Daniel Coyle's How To Grow A Super-Athlete
Daniel Coyle begins his article “How to Grow a Super-Athlete” with a personal anecdote about his daughter, Zoe’s, endeavor to learn how to bat. Despite being athletically inclined, in Coyle’s words, she ‘pretty much stunk” (Coyle 3). Eventually, after abundant misses, Zoe starts to hit the ball, starting with foul balls and ending with a solid hit. This begs the question, what defines talent? Is it innate or learned? In a map of famous athletes’ locations, organized by sport, there are general scatterings of players in some places with more dense congregations in others. This implies that talent is greatly affected by culture, that places where a sport is considerably popular or imbedded in society will have a greater number of talented players.
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The scientist describes a substance called myelin, fat that sheaths itself around nerve fibers. Myelin acts as an insulator of the electrical impulses that traverse the neuron, similar to electricity in a copper wire. With the myelin, signals are accelerated and travel with more efficiency. Having a larger amount of myelin facilitates the ability to gain skill, meaning that the substance fosters talent instead of giving it. Myelination, the process of myelin accumulating around the nerve, occurs when the nerve fiber is activated. Therefore, repeating a specific action, such as playing a chord on a guitar or throwing a baseball, activates the fiber and thickens the myelin. With the continuous practice of a particular skill, myelin continues to develop and the movements become simpler and simpler until mastery occurs. It’s the reason athletes and other competitors practice for hours and end up dedicating years to their craft, to grow more myelin and achieve superior talent. In the final paragraphs of Coyle’s essay, he remarks that “in the end… it can’t come down to a formula” (Coyle 85), but I disagree. Talent is a cycle of practice, which accumulates myelin, which makes practice expeditive and more efficient, which aggregates even more myelin. Reading “How to Grow a Super-Athlete,” further solidifies my stance that talent is learned and not
The scientist describes a substance called myelin, fat that sheaths itself around nerve fibers. Myelin acts as an insulator of the electrical impulses that traverse the neuron, similar to electricity in a copper wire. With the myelin, signals are accelerated and travel with more efficiency. Having a larger amount of myelin facilitates the ability to gain skill, meaning that the substance fosters talent instead of giving it. Myelination, the process of myelin accumulating around the nerve, occurs when the nerve fiber is activated. Therefore, repeating a specific action, such as playing a chord on a guitar or throwing a baseball, activates the fiber and thickens the myelin. With the continuous practice of a particular skill, myelin continues to develop and the movements become simpler and simpler until mastery occurs. It’s the reason athletes and other competitors practice for hours and end up dedicating years to their craft, to grow more myelin and achieve superior talent. In the final paragraphs of Coyle’s essay, he remarks that “in the end… it can’t come down to a formula” (Coyle 85), but I disagree. Talent is a cycle of practice, which accumulates myelin, which makes practice expeditive and more efficient, which aggregates even more myelin. Reading “How to Grow a Super-Athlete,” further solidifies my stance that talent is learned and not