A stiff upper lip

Very rarely do I read a book and get quite a dramatic shift in opinion but it is very nice when you do.
I just finished reading "The Gold Mine" effect by Rasmus Ankerson. It is yet another book about talent, what constitutes talent, how to identify it and how you get there but there was a couple of very interesting ways to look at things.

Creating the right training environment and the illusion that you have to enjoy what you do. It helps but it is not necessary. 

I am a big fan of Stephen Francis, creator of the "MVP" track club in Kingston and coach to the Jamaican elite. I have posted the link of a interview where he talks about training environment but essentially the following quotes sum it up nicely.

http://mvptrackclub.com/gallery_Highlights.html

"The road to success is largely uncomfortable, if you are enjoying yourself too much, you probably are not going to reach where you want to go. 80% of the time you must be wishing you were somewhere else"
backed up by Muhammad Ali's famous quote " I hated every minute of training"

Of course, these statements are based around the very small % that will become the world's best athletes. For most people who can't and don't want to compete at that level, the rules can be loosened a tad but it is interesting to understand the process of what and how talent is created.

Perseverance and struggle creates competence, enjoyment and motivation, not the other way round

The author of this book talks about motivation and enjoyment being the outcome rather than the facilitator to train. Children and adults generally like to be good at something and being good at something creates confidence. If you think of flipping the scenario on its head, the starting point is perseverance and struggle then competence, enjoyment and motivation in some sort of continuum but where complacency is never obtained.
So..guiding athletes through that phase of perseverance and perhaps even non-enjoyment is really important to fuelling enjoyment. Most of the time, sports are self selecting and children/adults will take up sports they have a natural flair for but competence can also be created from nothing, if a coach or parent has the foresight to see how to navigate through it.

I do remember up until secondary school being terrible at academic work. I used to have a friend who I would copy off and somehow managed to get my homework and exams done but credit must be passed onto her! In the end the fear of my teachers and being found out however was such a driving force to work. It was a major battle and graft to understand pretty much all subjects, but eventually the work paid off, understanding and grades came and then motivation and confidence, so actually I believe there is some truth to that.
Which leads to the next point he mentions that "not pushing your kids is irresponsible" which follows on from this idea of you learn to love what you are good at. Possibly true, possibly not.
The success of tennis players from Russia has been attributed to the pushy parenting and example upon example can be shown where this is the case but would that formula work in a western environment where we have so much more choice? Andy Murray's mum is an example of a pushy tennis parent but she has used a bit more cunning and guise in creating direction. She says there is a difference between "pushing your kids" and "pushing to make things happen for your kids". There has to be some sort of harmony where the child does see some benefit to the system. I am however not an authority on this, but we all have our unique childhood experience and lessons learnt from friends and their parents so it is purely observation.

Eliminate Choice

I'm going to refrain from getting into British Politics! but we are lucky in that we have a good health and welfare system in place, where people are on the whole looked after. This system therefore creates much more choice compared to other societies. In Kenya for example, the prize money from winning running competitions is such a strong motivator for escape from poverty and being able to support a family. Psychology textbooks will refer to "intrinsic" and "extrinsic" motivation. Intrinsic motivation is fuelled by a personal enjoyment of the task and extrinsic motivation is more about a desire for reward e.g prize money. It was thought motivation which lies on the spectrum more toward an intrinsic nature is more sustainable and better than extrinsic but if we look at the Kenyan runners and Russian Tennis players money is a huge driving force. When I spoke to some Kenyan athletes, there were certainly some who said they wouldn't train unless they felt they had to and didn't have another option.

When training gets hard, that motivation whether it is extrinsic or intrinsic - the "why" needs to be absolutely solid in your head and in some respects it becomes easier  to answer the more desperate the alternative of not doing it is. If life is comfortable, perseverance, grit and complete commitment to a choice and the sacrifice that comes with it may not be such an easy choice. In other environments, that choice maybe easier to make.

Just a thought.