Real Change News | How to beat Roger Federer at his own game

September 8, 2010
Vol: 17 No: 37

Arts & Entertainment

How to beat Roger Federer at his own game

by: Thomas Vincent , Contributing Writer

Keep your eye on the ball: With 16 Grand Slam men's singles titles, Roger Federer has been hailed as the greatest men's tennis player of all time. He tries for his 17th Grand Slam at this year's U.S. Open. Photo by Esther Kim, courtesy Wikimedia.org

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BOOK REVIEW: Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the science of success
By Matthew Syed, Harper Collins, Hardcover, 2010, 312 Pages, $25.99

Do you want to know how to achieve excellence? If so, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Matthew Syed’s book, “Bounce.” Let me be clear here. I don’t mean you should reserve it at the library. I don’t even mean you should order it from Amazon and wait a week for it to arrive. I mean you should run out to your local bookstore and buy a copy. Now. It’s that good.

“Bounce” combines the cool analysis of scientific research with the emotional heat of world class Olympic competition, to examine the reasons why some humans achieve greatness and others do not. Though many of the examples it draws upon are from the world of sports, the lessons in the book are applicable across the spectrum of human endeavor.

Drawing on books like Malcom Gladwells’ “Outliers,” Syed begins “Bounce” by tackling the myth that some are simply born to greatness. “We like to think that sport is a meritocracy … but it is nothing of the sort. … Think of the thousands of potential Wimbledon champions who have never been fortunate enough to own a tennis racket or receive specialized coaching.” Syed then takes on the notion that success is the result of some mystical commodity known as “talent.” Citing the evidence of countless studies and interviews with successful people from all walks of life, Syed comes up with the deceptively simple fact that regardless of their natural physical ability, virtually everyone who has reached the pinnacle of their profession has done so only after putting in a shitload of hard work. Or, as he quotes Jack Nicklaus, “Nobody – but nobody – has ever become really proficient at golf without practice.”

Of course Syed is not the first to note that it is only after many years of toil that true mastery of any complex task is achieved. “Bounce,” however, takes the idea one step further. Drawing on his own unique experiences as a world class table tennis champion, the author shows that simply putting in hours (or years) at your craft is not enough to achieve excellence. What really separates the sheep from the goats is the quality of the practice and the mental attitude one brings to the effort. Not only do professionals work more hours than most amateurs, they also get more out of each practice session. How? By getting the feedback that comes from working on things they can’t do. And while attempting the impossible — and failing — may not do much for the ego, as Syed shows, it is the only way to truly improve. “Author Geoff Colvin has estimated that Shizuka Arakawa of Japan, one of the greatest skaters of all time, tumbled over more than twenty thousand times in her progression from five-year-old wannabe to 2006 Olympic Champion. ‘Arakawa’s story is invaluable as a metaphor,’ Colvin has written. ‘Landing on your butt twenty thousand times is where great performance comes from.’”

Perhaps the most compelling chapter in the book deals with one of our culture’s stickiest myths surrounding athletic success: race. For example, on the commonly held notion that black people are somehow better at distance running than white people, the author notes that 90 percent of successful Kenyan distance runners come from within a 60-mile radius around a single small town. The author concludes, “Seen in this context, the theory that ‘blacks’ are naturally superior distance runners seems not merely dubious but bizarre. Far from being a ‘black’ phenomenon, or an East African phenomenon, or even a Kenyan phenomenon, distance running is actually a Nandi phenomenon (a Kenyan province) focused on the town of Eldoret.”

The book covers a remarkably broad range of aspects of achievement, from coaching techniques and positive reinforcement to the structure and chemistry of the brain. The author even dives into the turgid waters surrounding issues of genetics and the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Though its tone is scientific, however, at its heart, “Bounce” is a decidedly humanist work. Throughout the book, the author returns to his central theme: namely that success depends less on things like genetics, which are largely outside our control. Instead, excellence in complex tasks is directly related to one’s mindset and the quality of the effort one puts into achieving success. As the author demonstrates again and again, scratch the surface of any success story — even those of gifted prodigies such as Mozart, Gates, or Woods — and you will invariably find their achievements depend less on their “talents” and more on the thousands of hours of quality practice they have put in to become great at what they do.

Despite a rather mystifying single word title (which according to chatroom gossip was added by the publisher long after the book was finished) “Bounce” is a resoundingly successful first outing for the author. The book is nothing less than a roadmap to greatness that even a sightless man with no fingers could use. Insofar as you are willing to shed your preconceived notions and change your attitudes about the roles talent or genetics or race play in determining achievement, Syed’s wonderful book can help to put you on the path to success. Like the old saying about how to get to Carnegie Hall, the directions to greatness are equally simple.

As to how to get to your local bookstore: There, I’m afraid, you are on your own.

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