Book Review: Bounce, the myth of talent and the power of practice

Do you want to race as well as Ben Ainslie?

It sounds impossible, super human performance out of reach to us lesser mortals, but this book by Matthew Syed shows how it could be achieved.

Alas the starting point for the über athlete is childhood, so if those days are a dim memory you're going to be disappointed.

The key task is practice and lots and lots of it. The expert (for its not just about sport) typically has 10 years practice or maybe as much as 10,000 hours.

Its also got to be the right sort of practice, the sort that stretches you outside your comfort zone. As important is feedback, to learn from mistakes, and often these two come from being part of a small highly competitive group.

Motivation is also key, to keep going and it helps if practice is not a burden but a pleasure. As an example the author notes how a top skater could have fallen as many as 20,000 times, but every time she picked herself up and kept going.

One important lesson is to praise effort rather than natural skills. In an experiment by Carol Dweck in 1998 students were split into two groups and give a test. Afterwards one group was told "you must be really smart" and the other "you must have worked really hard" and then asked if they wanted to do an easy or difficult task.

The results were dramatic with the first group choosing to do the easy one, fearing to do badly and hence found out as not smart while the latter more likely to rise to the challenge and choose the harder. In addition when given another test those given the smart compliment scored 20% lower while the workers scored 30% higher.

Matthew Syed is clearly one to favour nurture over than nature, arguing that our minds are sufficiently plastic to learn almost anything.

That is great, as it means anyone could excel; but it is also sad, because so many don't.

Towards the end the book flags a bit and I did wonder whether information that didn't fit the story had been excluded (e.g. given two groups which both had practised equally wouldn't there even be the possibility of genetic factors influencing who wins?).

However its a great read, in particular for those that involved in training or motivating the young.

New boat on the Thames

I've seen many boats on the Thames but not this one.

Further down the river HMS Ocean has squeezed its way through the Thames Barrier. Meanwhile up in the skies there are meant to be some mean flying things too - but its been cloudy so I haven't seen any of those Typhoons.

Pre Olympics it's hotting up in London town, except weather wise its rather cold.

Blogging the Olympics - or not?

This summer is of course the Olympics and I have a couple of tickets to the sailing.

It will be great to see the world's best sailors compete together on home waters (and hopefully see blighty win a few more golds) and then blog about it afterwards - or so I thought.

Apparently the following warning is being printed on all Olympic tickets:

"Images, video and sound recordings of the Games taken by a Ticket Holder cannot be used for any purpose other than for private and domestic purposes and a Ticket Holder may not license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the Internet more generally."

Wow - that's really restrictive and backwards looking.

London is a tech centre, home of start-ups & media friendly, and the mobile operators are already boasting how much 3G coverage the Olympic site will have (and reminding everyone that Beijing only had 2G) explicitly to support Facebook and blog updates.

There have already been signs of back pedalling with Olympic organisers admitting that:

"The internet has changed the world and we’re not going to be silly. But the reality is that we live in an Internet world where Facebook downloads and uploads are happening every day of the week and there’s not much we can do about it."

Anyhow I'm going to go ahead on the grounds that reading the restrictions with a fine tooth comb the issue is mostly with sound and video while for photography it simply mustn't be commercial.

As you might have noticed this blog is advert and hence revenue free so there'll be no commercial gain, but it does seem a bit ridiculous.

This is meant to be the big world-coming-together-unifying event but we're not meant to communicate about it.

That's just crazy.

Ben Ainslie is Covent Garden

One of the icons of London is the fantastic underground network map, originally designed in 1931 by Harry Beck.

Another aspect to London is of course the 2012 Olympic Games, so put the two together and you get the TfL Underground Olympic Legend Map.

Appropriately water sports have got the blue coloured Piccadilly line, and you can see legends like Steve Redgrave (Knightsbridge) and Russell Coutts (Russell Square - a nice touch that).

And in the centre at Covent Garden is Ben Ainslie.

Get your copy here.


Graphic from: TfL site here.

Olympic rings on the Thames

Yesterday I was on my way between meetings (*) when I saw these five interlinked rings on a barge on the Thames by the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

Not just that there was also a helicopter circling overhead and the fire boat was pumping two lovely arcs of water over the scene. Alas I was slightly out of iPhone camera range so I decided to proceed directly to the second meeting (**).

By the time the second meeting had finished (***) alas the barge and its rings had disappeared but one didn't have to be a rocket scientist to work out what it might all mean.

Apparently they were due to start at Battersea Bridge but plans were cancelled due to "tidal flow". Ah, if only there had been a way to predict these things in advance!



(*) ok maybe one meeting and a "networking opportunity"

(**) ok, ok, this was indeed held in a pub by the river

(***) after much useful work was discussed, honest!



Photo from: Metro web site

The Boat Project

As O'Docker correctly identified, yesterday's picture was of "The Boat Project".

This is an art installation / boat being constructed as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad from 1,200 pieces of wood donated by the public, each piece meaning something to the giver.

It might be the drums sticks of a band, the hairbrush from the father who worked at Pinewood Studios, parts of HMS Invincible, a cribbage board, teak packing board from China, fragments of Brighton's West Pier, part of Jimmy Hendrix's guitar ..... the list is nearly endless.

Together they tell a story, a patchwork quilt of wood of the people of Britain. The boat is at present unnamed but you can vote from a short list on the boat project's web site.

She'll be launched on the 7th May and then make her way along the south coast of England stopping at places like Brighton and Portsmouth before reaching London.

London Surrey Cycle Classic

As part of the preparations for next year's Olympics they are running a test event of the road cycle competition.

This clip is of the pack crossing Putney Bridge on the outward leg - hence it is very short as they are all clumped together. The following train of support vehicles was much longer!

Anti-seagull Olympic falcon gets an eyeful

It seems that Aeolus and the Olympic sailing team have a common enemy - seagulls.

Those flying pests have been doing their dumps all over our boat's nice clean decks and this sailor remembers all to well discovering green mess on his hands.

Our solution was nets and shiny CDs (including one of Des O'Connor ... shiver....) tied on to a line but the GB Olympic team has gone one further and employed a falcon.

Alas it seems the falcon has seen more than it should.....

One year to Olympics

Yes the 2012 Olympics are now just a year away and these great rings have appeared in the majestic St. Pancras Station.

This building is an absolute wonder of Victorian gothic architecture and the main building has recently been superbly restored as a hotel.

This is a rather abstract view of the main staircase:

Winning ticket - sailing

The Olympics 2012 ticketing process is grinding forward with relentlessness of a glacier rather than speed of a 100m sprinter.

The latest for those of us that a) applied for tickets and b) saw something get debited from our accounts, is that we now know exactly what we're going to see in just over a years time.

And there's no kayaking for me as it's sailing all the way, with one official ticket for Weymouth from the UK authority and not one but two more from a web site across the water in Germany.

Nothing yet for any of the sports hosted on the main Olympic site here in London, which is a bit of a shame. But then again our sailing team has a good track record in winning medals.

Go Team GB!

The best way to see the world is from a boat

It's a showery Saturday here in London and so the BBQ on Whitstable beach I was going to has been called off. Probably just as well as it's been rather a hectic week that including more or less crashing a memorial service packed with real Lords and Ladies where one of the readings was given by none other than the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Right Honourable George Osborne, MP (long story).

So it was quite nice to have a lazy day reading the papers and there was a good crop of sailing related articles. First up was The Independent's "My Life in Travel" with TV presenter Dan Snow in which he declared that "the best way to see the world is from a boat".

Very true, though he might well have been put off sailing due to a nasty early experience. Apparently his first holiday memory was sailing with his father Peter Snow (also a TV presenter) in which he was literally tied down to the boat when it encountered a south westerly gale in the Solent.

Then on to the FT which had a special how to spend it boating edition (not available online). Mostly this is an eye opening insight into the upper price bracket's options, where entry level means a 30m waterline and the only thing in my budget were cuff links at £185 (but no, not tempted).

However there was an interesting article on the British Olympic sailing team, and the attention grabbing statistic that the UK's 2,100 sailing clubs are more than the whole of Western Europe. Go team GB!!

Finally in the main FT there was an article on role of the tactician. This being the FT the example they give is the Olympic sailor hired by the owner of the 29m Wally yacht Magic Carpet2 (above) - but even he started in an Optimist.

Apparently 85% of Olympic sailors started on Optimists, but impressive though that is, and while they are in my budget, alas think I've got big for them in too many ways.

The Olympics Ticket Lottery

Those of us who applied for tickets to the London 2012 Olympic Games found out today whether we'd been allocated any - but not, it must be emphasised, exactly which sports and which days. All you actually know is the amount of money that has been taken from your credit card, for even though the games are still over a year away you must cough up now.

It's fair to say there's been quite a bit of grumbling all the way up to the Mayor of London, Boris, who made a big point of announcing how he's won none (ignoring the fact that as host Mayor he's guaranteed a ring side seat).

Of the 6 tickets I applied for I've won just the one, which judging from the price could be either kayaking or sailing. The popular events of opening / closing ceremonies and 100, 200 and 400 m finals were hugely oversubscribed, though there is the story on the BBC of someone that only applied for 4 tickets to the 100 m final and got them. But that's a story because it is rare .... very, very rare.

To get an idea of the scale that some were prepared to go, one man put in an application for over £ 36,000 pounds worth of tickets, and ended up with a bill for £ 11,000 - but still doesn't know what's he's won.

The way it worked was that over a set time period you could enter your application for tickets to the events you wanted to go to. For those that were oversubscribed - such as the 100 m final, for which a million applications were received - there was a lottery. As most applications were for popular events (er.... ) the result was much disappointment, and as mentioned, a fair amount of grumbling.

Some complained about the complexity - though having some experience in what auction design economists can come up with my feeling is it could have been a lot worse - but where I would agree is that you should be told straight away what you've been allocated. After all it must be the case that some big Olympics 2012 computer does know who has what.

The organisers are playing it slow, saying there'll be a second phase in the weeks ahead which will be first come first serve for the unallocated tickets, so there's no rush. But they are wrong.

What they forget is this thing called the web and another thing called the European Single Market. You'd have thought someone would have told them about it, because there are other sources of tickets other than the UK 2012 Olympics organisation, and anyone with a credit card can go to their web site and because of the European Single Market they can not refuse your business.

While you won't find tickets to the 100m final (alas) you can pick up many other tickets. It would be a lot easier if I knew exactly what I'd won and which day, but given this is a once in a lifetime event its worth having a plan B.

Interestingly my gut feeling on hearing I'd won either sailing or kayaking tickets was to hope its sailing (sorry Bonnie) so just to be on the safe side I got two more tickets to Weymouth. I might even have another look when the second tranche are made available.

The only thing better than having a plan A plus plan B is to have plans A, B and C!

White water ready for 2012

Another venue is ready for the 2012 Olympics, this time the white water canoe and kayaking centre in the Lee Valley.

Looks rather a lot of fun and got the BBC presenter in the clip on this page well and truly soaked. Its just a shame its about as far from Putney as you can get and still be in London.

However more importantly, this is the last weekend to apply for tickets and I haven't worked out which ones to go for.

Thinking caps on....

Olympic ticket choice

As a distraction from the horrors from Japan, the Olympic 2012 web site is now open for ticket applications.

The way it works is that over the next 6 weeks applications are collected together and if demand exceeds supply then there's a ballot. So you might get nothing - but should you apply for lots the danger is you could end up winning them all.

But the question remains - what to apply for? Above is a screen grab from the site at http://www.tickets.london2012.com/homepage (apologies relying on iPad at the moment to blog).

Sailing of course, but which class? And what else - athletics is likely to be popular, as will be beach volleyball (for some strange reason), or canoeing, biking (UK gold target).... or?

What would you apply for?

Olympic sailing for £55

Sailing is an expensive sport, we all know that. Just look at how many zillions it costs to win the America's Cup - or indeed find enough goodies to tempt the winner to hold it in your city.

But to see the Olympic 2012 Sailing Final will cost you the punter merely £55 and you can get a view of the preliminaries for just £20!

Actually slightly puzzled by the concept here of final - surely there will be multiple races with points and discards and stuff - this isn't like the 100m. Maybe they mean last race, though that could indeed be the decider for medals.

Rowers will have to have deeper pockets - up to £ 150, but that's what you get hosting them in Eton.

However to put things in context the athletics "super-finals" (they mean the 100m) will be a whopping £750, though that is nothing compared to a ticket for the opening ceremonies of up to £ 2012 (geddit!)

Full list here, so register now as the tickets go on sale in March 2011.

Book Review: Close to the Wind

A confession: I actually read this book earlier this year but some how the time wasn't right to blog. So this review has had time to what we could call settle in my mind (rather than fade).

While an autobiography, authorship is shared between Ben Ainslie and a Nick Townsend and I did wonder what that meant. It does sound like Ben's voice, so I'm guessing he was interviewed by Nick who then transcribed what was said, tidied it up, and generally structured it as a book.

The book certainly works overall, telling Ben's story from lad sailing in an Optimist, through the Olympic years with the Laser and Finn classes, to Sydney to Holberts and the America's Cup.

It is of course an incredibly impressive list of sailing achievements, and there is enough of Ben's character on display to get an understanding of the relentless drive that pushes him to train endlessly and to dig deep even when exhausted and ill to get that vital point. Remarkably at the Beijing Olympics he had a bad case of glandular fever - for which as a past sufferer he has my sympathy.

The first chapter starts with that famous duel when he won the gold at Sydney by pinning Robert Scheidt to ensure he didn't come in the top 21 boats. It was a ruthless display that led to a lot of bad words both on and off the water. It was the sort of professional take no prisoners that is the opposite of the gentlemanly do the right thing of more traditional sailors. But it works, and at that level there is no doubt the opposition won't be pulling their punches.

And you can tell Ben remembers that, whether a protest, insult across the water or sneaky tactic. He certainly remembered how the BBC played a bad trick on him by broadcasting an unflattering clip of him during Sports Personality of the Year (as blogged here).

Reassuringly there are also some grade A cock-ups, including being in the wrong helming the 100 supermaxi Leopard during a start of the America's Cup Jubilee Regatta in 2001 which led to the pranging of the 80 foot Morning Glory owned by SAP billionaire. Even our "greatest Olympic sailor" does sometimes get it wrong, spectacularly wrong.

At the end he repeats that truism that he "will never stop learning" which reminds me of another: that he "has probably forgotten more about sailing that I've ever learnt."

A truly remarkable sailor and a good book to get an insight into sailing at that level.

Congratulations Rio!

Many congratulations to Rio de Janerio for winning the race to host the 2016 Olympics.

Seeing the official video (above) made me go slightly glassy eyed and nostalgic, remembering my trips to that fabulous city and dig up old photos.

A city that has the spectacular scenery of Sydney, the energy of New York, and music of Chicago all wrapped up into one deserved to win.

Of course the city has its problems - in the conference that brought me there first time there were 6 muggings between the 120ish delegates.

But I wasn't one of them, and had instead a fantastic time.

So maybe I should find a way to get involved in the 2012 games & help bring London and Rio closer together!

Blown Away at the gallery@oxo

Another day, another meeting, but this time with a twist - no one had any sailing connections.

But fortunately the office was just round the corner from the gallery@oxo where there was the "Blown Away" exhibition.

This showed the work of top photographer Robert Wilson who was commissioned to capture Britain's top Olympic sailors at the 2012 Weymouth and Portland sailing centre.

A good day to talk about the Olympics, and well worth dropping in for a viewing on the South Bank between now and Sunday.

For those for whom central London isn't convenient this weekend worry not - you can see it all on-line by clicking here.

Power to the Paddlers - part 2

After the previous post "Power to the Paddlers!!" Bonnie asked the very good question what does the British Canoe Union have to say about the issue of gaining access to rivers in England that are currently inaccessible as privately owned?

The answer is that of course they feel very strongly about it and are part of the River Acccess campaign, which have their web site here.

At this point Scottish paddlers feel smug as the law there permits kayakers and canoeists access to all navigatable rivers. And it is interesting to note that the River Access campaign is formally funded by Canoe England, one of the constituent bodies of the BCU.

We seem to get back to the strange fact that the United Kingdom is not always as united as some might like. It reminds me of the strange tale of how the UK's football team at the next Olympics - held of course in London - will be an English team without representation from the other constituent "nations".

The 2012 games are however one reason I will accept for denying access to our waterways. Apparently parts of the River Lea, which feeds into the Thames in docklands opposite the Dome, go through the Olympic site, and so for security reason are closed to all traffic from now until 3 years hence.

Except of course Gryff Rhys Jones who with the power of the BBC behind him got a guided tour (above), though he wasn't allowed to take his canoe or even his faithful friendly dog, Cadbury.

Another thing I learnt at the River Access site was that September 27th is World Rivers Day!

Put it in your blog post diary now.

Three blonds in a boat - in a Ferrari

After the "How do they do it?" on C5 there was the car program "Fifth Gear" which had the three blonds in a boat who got the Gold in the Yngling class racing against each other in a Ferrari F430 Scuderia.

Normally the main reason for watching is Vicki aka VBH (funnily enough a friend of a friend) but it was quite fun watching Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson go round the race track.

You should be able to watch it here.