Hockey Player Development

What if Talent Doesn’t Exist?

A few weeks ago, after returning from USA Hockey’s ADM Symposium I ordered a half dozen books, many of which were recommended by the presenters. After wrapping up On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deady Conflict in War and in Peace by Lt. Col Dave Grossman and Loren W. Christensen (a really interesting insight into “warrior preparation”), I opened The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born, It’s Grown by Daniel Coyle. I knew I would have a hard time putting The Talent Code down, as Bounce by Matt Syed, which is written on a similar topic, is one of my favorite books of all time.

As you may have noticed, I’m on a bit of a long-term athletic development kick recently. That USA Hockey Symposium really “lit my lamp”.  The symposium was largely responsible for sparking these posts, which I encourage you to read if you haven’t already:

  1. The State of Youth Hockey
  2. Hockey Development Resistance
  3. The Truth About Practice: The 10,000 Hour Rule
  4. Hockey Development Recommendations

There are clearly areas for improvement in our long-term hockey development programs, and I think USA Hockey is on the right track with their guidelines and recommendations. As I anticipated, components of their ADM are being criticized largely by people that haven’t taken the time to fully understand the intentions, guidelines, and progressions of the system. It’s a shame that the people with the loudest voices have a tendency to be the least well-informed.

Getting back to my reading endeavors, I thought Bounce was interesting because it systematically challenged the idea of “natural talent”. While this doesn’t quite do the book service, I think Bounce was a creative way of explaining the 10,000 Hour Rule, and how seemingly “natural” talents can always, regardless of the chosen field, be explained via dedicated practice. As Michaelangelo said,

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”

What we consider, or should I say what we don’t consider practice may be the reason that people miss this. This topic could be a post in itself (it is. see The Truth About Practice above), I’ll point out that WATCHING higher level performance is one of the most overlooked and incredibly powerful forms of practice. Many of the “young geniuses” accumulated SUBSTANTIAL practice hours watching/listening to their parents or some other mentor at a young age.
Lesson 1: Quality mentors accelerate excellence.
The Talent Code uses similar examples of unexpected excellence, such as the international dominance of Russian female tennis players (from ONE club!), Curacao little league teams, and even the true story of the Renaissance artists to illustrate the same point. These stories are truly miraculous when you consider how few resources many of these outstanding achievers had. Natural talents? Hardly.

Simply, in every case, peak performers have put forth a RIDICULOUS amount of focused, progressive effort to achieve their excellence. They don’t just go through the motions; they attempt, refine, and attempt again until they get it right. Daniel Coyle does a great job of explaining the physiology behind how this eventually leads to automacity (consistent performance without conscious thought).

The secret lies in myelin. Myelin forms a sheath around the axon of neurons. Think of the neuron’s axon as a wire, and myelin as the casing around it. Myelin serves to “insulate” the axon, creating a smoother, faster signal. Because all active human movement (and thought for that matter) results from the coordinated firing of vast neuronal networks, myelin has a profound effect on our everyday lives.

Cartoon Neuron. Myelin in yellow.

Think about it. EVERYTHING you think or do involves the firing of a vast network of neurons. When you drink Generation UCAN after your practice, a specific network of neurons fires. When you celebrate after a great game, a specific network of neurons fires. When you get mad because you don’t like a coaching decision, a specific network of neurons fires. As a network fires more and more, more myelin is laid down to insulate the connecting axons (the cord connecting one neuron to another). In other words, that pathway is reinforced and becomes more efficient. As I’ve mentioned, this has tremendous physical AND psychological implications. Essentially, this explains “muscle memory”, why highly practiced skills can be replicated with decent proficiency even after a long hiatus. This also explains why it becomes increasingly easy to skip going to the gym to train.

Lesson 2: Every decision or indecision, action or inaction results in a physiological response that makes you more likely to do it the same way again in the future.

You may have heard the expression “It’s like riding a bike”, which eloquently illustrates the idea of muscle memory. Although, when I got on a bike while at grad school at UMass for the first time in over 10 years, I didn’t feel so balanced. I must have not laid down enough myelin.

The key to becoming a world-class athlete isn’t just to pick your parents right as is often said; it’s to develop highly myelinated high performance neuronal networks. This doesn’t mean that performing a movement incorrectly is undesirable. Quite the contrary. In fact, stumbling through practice is NECESSARY to find the right movement, which can be cemented with further practice. The idea isn’t to not make mistakes; it’s to not overlook mistakes. Mistakes are an important step in the skill development process. But what happens if an athlete, in practically any team sport, makes a mistake that results in a turnover? Instant negative feedback from the coach. A single failed attempt paired with negative feedback causes most athletes to abandon that strategy. Is it any wonder that athletic development experts are calling for more UNSTRUCTURED play amongst athletes at younger ages? These “pick-up” settings typically involve more movement, more “touches” with the ball/puck, and ultimately more opportunities to self-correct. In other words, they have more opportunities to identify effective neuronal networks and start laying down myelin.

Lesson 3: Unstructured play and uncoached small area games create outstanding environments for rapid skill development.

Take Home
At every level of sport, you hear athletes, parents, and coaches talking about how “talented” an athlete is, as if their abilities were developed passively. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that talent, or natural ability as we currently think of it, doesn’t exist. Or should I say, the neuronal network that creates the thought that talent may not exist is becoming increasingly myelinated. The trouble in accepting that talent doesn’t exist, is that we need to look at two athletes, the best and worst on any given team, and treat their potential for future excellence equally.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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10 Responses to “What if Talent Doesn’t Exist?”

  1. jake b:

    awesome article kevin. i’ve been saying this for years, so glad to hear a somebody say it. exp. lesson #3. every interview with every nhl player the common theme is “playing pond hockey” with their friends at and early age for hours. never once in all my years have i heard “i never would have made it to the nhl if my peewee and bantam coach didn’t force me to play methodical hockey withing the defensive system correctly.

    yet….this is what we do. instead we say “no inter-team scrimmage….this only builds bad habits…”

    31.10.2011, 10:24 am
  2. Kevin Neeld:

    Jake-Great point. It’s ironic that, in the interest of controlling and putting more structure to the development process that we actually impair it. Turns out what is best for the kids is what they enjoy doing the most too!

    31.10.2011, 11:11 am
  3. Bret Contreras:

    Very interesting Kev! Research from last years shows that there are structural explanations for muscle memory as well – in this case the number of myonuclei, which heavily influences the potential size of the muscle cell. So there are likely several different neural and structural mechanisms that make it easier to return to previous levels of fitness following a layoff. Cheers! BC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2930527/pdf/pnas.200913935.pdf

    01.11.2011, 7:43 am
  4. Kevin Neeld:

    Bret-Thanks for passing that along. I’ll read through it at the airport on Thursday. Just from skimming the abstract, do you think that mechanism would play as large of a role in skill components that might not be as heavily dependent upon muscle mass or strength? Either way, this provides some insight into why it’s easier to re-attain any given level of mass or strength than it was to acquire it originally, but I’m curious on how you think it transfers to more skill-heavy activities.

    01.11.2011, 9:05 am
  5. Dan:

    Heya Kevin;
    Wow!.. Interesting. This made me raise my eyebrow actually. I’m going to ‘detract’ somewhat from whether talent exists or not. I’m wondering; if you take 2 individuals from zero and train them equally with all that’s suggested, will you get the same result from the 2?..maybe, maybe not. All things being equal, I would say yes, but in practical terms we’ve all seen individuals, be it kids or adults progress at different rates, so I will say, for the purposes of this string, ‘NOT’..Which makes me ask, do some OR are some individuals more apt, on a physiological level to adapt their myelin/neural network more quickly than others which would lead us to think that an inherent talent exists?
    The reason that I ask is that you’ve raised an interesting question in that the field that I work in, (for a living that is) may some have some merit in other practical applications where a training environment exists..How do you enhance that physiological process?..one would think that going in, to be able to improve, one has to WANT to improve thus suggesting an ‘open mind’ to be taught new things, moves, etc…
    I also read somewhere about ‘practice makes perfect’, but ‘practice makes permanent’ as well…
    I went on a bit of a tangent here, but I’m glad you brought this up..well done!

    ..later,

    Dan

    01.11.2011, 5:19 pm
  6. Bret Contreras:

    Hey Kevin, good question! This is why it’s important for coaches from different disciplines to work together as it enhances learning. I’ve heared the term “muscle memory” a hundred times and it’s always used with bodybuilders and powerlifters who have noted that their muscle mass and strength returns more quickly once you’ve built it up compared to building it up from scratch.

    You might have heard the term “muscle memory” used with athletes in terms of skill acquisition/coordination. I have never heard the term used in this manner but your post made me realize that a foundation of neural connections and genetic-encoding nuclei have been layed down, and they stay there for good, which makes all things return much quicker, be it hypertrophy, strength, power, skill, coordination, etc.

    Good stuff!

    01.11.2011, 8:49 pm
  7. This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning | Kevin Neeld Hockey Training and Athletic Development:

    [...] What if Talent Doesn’t Exist? [...]

    04.11.2011, 9:11 am
  9. Hal Tearse:

    All of the research and information is terrific especially for kids who have an affinity to playing hockey however many simply want to play. They are not interested in long term training and the facts are that the majority of players are done playing after ten years or less. All of the training research has focused on athletes, piano players, etc who have had top end coaching and were committed to training. Most players in the US have rookie coaches or coaches like those in the story who mean well but are not experts in athlete development. Poor coaching and direction will derail a player. Creating false expectations in tens of thousands of kids and their families is also not good for the sport. Pond hockey? It hardly happens in Minnesota any more much less Arizona, California and other parts of the country where some very talented players are from. It sounds good but rarely happens any more.
    LTAD is terrific for the right kids- but maybe not all kids.
    There needs to be an adequate amount of talent combined with the age appropriate training for each player, a strong family support factor and most importantly, a motivated athlete. If any of those are absent the outcome is questionable. ADM is a great program to help young kids play in the right environment and have fun every tiome they go to the rink.

    08.06.2012, 3:50 pm
  10. Kevin Neeld:

    Hal-While the goal in long-term athletic development research is to outline the most effective system of creating world-class players, it’s clear that at younger ages the best thing kids can do is, as you put it, “simply play”. That’s the interesting thing; what kids want, and what is in their best interest are largely the same thing. It’s what ADULTS want that has taken us so far in the wrong direction. I’m not sure what you mean by creating false expectations. The LTAD model, and USA Hockey’s ADM, aren’t JUST designed to create world-class players. In fact, as much as anything these models are designed to create life long fans of the sport. When players are provided an opportunity to develop a passionate interest in a sport at a young age (through play), they’ll be more likely to want to put in the extra effort to get better (potentially leading to elite levels for certain kids), and more likely to stay in the sport after their careers are over (potentially as a coach, administrator, etc.). I hope this all makes sense.

    10.06.2012, 2:50 pm

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