Coach Thrasher

Pay Attention!

The WSJ has a really interesting article about How Thinking Can Change the Brain. With the standout quote:

If a skill becomes so routine you can do it on autopilot, practicing it will no longer change the brain. And if you take up mental exercises to keep your brain young, they will not be as effective if you become able to do them without paying much attention.
-WSJ

When I think of this in terms of a skill I'm trying to perfect, does this mean practicing it to the point that I don't have to think about it becomes practicing to the point of complacency? We refer to some skills people have as "second nature" because people seem to perform them without thought. It makes sense, as the article says, that if we "pay attention" to what we're doing, even if it's performed at a high level of expertise, that we can possibly further perfect the skill.

Of course, I have to mention rowing here. I've always thought that it took three years for anyone to really start to row well. It's very defeating to tell a novice that it'll take three years for them to be any good at the sport. There are people who join and make the varsity boat in their first year, but it's not the norm. For people that have been doing it for 10 years or more, did we ever learn anything past those first three years?

At what point did it become second nature, and was that the end of the learning (perfecting)? I'd like to think that it's not. But it makes me think it's time to refocus and pay attention more.

Posted at 04:54AM Jan 20, 2007 by jason in General  |  Comments[1]