest range of activities.
More
importantly is to just let Children play. When Children engage in
unstructured play they inevitably create all kinds of games and
activities that incorporate a whole swathe of bio-motor abilities. What
do they do? Run (usually fast), jump, throw and catch, climb, skip in
challenging ways, amongst other activities. Why? Because it’s fun and
adventurous. Children like to challenge themselves (and each other),
take risks and expand their range of ability. They inherently use play
to develop their skills, especially ones that require a higher neural
contribution.
This is the way we have developed for thousands
and millions of years, and it’s only recently that we are stifling this
very necessary component of development.
In the next piece I’ll look in a bit more detail the stages of development that we overviewed in this piece.
So how do we go about emulating the level of attainment that Batman displays in both physical and mental skills?
As
suggested before we know it takes on average 10,000 hours of high level
training to approach mastery in any discipline. Bruce Wayne has the
luxury of wealth to allow him to access this high level training, and
due to his lack of life demands he can devote his entire day to training
(stimulus/stress) and restorative measures to enable adaptation to the
imposed demands. For those who aren’t quite in the same socio-economic
bracket as Mr. Wayne, don’t despair. As with everything in the Human
body, interconnections are key. This means that there is always overlap
between processes, so it’s not necessary or even desirable to set aside a
period of time for each specific component, rather with the right
planning components can be developed concurrently.
We’ll leave
the planning aside for now, as it’s an interesting piece of the puzzle
in its own right. For now we need to address exactly which components we
are looking to develop in order to attain ‘Batman-esque’ status.
Physical attributes
A
good place to begin is with fitness. What is fitness? Most people if
asked, would usually respond with ‘being able to run without getting out
of breath’, or something very similar. There is a little truth to this
statement; however, fitness almost means something else entirely. The
definition of Fitness is ‘the ability to meet the demands of your
environment’. The previous ‘layman’s’ response can be an almost perfect
answer if the demands of the environment require that attribute. However
if the demands of the environment require you to be able to exert a
large amount of force then being able to sustain activity for a long
period of time (endurance) isn’t being fit for purpose, maximum strength
would be the most appropriate ability to be considered ‘fit’.
Look
around Nature; you will see the most amazing examples of fitness. The
two main variables are form (the structure) and function (the way the
structure works). Look at an Anteater, its form; long snout and tongue,
allows it to reach in and access the ant colony’s mound. Perfect; maybe
not for the ants, but the Anteater is a contented fellow. This is
fitness.
This specific fitness has obviously occurred over
thousands and millions of years of evolution; those whose form and
function (traits) were more able to accomplish the task, were able to
survive and pass on their particular genome (or at least parts of it).
This is (in part) the way evolution works.
Through sexual
reproduction, half of the genome of each parent organism is combined to
create a whole new genome in the offspring. This is obviously not
exactly the same as either of the parents because there is contribution
from both of the parents genome, but also because mutations can occur
either from the sexual reproduction process itself or from mutations
that are already present in the parents genome. The point being once
this recombination has occurred, the genome is set.
However, just
because the genome is set doesn’t mean that it can only be expressed in
one way. The expression of the genome caused by environmental factors
is known as the phenome. The phenome is plastic. We can’t (really)
change the genomic side of the equation, but we can change the
environment.
By altering the environment in particular ways, the
expression of the genome is changed, and this can change your form and
function. This is how we adapt or develop fitness. And the more
specific we are with our imposed demands (environmental stress) the more
specific our adaptation to it will be.
So fitness is a pretty
open term, but we can start to pin point the various physical fitness’s
that Batman requires to be fit for purpose. These fitness’s include (but
are not limited to): Muscular Strength; Muscular Endurance;
Cardio-Respiratory; Body Composition; Flexibility; Agility; Balance;
Co-ordination; Power; Speed of Reaction; and Speed. Under each of these
fitness’s there are many sub-divisions as you get more and more specific
with your definition, but those are the biggies.
Expressing the
genetic components needed to allow an adaptation to be able to develop
these components, as stated, is down to environment. That environment is
what we’ll be looking at here.
Eyes focused on the target, a hand twitches to ignite a powerful
punch forward. The impulse travels through the body at supersonic speed
to almost instantaneously drive a foot unabatingly into the surface. A
second movement initiates precisely to balance the body into
acceleration, faster and faster, legs exploding like pistons into the
ground propelling the body forward at higher and higher velocities. The
body now upright, hips held high and legs stepping down to strike the
floor with briefer and briefer contacts is approaching 37 km/h and still
accelerating…and that is where the story ends…
You may be forgiven for thinking that I was describing Usain Bolt on
the way to one of his, in current terms, epic short distance runs. In
fact this is a description of fossilised footprints from an Aboriginal
man from 20,000 years ago, the reason the story ended was that the
fossil record was incomplete. But by analysing the tracks that were
left, anthropologists have worked out the size of the man and how fast
he was moving.1
Oh, I almost forgot to add, unlike Mr. Bolt, this man was bare foot
and running on the soft muddy banks of a lake. Why? Well, we can only
assume he was part of a hunting party (there were several sets of prints
found, this particular man has been dubbed ‘T8’) in pursuit of prey.
Far from being the phenom that we all revere Usain Bolt to be, in our
distant past, he would’ve been among peers, exceptionally fast still,
but certainly not exceptional.
It’s not just in sprints that our ancestors excelled, in pretty much
every endeavour they were superior to us, from strength, to endurance,
and even memory.2 They were amazing, and would’ve likely dominated us
and our elite athletes if we competed against them today, especially if
they were able to take advantage of today’s technology such as spiked
shoes and specialised Mondo tracks.
Bettered by primitive man, even with all our new technology and techniques, makes you feel good, huh? It should.
Why?
Because those abilities, which our ancestors displayed, are still accessible to us today.
Look at that sentence again; the key words are ‘our ancestors’. One
of the great things about ancestors is that sometimes they leave us
heirlooms, and sometimes these ‘hand me downs’ turn out to be quite
valuable. I’m not using the word valuable in the sense of monetary
reward; that is insignificant compared to real inherit value of this
endowment, which lies in its (‘values’) other definition, which means
‘of considerable usefulness’. The inheritance we have been given by our
forefathers (and mothers) is our genome.
Without going into too much detail, it takes a long time for the
genetic code to make any significant change. So it is more than likely
that our current genome is essentially the same as our ancestors from
10,000-40,000 years ago. So if they had the genetic given ability to run
at 37 km/h+ in pretty unforgiving conditions, or had the ability to
jump in excess of 2.5m (a requirement of certain initiation ceremonies),
then so do we.
The key is accessing that genomic power. The genome responds by
interacting with information that is put into it; for better or worse.
These signals can range from those found in food that we call nutrients,
or the technical cues from your coach in the form of words and visuals.
The signals dictate how your DNA expresses itself. If your coach
provides you with incorrect training then the expression of your
potential is severely limited. Likewise, if you don’t provide your body
with the appropriate signals via your food, or worse, you eat a diet
that is devoid of the built-in ancient signals, then again, your
potential for realising the power of your genome is severely
compromised.
Our ancestors didn’t develop these abilities using artificially set
up environments which we now call training, their environment
necessitated them to be this good. Can’t catch that kangaroo; then
you’re going to be pretty hungry. Can only throw your spear 20m, that
antelope you’ve been tracking all day from a distance will have sensed
you and be long gone; again leaving you pretty hungry. And the examples
can go on and on, they ‘had’ to develop these abilities to survive.
Survival is a pretty big motivator, one that we’re lucky enough to not
really be too troubled by in our society. However if you can motivate
yourself to roll up your sleeves and put in a little bit of elbow
grease, then all of these abilities that our ancestors developed, are
within your grasp.
The key to tapping into the enormous power that resides within you is
to seek out the right information so that the signals your genome
receives stimulate the right expression for performance.
For example, Donovan Bailey was always a fairly decent athlete, but
it took the genius of Dan Pfaff (and Donovan to put himself in the right
environment) to provide the right instruction to tap into Donovan’s
genome and the result was borne out in the 1996 Olympic Final.
Same goes for Usain Bolt. Like Donovan, Usain is receiving the right
information in regards to training so that his DNA is expressing the
right codes to generate a high performance body. He also has the benefit
of the right information when it comes to nutrition too. Much has been
made of the whole ‘chicken nugget’ comment made by Usain in regards to
his race day prep’, however I’m going to go out on a limb and take this
with a pinch (in fact huge handfuls) of salt.
Jamaican cuisine today is pretty much ideal in respect to healthy,
high performance bodies.3 It is still very similar to our ancestral
diet, with the same nutrients to which our ancestors genome were
exposed. This environment of the correct physical stress (training) plus
utilising the ancient signals that our genome evolved upon is
essentially the perfect storm for performance. In contrast, a diet of
modern day processed food and inappropriate training is more likely to
result in a grey, rainy afternoon.
You have within you the genetic heritage to be the absolute pinnacle
in terms of human performance. It’s not easy, even with the right
information, you still have to work your socks off (multiple pairs in
fact, but that’s another story). To paraphrase Linford Christie ‘talent
doesn’t get you anywhere without hard work and determination and nobody
can give you that, you have to find it within yourself.’4
So find something that ignites your flame, tend to it daily so that
it grows, then channel the fire to illuminate your talent in a blaze of
glory.
References
1. Webb, Steve, Cupper, Matthew L., Robins, Richard (2006)
Pleistocene human footprints from the Willandra Lakes, southeastern
Australia. Journal of Human Evolution Vol 50 (4) pp. 405-413.
2. McAllister P. Manthropology: The Science of Why the Modern Male is
Not the Man He Used to Be. London: St Martin’s Press, 2010.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_cuisine (Accessed on 20/08/2012)
4. http://www.streetathletics.co.uk/StreetAthletics/our_story/ (Accessed on 20/08/2012)
In regards to Human
genetic potential, it obviously helps to have been born with the right
pedigree, so choosing your parents carefully is one aspect, but it is not the
most important. Most ‘gifted’ people whether athletes, academics or artists,
are generally not ‘born’ but ‘made’.
Yes, the athletes you see on the podium at the Olympics do have innate genetic
advantages that enable them to excel in their particular event, but a lot of us
who watch and admire these individuals, have the very same genomic potential
lain dormant inside of us.* The biggest difference is that those who
successfully master their chosen pursuit have put in the necessary time and
practice to express this ‘natural’ talent.
Work by researchers such as Benjamin Bloom, Eric Kandel and others have shown
almost conclusively that it’s less about exceptional individuals and more about
exceptional conditions. These conditions can be grouped into three main areas:
persistence; the right information; and time. Those that succeed in most endeavours,
are usually not recognised as prodigious talents right off of the bat, rather
they work hard and tirelessly even in the event of successive failures, usually
under the tutelage of an expert that provides the right guidance for on average
10 years.**
The 10 year mark is derived from the evidence that it takes about 10,000 hours
of concentrated, challenging and deliberate practice to master a discipline. So
over 10 years, if you could put in the right work, that was almost constantly
slightly out of reach of your ability, without losing the willpower to continue
and you did this on average 3 hours per day, then mastery of any speciality,
within reason, is not out of reach.
*See Dormant Dynamite
**This is not a die-cast figure, it is merely an observation of average time to
mastery based on multi-factorial influences; some reach mastery sooner, others
take longer.
In the first Christopher Nolan film ‘Batman Begins’,
Bruce Wayne is discussing with Alfred his intention of demonstrating to
Gotham City that it (the populace) has a power within, that because of
fear, induced passiveness and lack of understanding, isn’t being
utilised. Bruce says to Alfred ‘People need dramatic examples to shake
them out of apathy and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne, as a man I'm
flesh and blood I can be ignored I can be destroyed but as a symbol, as a
symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.’
This
symbol as we know is the Bat, and the idea is to show the citizens of
Gotham that they need not allow the criminal element overrun the city
with their various nefarious and wanton drives and actions.
Batman
symbolises a lot more than just defiance against corruption and
immorality, to many people; myself included, Batman is an allegory for
self actualised Human potential. In fact, a book was published in 2008
called ‘Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero' that used this
premise to describe the physiology underpinning Batman’s abilities.
Batman
is in many ways an entirely self-actualised Human. He, through the
driven application of hard work, that is specific, concentrated and
directed, has developed his abilities to the theoretical pinnacle of
what we currently deem possible; although since the Human Genome Project
was completed in 2003 this viewpoint of limitation is becoming more and
more tenuous.
The biggest criticism I have seen of the book is
that its title is a little bit of a misnomer, although the subtitle
provides a better reflection of what the book actually contains; a
treatise on the necessary physiological traits needed to become Batman,
rather than a ‘how-to’ guide of principles and methods required to
attain the level at which Batman performs.
The latter is what I intend to do in this series.
I
will be sticking mainly to the physiology, as Batman’s psychological
and philosophical makeup, is just as, if not more, complex.
