The power of practice

Shivnarine Chanderpaul stands out as a great Guyanese, joining the long list of sportspersons who escaped the poverty of small-village rural living to conquer the world.

Out of Berbice, Georgetown, Linden we saw cricketers like Carl Hooper, Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai and boxers like Terrence Ali and Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis achieve astonishing world feats.

Chanderpaul stands out because he triumphed out of a poor rural family, his father a humble fisherman at Unity Village. Today he ranks among the top ten batsmen in the world.

Playing this week in his 130th Test match at Providence, he started his cricket career playing ‘bat and ball’ on the sandy shores of the Atlantic Ocean aback his village where his father launched his fishing boat into the ocean.

What is talent? Could anyone of us achieve what Chanderpaul has?

What made this man who he is today? What makes any of us great? Chanderpaul came from a poor fishing village and inspired social commentators such as Ian McDonald and Winston McGowan, who both wrote of him in glowing terms.

How could this poor boy from a small rural fishing village become such a world phenomenon?

Is there a life lesson in his method?

In an interview he gave to the media last week, he pointed out that he works hard at his cricket. He noted that he has maintained disciplined practice throughout his career. He is always practising.

Also, news broke last week that his 14-year old son hit a double century for his club, Gandhi Youth Organization.

What causes such excellence? Is it the Chanderpaul genes? Or is it something we all possess?

Published stories illustrate how Chanderpaul’s father would have him practising early in the morning on the sandy foreshore, and this discipline to practice and practice and practice stayed with him to this day, and sustains him even in this Test match.

This simple idea of practising is what makes ordinary people become great.

Chanderpaul stands among the greatest men in cricket history simply because he spends lots of time practising to bat and play cricket. The same with his son, whose grandfather drives him daily to the cricket ground so he could practice.

Daniel Coyle is an American sports writer who studied high achieving people to find out why some people rise up out of ordinary living to become great. His New York Times bestselling book, ‘The Talent Code’, concludes that “greatness isn’t born. It’s grown”.

Here’s good news for every person in this blessed country: everyone can achieve something of worth and value with his or her life. Everyone can follow the Chanderpaul path. The ‘Tiger’ has shown that it is possible.

We live in the Knowledge Age, which has replaced the Industrial Age. While the Industrial Age saw big machine and specialized labour reduce the individual to a worker unit, the Knowledge Age is opening new doors.

Now, the individual who hones his or her talent and passion, experience and education, specialized skill and unique knowledge conquers the obstacles that keep so many billions of people in the global village in want and need.

So many have written about this new Age of glorious opportunity, open to every individual in our country.

The brilliant economist Peter Drucker said we should aim for our aspirations and not just settle for satisfying our needs and wants. The guru of the Industrial Age, Adam Smith, in his 1776 book ‘The Wealth of Nations’, shaped Mankind’s lifestyle with his idea that all we should do is satisfy needs and wants.

Drucker said humans aspire, and it’s in seeking after our aspirations and dreams that we leap ahead to fulfilling our latent human potential.

Now, new horizons have opened up, so that like the Chanderpaul family of Unity Village, we could all aspire to our dreams, and achieve heady heights of success.

Excuses of this country being too poor, with little or no opportunity, prove futile. Ask Chanderpaul, or the thousands who have escaped the poor rural village trap.

Every human being has some talent, or passion, or unique knowledge, or life experience. Every person on this planet is unique in that respect.

And the secret code to unlocking that latent inner potential is simple: practice, practice and practice.

Each person could develop his or her talent or life experience or knowledge or passion to serve society.

All it calls for is dedicated practice, focused discipline and single minded vision. The vision is seeing in the mind a definite result achieved within a time frame, and working towards that goal.

Coyle deals with many examples in his book, including why Brazil produces great footballers, why Russia produces world class tennis players despite poor facilities, why China is conquering the classical music world. His conclusion? “Deep practice”.

The author deals with the science of how deeply practising one’s passion, skills, talent or knowledge leads to greatness.

The same conclusion came out of the studies of Norman Doidge, whose bestselling book, ‘The Brain That Changes Itself’, details worldwide neurological studies that prove practice as the defining method to shape brain and neuron cells.

In practising and practising and practising, Chanderpaul is shaping his neurons and brain patterns to bat and play cricket. Batting becomes internally embedded in his physical being. He becomes an expert at batting on a cricket pitch. He becomes a great batsman.

And that methodical technique of practising is open to all of us.

This country can become great if enough of its citizens identify their individual talent, passion, skill or life experience, and practise it with what Coyle calls “deep practice”.

Although deep practice works well with master coaching and inner motivation, Coyle plugs practice as the key to “growing skill”.

Chanderpaul would be familiar with the formula as outlined in Coyle’s book:

“1. Pick a target; 2. Reach for it; 3. Evaluate the gap between the target and the reach; 4. Return to step one.”

Chanderpaul achieved his dreams. He practised and developed his talent code. Each one of us, too, can achieve our potential and bring glory to our nation.

All it calls for is dedicated practice at being the person we want to be.

This writer can be contacted at beingshaun@gmail.com