Critical Review of Daniel Coyles The sweet spot Coyle explains how he sets out on his journey to uncover

the mystery of talent. His exploration is across various locations and across various disciplines from music to sports. His observation based on anecdotal evidence is that certain common features delineates the talented stars from the others. One of them is deep practice. In simple terms the concept of deep practice refers to aiming at a point just above our present ability and trying to reach that point. Identifying a benchmark and exceeding it on a constant basis serves to enhance our skill. Coyle says his journey began at a ram-shackle tennis court in Moscow, and a handful of other places so small, humble, and accomplished that a friend dubbed themchicken wire-harvards. Deep practice according to Coyle has a substantial impact on the velocity of skill acquisition compared to regular practice. Coyle draws on various evidences to explain that achieving anything involves struggle and failures. He finds that a talented person is always engaged in one activity that is special or surprising. Deep practice is the best way to achieve success. Slowing down, finding out errors and then correcting them is the way to progress. A person has to know the gap between what he knows and what he is trying to do. Taking risks and making mistakes is part of deep practice. Deep practice involves going beyond just using technique and working on the troublesome shots. He takes many examples to illustrate his point starting with the analogy of a deer in the ice mountain striving to climb the hill. The deer fails at first but builds up its skill till it becomes a part of its nature. Coyle takes the example of Brazilian soccer team as an evidence to prove that the practice helps the team to become the worlds best player. Each and every player had a kind of concentrated talent. Brazil produces great players because they have trained in a particular way , with a particular tool that improves ball-handling skill faster than anywhere else in the world. They have found a way to increase their learning. Bjork who is the chair of psychology at ULCA, resides the way our brain is built. He says By overcoming all difficulties we will be more scaffolding(more systematic), we build and faster we will learn . Apparently the term sweet spot is a misnomer, as facing an obstacle is not exactly sweet. The concept of learning from mistakes is not new but Coyle highlights how exactly it helps in bringing out talent. Later on his book he discusses the point that the process works because the same is hardwired into the brain by the process of myelination1. Coyle has many sub-claims (smaller arguments). He takes the examples of small things like memory test. He gives one small test to remember few words that are written in column A and B. Coloumn A has few words and column B has blank letters to be filled up. After reading that and filling letters we tend to remember the

words from Coloumn B. while doing this exercise I stumbled, stopped and figured out the words that needs to be filled. . That is because the memory is more when we start practicing things. Coyle says that there is a micro second struggle and this has made a huge difference. He says that in this exercise a person will not practice harder but practice deeper. The memory improves, but simply because of deep practice. Coyles essay assumes that nurture trumps over nature and Coyle is not too far wrong in making this assumption. In Social intelligence, Daniel Goleman points out that critical personal experiences in our lives seem to set biological rheostats that fix the leve l of activity for genes that regulate brain function 2 . Rather than rely on crystal balls to determine talent, the best way is to identify those with a passion and help them in bringing out the best.

1. Coyle, Daniel, The deep practice cell, The Talent Code, pp 30. 2. Coleman, Daniel, Genes are not destiny, Social Intelligence (Bantam books), pp 152