Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle, (25) Tip #25, Notes

Post date: Oct 22, 2018 1:18:35 PM

Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle

TIP #25 SHRINK THE SPACE

Smaller practice spaces can deepen practice when they are used to increase the number and intensity of the reps and clarify the goal. Ask yourself: What’s the minimum space needed to make these reaches and reps? Where is extra space hindering fast and easy communication?

• • At FC Barcelona, the method is simple: one room slightly bigger than a bathroom, two players, and one ball—whoever can keep the ball from the other player longest wins. This little game isolates and compresses a vital skill—ball control—by creating a series of urgent, struggle-filled crises to which the players respond and thus improve.

  • Use a version of this idea to teach a baseball team defensive situations (which player covers which base), in a space no bigger than a living room.

  • This tip does not apply to just physical space.

    • Poets and writers shrink the field by using restrictive meters to force themselves into a small creative form—such as with haiku and micro-writing exercises.

    • Comedy writers use the 140-character arena of Twitter as a space to hone their skills.

  • Businesses can also benefit from compression: Toyota trains new employees by shrinking the assembly line into a single room filled with toy sized replicas of its equipment. The company has found that this mini-training is more effective than training on the actual production line.