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It Only Takes 10,000 Hours!

Many of our sons have a personal goal of one day playing Major League baseball. Millions of boys have this dream, but there is a heck of a lot of work - years and years of work - between youthful daydreams and one day stepping onto the diamond in the Bigs. The reality is that very few ever make it to the Majors, and even more rare is the player that becomes a legend.

Yes, talent is one component of Big League success, but even more important is the sheer quantity of sweaty work behind the scenes. And according to one British sociologist, it'll take at least 10,000 hours of such sweaty work to reach the pinnacle of success!

It is practice, however, that makes perfect, according to the sociologist whose books have become required reading within the Conservative party. The best way to achieve international stardom is to spend 10,000 hours honing your skills, says the new book by Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best-selling The Tipping Point.

The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering their chosen field.

...“What’s really interesting about this 10,000-hour rule is that it applies virtually everywhere,” Gladwell told a conference held by The New Yorker magazine. “You can’t become a chess grand master unless you spend 10,000 hours on practice.

“The tennis prodigy who starts playing at six is playing in Wimbledon at 16 or 17 [like] Boris Becker. The classical musician who starts playing the violin at four is debuting at Carnegie Hall at 15 or so.”

The obsessive approach is particularly evident in sporting icons. Jonny Wilkinson, the rugby player, Tiger Woods, the golfer, and the Williams sisters in tennis have all trained relentlessly since they were children.

For the young, aspiring athlete, it comes down to personal choices: where is he spending his time, his energy, his attention? What will divert him or distract him from his life-long goals? For the training athlete, his long-term goals already influence his daily decisions - what he eats, how much sleep he gets, how he spends his "free time". It affects his choice between a party the night before a big game, or an early bedtime instead. It informs his decision between a college with a competitive baseball program and the college where his girlfriend plans to go. A disciplined athlete knows that his life is far different from his friends', but he's cognizant that the choices he makes today affects his opportunities tomorrow.

The simple secret is that "the years spent intensively focused on their area of expertise place the world’s most successful people above their peers." That translates into approximately three hours a day for 10 years of intensive work. That's it. It makes perfect sense to me. Because it doesn't matter how much natural talent a young ballplayer has, he will get passed up by boys who OUT-TRAIN him. It's up to him whether he allows that to happen or not. Any ballplayer who wants to go all the way has to develop the mentality that he will not ever be out-worked. That mind-set will take him much farther than talent alone. There will always be better ballplayers, but there will be far fewer of them who will train relentlessly to be The Best. That is where every committed athlete has an opportunity to shine.

How many times have you watched a truly gifted athlete skate by in his early years on natural athleticism and coordination alone - easily out-playing lesser-developed boys the same age? I have. But guess what? Many of those early "stars" never developed a work ethic, or a self-discipline that pushed them to work harder the older they got. I always told my son that if he could out-work his peers, he would eventually out-strip their early achievements. It's just fine to be a home-run king when you're nine years old, and it's quite another to parlay 400' high-school home runs into a college scholarship or professional draft!

So what's in between the All-Star Little Leaguer and the All-Star Major Leaguer? Well, only about 10,000 hours of hard work!

 

 

*This article has been adapted from the original written by Heidi Thiess on October 29, 2008.

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Last Updated on Monday, 15 December 2008 13:16