The author embarks on a journey trying to find the process behind ones success.

First he
goes to Brazil and tries to find how and why the Brazil produces so many successful soccer players.
The author is making a very strong claim about the process of learning. He is claiming that learning
by doing rather than learning by observing is a better way.
He gives a hands-on exercise (1) in which one side 2 words are written and on other side
one of the 2 words is to be thought by the readers. The conclusion was that the couple of words in
which the reader had to think the word was better recalled the couple of words which were already
written. It shows that the one in which you had to think more were better recalled. The reason,
Bjork explained, resides in the way our brains are built. We tend to think of our memory as a tape
recorder, but thats wrong, he said. Its a living structure, a scaffold of nearly infinite size. The more
we generate impulses, encountering and overcoming difficulties, the more scaffolding we build. The
more scaffolding we build, the faster we learn.

He also gives examples of Brunio who practices the ball feat till he achieves
perfection and Jeanie who practices her singing note similarly. When we see people practice
effectively, we usually describe it with words like willpower or concentration or focus. But those
words dont quite fit, because they dont capture the ice climbing particularity of the event. What

he means to say is that the failure can be invariably the path to success.(2)
He also gives one example of history where this method of learning had a huge impact on
the entire world. He describes the Aircraft Fiasco of 1934. The pilots were dying due to bad
weather and improper training. Later they utilized the Link Aviation Trainer to train the pilots for
flying aircrafts. This not only reduced the numbers of air accidents and death of pilots but also
helped USA during World War II. As the author aptly concludes that The Air Corps pilots who trained
in Links were no braver or smarter than the ones who crashed. They simply had the opportunity to
practice more deeply.(3)
Another example is of soccer training in Brazil. This is what the author had first set out to
find out. The key to Brazils success in soccer was futsal. The author gives the reason how Brazil has
achieved success in following statement, One reason lies in the math. Futsal players touch the ball
far more often than soccer playerssix times more often per minute, according to a Liverpool
University study. The smaller, heavier ball demands and rewards more precise handlingas coaches
point out, you cant get out of a tight spot simply by booting the ball downfield.(4)
The authors point of view on the process of learning and training are very different and can
be used in different fields. Like in medical field, the budding doctors first dissect on a cadaver before

operating on the live body. Just looking at the pictures of the human body would never be enough to
train them.
References:

1. Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code. Page no: 16

2. Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code. Page no: 13
3. Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code. Page no: 24
4. Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code. Page no: 26