HAMPDEN Park on Friday witnessed the first event organised by the re-branded Winning Scotland Foundation – formerly the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation – and it provided a large audience, including Frank Hadden, John Collins, Tony Stanger and Lee McConnell, with a memorable introduction to the work of Professor Carol Dweck.
A diminutive, sharp-suited and permanently smiling 61-year-old, who speaks in a languid American drawl, Dweck explained her theories on mindsets. There are two types, she said: "fixed" and "growth". And it is pretty clear that, in a sporting context,
it is the growth mindset – which recognises the value of hard work over fixed, or natural, talent – that is best suited to success.
Dweck was introduced by the Foundation's executive director, Graham Watson, who used the occasion to announce that the 'Winning' game, developed by the Israeli guru Yehuda Shinar, is soon to be launched in Scottish schools. The game can teach children, said Watson, "how to behave like winners and think correctly under pressure".
Winning, as he explained, is what the Foundation is all about, and he criticised the FA for recently declaring their desire to make mini soccer less competitive. "Everybody loses if nobody wins," said Watson.
Then the stage was cleared for Dweck. She began with a Benjamin Barber quote: "I don't divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures; I divide the world into the learners and non-learners", before claiming that work, not talent, is the key. Consequently, she suggested that children could benefit from being praised for working hard rather than succeeding; for the process rather than the end result.
"It's not that everybody can be Michael Jordan," she said, "it's that Michael Jordan wasn't Michael Jordan until he put in years of dedicated effort." The notion of 'natural talent' is a myth, she suggested. "The thing that distinguishes geniuses or great successes is the amount of effort they've put in."
Of course, it is those with the "growth" mindset who are prepared to put in such effort, believing themselves to be a "work in progress," with infinite potential. It could also help explain why so many child prodigies do not scale the heights as seniors. Many of them are so unfamiliar with setbacks and failures that, when they come, they can't deal with them.
The burning question, of course, was, what about us? What is the Scottish mindset – typically, are we fixed or growth? Dweck smiled and refused to be drawn. "We have done studies in different countries," she said, "but not Scotland. In India, China, Japan there is much more emphasis on effort. India is very far over into a growth mindset. European countries do tend to be more fixed."
A PARTICULARLY interesting part of Professor Dweck's presentation was her claim regarding certain top sports people, and her singling out of some who might have "fixed" personalities. Good examples of "growth" personalities, she said, included Tiger Woods, who dismantled and re-built his game after becoming the youngest winner of the US Masters, and our own Chris Hoy, who re-invented himself as an Olympic match sprinter after his event, the kilo, was dropped. Both, said Dweck, are people who don't buy into the notion of "natural" or fixed limits. "The growth mindset," she said, "embraces setbacks and mistakes, and works hard to rectify them."
At the other end of the scale were Sergio Garcia, John McEnroe and another one of ours – Colin Montgomerie. "Monty is distracted by very minor incidents," noted Dweck, "as is McEnroe. If they don't win they deflect the blame away from themselves – McEnroe once blamed a defeat on the static coming from a TV speaker. Woods trains himself for such distractions, he'll have people running out from behind trees to frighten him."
What of the Scots athletes in the audience? Any "fixed" mindsets there? Well, Frank Hadden's body language was fascinating; so, perhaps, was the fact that he seemed to be the only member of the audience who didn't applaud Dweck's presentation.
DURING a question and answer session, chaired by John Beattie and with a panel of Dweck, Alistair Gray, Brian Whittle, Catriona Morrison and Tony Stanger, a particular group was subject to a withering attack from Gray, the founding chairman of the Scottish Institute of Sport, and Whittle. The group in question was Scotland's athletics coaches, or at least some of them.
"If they won't open their minds and take on new ideas then how can they improve?" asked Gray. "We had coaches (at the institute] who wouldn't tell you how fast their athlete was running, because they were 'protecting' their athlete."
Whittle echoed this. "We have lots of knowledge in Scotland but very little that's shared. Lots of coaches are very good at not telling other coaches what they're up to. Former athletes are not asked for their input, and so a lot of knowledge and experience is lost."
Beattie asked if the sub-text to Whittle's argument was that he hadn't been asked himself. "No, I haven't been asked," said Whittle, "but I'm the type of person who pushes my ideas out anyway."
The full article contains 872 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
