Serendipity and Learning

The Indian team went to South Africa and had a tough time. This was not the first time. This has been a debate for 30 plus years now. Why doesnt the Indian team not perform well on overseas pitches? The answer is simple. There is no practice. There is no skill building. This answer is also nothing new. How does one build a new skill? By putting onself out there, trying, failing, learning, unlearning, relearning and finally bit by bit climbing the ladder of skills. So, if the team has to be play on fast bouncy pitches abroad - they need to play on fast bouncy pitches at home. And that means, when the next generation of kids grow up, they need to learn to play on fast bouncy pitches. In theory, all it means is to have every alternate match to be played on a different pitch. And you do this over a generation - even 5 years, you have a battle ready team. Cut to business. If you need to learn to handle a difficult conversation like a pro, you have to practice doing it. Simply becau...

Much has been written about the Indian cricket team and how one respected coach resigned (or was asked to resign) and how another one has taken over. There are reams written about it elsewhere on the mechanics of it, but here is my two cents on how this can play out. Think of a business. That is doing very well today. And like all businesses, it is caught in its own narrative fallacy - of how its business model, its mode of working is indestructible - until the nimble competitor knocks its socks off. This can happen to businesses, sports persons, teams, individuals - anyone who doesn't take life (or work or anything else) as a continuous developmental effort. Also known as hubris. Sometimes from the leadership. Sometimes as a culture. Whatever the reason, any business or individual or team who is complacent to believe that they are good enough will soon be knocked off their pedestal. For the cricket team - they are on a high now. The coach is expected to work with the team t...

In general, we hold rote learning with utter disdain. Add it to the context of the Indian education system and everybody tells you that rote learning is bad. But is it so bad? Take the example of sports coaching. You hit a million shots or punches or balls - whatever that is - ultimately you are getting those drills to move from conscious competence to unconscious competence. And that is exactly what rote learning does. So, if rote learning is bad, so should sports coaching as well? The IIT coaching classes that are a rage today do exactly the same thing. Make the person go through so many drills so that the end of the few years, they are 'experts' just by virtue of having done the same thing so many times that it is internalised. So, is the disdain for rote learning a disdain for effort? Or is it a slightly more nuanced position. I suppose the answer that you will get if you put the above hypothesis is that, well, our learning is a lot of rote but with very little bui...

Arguably, the greatest show on earth, the London Olympics 2012 has come to an end. Until the next edition in 2016, Rio De Janerio Brazil, all will be quiet -for people like you and me, the armchair viewers and keyboard experts though. It is anything but quiet for those aspiring to be there in 2016. Those athletes who will make a mark in 2016 are likely training each day in quest of that elusive gold medal. There are a few from 2012 who will be around in 2012, but a big chunk of them will be new. They will spend the next four years doggedly in pursuit of that goal. They will rise in the morning, focus themselves and get into training. Day and day out. For the next four years – perhaps exceeding 10 hours each day. That will roughly give them 10,000 hours of practice just in the next four years. And most likely, these athletes, sportspersons would have already reached that 10,000 hours milestone multiple times in their lives already. And each 10,000 hours they will perfect one more nuanc...

When you train under a pro, the way they teach you is different. Especially, if you are going to learn something as a pro that you have already played as an amateur. If you are learning for the first time, there is no unlearning or what you typically want to call as instinctive.But if you have played the game before, a long time goes off in erasing those bad habits and learning the new way. The new way, or coach way you will observe in most of the games is all about technique. Each day you have to go through a warm up, a few routines, learn a few things and then try it out and see if you can bring it all together. They key here is learning those techniques and replacing those old methods with these new methods until it becomes "instinct". At that point, you will always, no matter what, not run to pick the shuttle in the court, but take steps. You will, no matter what, keep your guard up, not down. Your footwork will, no matter what, never let you down. How does that happ...