unit 10

Look at the instructions for part one you'll hear the information twice you will hear part of a radio interview with an author called Mickey Smith who is talking about becoming excellent at sport choose the best answer AB or C today on the program we have Mickey Smith author of the book the power of practice Mickey in your book you talk about what makes a champion sports person your argument is that talent a natural aptitude or skill doesn't exist right right I know that's controversial because it's thought that people are born with natural abilities I have my critics but the evidence from research I've done backs up my argument if you look at anyone who's reached a high level in any complex task you'll find they've spent many years building up to it this has started other people thinking and doing their own research I've no doubt they'll reach the same conclusions I have what about physical abilities like speed isn't that what makes one footballer better than another for example there are physical issues that are significant in some activities however in virtually all complex tasks the limiting factor is a mental thing people don't become the greatest footballers because they move around the pitch quickly while he may not realize it the way a great footballer understands where his teammates are around him on the field is what helps him score goals rather than speed in your book you also talk about geographical areas where lots of people become experts in the same activity gymnastics for example the town I grew up in produced the top gymnasts of my generation myself included my initial reaction when I got to the top was wow I must have been born with this ability to do gymnastics but what about the others what I now understand is that this excellence was down to having access to a fantastic coach and a seven day a week gymnastics club where we transformed ourselves from ordinary to extraordinary opportunities and other factor determining success your argument is that to become excellent you have to practice for thousands of hours that's a lot of training that's right how successful you are is down to how long you're prepared to work evidence suggests those who make it believe excellence relies on practice if you believe being good at something is down to natural ability when you fail you'll think you don't have enough of it and you're more likely to give up if you believe excellence is about effort when you fail you're going to see it as an opportunity to grow hmm what approach should coaches take when training youngsters in sport the way to go about it is to ensure the child enjoys what they're learning that it becomes an internal desire to progress coaching young people is more about psychology than it is about the technical side of things it's making the young performer really care about where they're going motivating them in the right way that will enable them to actually get there little difference from how you encourage adults really why don't more people who play sport try harder to improve well they see sports stars and assume they were born brilliant but there's no evidence to suggest that you just don't see the painstaking process it took to get them there when they're winning games on your TV screen if you did they're brilliance wouldn't seem so miraculous the illusion is to think they got there quickly and think Oh my goodness I could never get up that slope given everything you've said about top performers why do they sometimes fail at crucial moments that's called choking right yes it's to do with the expectation to succeed no matter how many times they've done it before when you first practice the skill you have to exert conscious control over it when you become proficient you're able to do it subconsciously when you choke you become so anxious that instead of delivering your skill automatically you become conscious of what you're doing and it's like you've never done it before thank you very much

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hello everyone my name is Chris Graham and I spent my last vacation working in Australia the place I was in is a popular tourist spot so there are lots of student jobs advertised in the newspaper from hotel work to being a tour guide I saw my job for a bus driver on the Internet and so I applied I'd recommend you do that too the whole idea of getting to know another country really appealed to me and I'm really pleased I had the opportunity to go I worked for a company which tries to help tourists understand what life used to be like before Europeans arrived a time before clothes cars and electricity many of the local people the Aborigines work for the company studying tourism at university wasn't essential to get the job in fact my subjects history what I did do was a short training course when I first arrived though to learn about the local plants and animals at first I was given a room in a hotel in town but I found that I felt quite lonely so I moved into a caravan on the outskirts lots of other staff lived on the site and I got to meet lots of the local people there too everyone was really friendly and as there wasn't a cinema or restaurant nearby people frequently had a party on Saturday night and it was always invited I worked six days a week and I had to get up really early in the morning when most people and even the birds and animals are asleep this is so the tourists can get to take photos of the sunrise I used to pick them up from their hotels around 5:00 AM and then head out of town and into the desert the tourists were from all over the world and often had no experience of the heat they knew of course about covering their head and neck with a hat but often left their shoulders uncovered which wasn't very sensible especially if they hadn't been in the country for long and weren't used to the sun after we had been into the desert I would take tourists to the local cultural centre where they had the opportunity to ask questions the tourists were especially keen to find out how to distinguish the tracks of Kangaroos from Wallabies and wild dogs after the morning session I usually went back home had shower and arrest then started again around 2:00 in the afternoon I used to take the afternoon group to a water hole where they were shown which plants could be eaten and which were also used to make weapons for hunting at one time there were very few tourists in the particular area I worked in because you needed to get a coach from the small railway station in the nearest large town a good 200 kilometres away there's now an airport but the local government is keen to get one built which can take more flights especially from abroad I'm not sure about that as I think it's busy enough as it is but it would be good for the local economy no doubt about it anyway I really recommend working in Australia during your vacation the busy tourist season in the area where I worked is from may to October so you need to make sure your application is in by either January of the year you're hoping to work you might not hear until March as it takes a while to process the applications and get references but make sure you don't leave it too late