Change is Possible at Any Age It is always possible to be better; your best performance can be improved upon, no matter what you level of expertise is. In the article Personal Best, Atul Gawande (2011), a surgeon who specialized in endocrinology, talks about how he thought he was at the peak of his career, he had “hit a plateau” and “the only direction things could go from here was the wrong one” (p.1 & 2). He comes to find that with the help of a coach, there is room for growth and greater achievement. Gawande talks about how he came up with the idea of hiring a coach to watch him perform surgery after an experience he had playing tennis. Years of playing the game and not improving, Gawande incidentally finds himself play tennis with a young man who is a tennis couch. The young man gives Gawande a tip about keeping his feet under his body when hitting the ball. At first he is uncertain, stating, “My serve had always been the best part of my game…..With a few minutes of tinkering, he’d added at least ten miles an hour to my serve. I was serving harder than I ever had in my life” (Gawande, 2011, p.3). Gawande is so greatly impacted by this experience that he decides to hire a coach to help him with is professional endeavors. Gawande’s (2011) belief is clearly stated in the …show more content…
At one time it was thought that after a certain age the brain stops growing but, “scientists have recently shown that adults can grow the parts of their brains that control their abilities, such as the ability to do math or even to juggle” (“You Can Grow”). There is no true plateau as Gawande once believed, new connections coming from the neurons which “allows people to think and solve problems” (“You Can Grow”). can be made even later in life. Good strategy and taking on new challenges that are difficult for the individual is the key (“You Can
The road to greatness is a long path filled with struggle and time. Based on research by the best-selling author Malcom Gladwell inside his book Outliers popularized the idea of 10,000 hours of guided practice “the magic number of greatness”(Gladwell, 47). With enough practice he said anyone could achieve any work that of a professional. While some say the 10,000 hour rule is the key to success I believe that success is based on genetics, talent, and time period. It is whether one was born with the talent, achieved it later within life or was born during the wrong time period is what makes a master out of someone. Where the 10,000 hour rule is not a truth.
Atul Gawande’s book, Being Mortal, focuses on end-of-life care for patients in the American healthcare system. Gawande includes evidence along with anecdotes from his own life surrounding his career as a surgeon and his role in helping family members navigate their own end-of-life decisions. Much of Gawande’s argument rests on the premise that while end-of-life care in the American healthcare system is heroic and equipped with the best possible advancements in medicine, it too often fails the patients it is supposed to help. A large part of Being Mortal focuses on the doctor-patient relationship (especially in the context of shared-decision making) and how we often fail to recognize the things that are most important for our elderly in their
The innovations in the material of the tennis racquet — the strings and the frame — have changed tennis throughout the years; thus, fundamentally changing the game by allowing players to hit with more power, spin, and racquet speed. Many star professional tennis players in the past and present use new technology to help take their game to new levels. The change from a wooden racquet to a carbon-fiber tennis racquet and the change from cow gut strings to non-gut synthetic strings have changed the way tennis is played.
Jimmy worked like a demon to make up for the difference. By age 8, Jimmy was skillful enough to enter into tournaments, and he made a good showing in them. Jimmy did not win his first tournament until he was in the ten-year-old competition. The losses only gave him determination and the wins only gave humbleness. Jimmy Connors, a paragon of all sorts, had an unconquerable spirit. Jimmy knew that he had to be himself out on the tennis courts if he wanted to succeed. At times in Jimmy’s career, he was known as a spoiled brat for his cocky attitude. He was often called “mouth”. He had this spirit ever since he was a young boy. Being the smaller kid of his age group, he had to have something to hold onto.
Everyone wants to get better at something, but some want it more than others. In “How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium”, the narrator wants to get better at basketball, so he wakes up everyday at 4:30 to go with his dad to his work. Everyday, the narrator would wait 3 hours in his dad’s car until the gym opened, only to sit on the bench and watch the other men play basketball. Finally, one of the best players, Dante, tells the narrator he can play but he’ll get “smoked”. However, the narrator proved him wrong. The narrator learns that if you persevere, work hard, and have confidence, your dreams may come true. In How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place
A young African-American boy walks onto some rundown tennis courts at a local park with his father in Richmond, VA. Armed with an old wooden racket and a can of white tennis balls, his father begins to feed him some different shots and tells his son everything he knows about tennis. Being an African-American, this young boy did not have many friends that were as interested in tennis as he was. Since tennis is a predominantly white sport, Arthur Ashe’s desire to play was not encouraged by either race, but instead of giving up on the sport he loved, he continued playing to the dismay of many. Little did Ashe know, however, that his persistence would change the game forever. His efforts opened doors for many of the popular African-American tennis players, such as Serena and Venus Williams, MaliVai Washington, and Bryan Shelton. The class that he brought to the game of tennis and the bravery he showed by changing a sport dominated by whites made Arthur Ashe a legend in his own time.
I Grew My Brain After reading the article, “ You Can Grow Your Brain” I can relate this to a time in which I grew my brain. Looking back at my life I believe I have had many moments in which my brain grew. I believe if you're gaining knowledge and practicing new things your brain is growing. For example, when you're a baby your brain is super tiny, but as you start to grow your brain grows within time because you start to experience life and start learning things as you go.
The physical size of the brain changes over time.Regions of the brain continue to mature all the way through a person’s early 20s. In the text “Teens and Decision Making” they had explained that long ago, researchers thought that the brain reaches its maximum size between.
"Brain." Critical Periods of Brain Growth and Cognitive Function in Children. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Brain Development is a nonstop development, we never stop learning so our brain isn’t going to just stop I mean well when it’s our time, but it won’t as long as you continue to learn and grow. The human brain begins to develop as early as three weeks after conception. But our brain development is a lifetime process. It doesn’t just stop developing at a certain age. There is a difference in brain development in children and adults the early life is impressionable then in the maturity aspect of life. This is a positive thing because as children they learn new thing they’re open to new and exciting things but then again it can be negative because children tend to be vulnerable to development problems. Our brain develops not only from nurture
“People are remarkably bad at remembering long lists of goals. One may have learned this at a professional level when trying to get my high-performance coaching clients to stay on track; the longer their lists of to-dos and goals, the more overwhelmed and off-track they got. Clarity comes with simplicity.” As a child he always looked at being able to play or coach a sport at the professional level. For the reason of me just loving the game of Basketball. Also i know it will make an impact on lives because people look up to you and the money in make will give back to communities and change lives around you. The career of a Professional Coach is a challenging and fun career,because of the level of competition and it’s a dream job. The research will describe the career of
Hearing the loud “thump” as the ball hits the racket is extremely satisfying, especially if your life now revolves around this fast-paced and exhilarating sport. Tennis is an outdoor game played by two individuals or pairs of players on a clay or grass court that’s divided by a low net. Each game is played with tennis rackets and small, yellow elastic balls. Tennis was first introduced in Wales and the United Kingdom in 1873 by “Major Walter Wingfield” (tennistheme.com). While most sports are easy to pick up, tennis takes extreme dedication to learn how to play the game, to perfect the amount of technique it takes, as well as its great impact on one’s personal life.
Adults and teachers need to do everything possible to keep physical development from being delayed. Adults can provide children with opportunities to help them in development. By the age of three a child's brain is three quarters of its adult size. From infancy to the age of two development is very rapid (Santrock, 1996). For this reason it is essential for the child to be able to explore their world around them.
The idea that development is considered lifelong has to do with the psychological sense that individuals do not stop encountering situations that can have a potential influence on their development. While infants and toddlers come to mind when generally speaking of learning opportunities, a man or woman in their mid-fifties can still experience events that will impact their development. One’s mentality or behavior does not stop growing at a certain age because there are plenty of chances for development throughout the course of one’s life.
Rapid growth of the brain and nervous system continues during the early years of a child’s life, however because of birth defects or health problems some children may be at a risk of cognitive delays. Problems such as Autism, where children may have a difficult time with language skills and sensitivity to touch, behavioral problems, or chemical exposures can all affect a child’s cognitive development. For most children though with a proper diet and plenty of stimulation cognitive abilities will develop rapidly, and by about 7 years ones cognitive skills have become “functionally related to the elements of adult intelligence.”