Comments on: Stare to Win

By: Siimon Reynolds

Siimon Reynolds — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:44:51 +0000

Great post. You may find it interesting to investigate mirror neurons. A recent discovery, our mirror neurons allow us to learn things just by watching others.
It seems mirror neurons are why ‘staring’ works.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:02:10 +0000

The city we live in has an NHL team that went to the 6th round of playoffs a few years ago and their goaltender absolutely “stood on his head”. That was a year that many impressionable young hockey players made the decision to become goaltenders. Known as the ‘Kipper Phenomenon’,Calgary now has a huge pool of 1996 birth year great young goaltenders.
The next step, I guess, is to understand how to compete successfully in an environment where there has been such a situation.
I look forward to exploring more of the ideas you,Daniel,and your readers present.

Cheers!

By: Hunter Dean

Hunter Dean — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:09:42 +0000

Daniel – So true, when you look at how “Children” learn its exactly the same, and in fact the problem often with them is that we “Adults” disrupt their learning over and over not respecting this state. Turning our kids into the ADHD paradigm we have now, most parents are not even aware with all their rushing around what they’re creating.

Neurolinguistics – Bases much of its modelling work around this kind of learning also!

Any athlete worth their salt is incredible at focusing or going into the “Zone” and staying there, and I’m certain you’re right this started when they “Stared” and experienced others doing these same things years prior.

By: Rod Roth

Rod Roth — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:04:18 +0000

Dan,

here’s what i stare at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/chasingtheswell/.

Thirty minutes of extraodinary big wave surfing and commentary from the surfers about their involvement. I don’t surf anymore, I trade futures. This film, which I’ve watched over twenty times, has everything for me that you talk about. Especially that brilliant flash of motivation. Thanks for another great post.

By: Garnet

Garnet — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:11:11 +0000

Great blog Dan, and it reminds me as a teenager I started playing a lot of tennis. My friend and I kept trying to hit topspin forehands like Bjorn Borg, but we just kept pounding them over the fence. This went on for a number of days, then, as luck would have it, the Wimbledon finals were on with Borg and MacEnroe.

I’d read Timothy Gallaway’s Inner Tennis and remembered how he talked about passive brain learning, or something. So I parked myself 3 feet from the TV and did my best to feel how Borg’s hit the ball while completely blocking out MacEnroe.

I wasn’t watching the game, I was just trying to absorb Borg’s stroke. The next day I had a killer topspin forehand, it was like I’d always had it. My friend couldn’t believe that I could go to bed one day with a lousy shot and wake up the next day with a near perfect stroke(and he wasn’t buying the ‘learning by watching it on TV’).

The crux of it was not memorizing or trying to figure out what he was doing as it is getting the feeling or rhythm of it. In fact, I just remembered this, a buddy of mine was helping me improve my skiing and we’d pick a song and then play it in our heads as I followed him down the mountain, doing my best to move the way he did. It was kind of a stare/feel/mimic routine that we repeated, and it worked wonders on my skiing.

There must be some sweet spot of combining technical understanding and absorbing the rhythm of great performers.

Looking forward to your next post Dan.

By: Renita Kalhorn

Renita Kalhorn — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:10:11 +0000

Thanks for validating my staring habit, Dan.

Similar to Walter, I always play my best tennis after watching one of the Grand Slam finals on TV — doesn’t matter how long it’s been since I’ve played.

There’s something about skipping left-brain processing and going straight to right-brain execution. Watching/staring provides instant motivation, an “I wanna try that” factor, that isn’t so immediate w/listening or reading.

(This concept seems to tie in with TED’s Chris Anderson ideas about crowd-accelerated innovation as well.)

By: vik

vik — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:15:32 +0000

this guy practices some of the ideas you talk about. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704893604576200760299210364.html?mod=WSJ_hp_editorsPicks_1

By: Dale

Dale — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:56:58 +0000

Excellent ideas. There are a couple of videos I watch many mornings.
For mental awesomeness:
YouTube – Everything is Possible Just Train Your Brain – Memoriad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX8mR-x35Pk

For physical awesomeness:
YouTube – Anything’s possible with training… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTEoasnAQWI

By: djcoyle

djcoyle — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:58:28 +0000

Great example, Walter — thanks for sharing that. I am going to steal that technique of yours immediately.

By: Walter

Walter — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:52:06 +0000

How many times have we watched an event on TV as young kids such as the Stanley Cup Finals, Super Bowl or NBA championship game and then right after the game we would call up our buddies and a game would break out on the streets?? I recall watching the NHL Stanley Cup game on TV and the next day at school 12 of us had organized a game on our street right after school. Everyone taking turns mimicing a crazy move that one of the NHL guys had done the day before? Youngesters aspecially watch and love to mimic. As a soccer coach before our practice offically starts kids are booting the ball around. I hang in a corner and do some “free styling” with the ball. Kids often watch and then weeks later i see them still trying to profect those moves. I realize how far they’ve come along since they first tried the moves. Starring is what they do and often that triggers and starts the wheels in motion. I think we are all guilty of that.