Speaker Gordon MacKenzie - 'Genius or not?'

President Ewen Allan welcomed members to the Club's weekly meeting in the Best Western Scores Hotel. Member Gordon MacKenzie entertained the company with a talk entitled "A genius or not". He first talked about a Matthew Syed who in 1995 became a UK champion, Commonwealth Gold and Olympic participant at table tennis. He was an ordinary person who triumphed against the odds. His parents had bought a table when he was 8, he played against his older brother but also his primary school teacher encouraged pupils to participate in sport, and as he was a top table tennis coach he trained Matthew. There was formed in the neighbourhood an Omega club for children where they spent long hours practising. Success was gained because of a large group of participants with plenty of encouragement, but the opportunity was necessary and purposeful practice was a key. The question was raised, was natural skill and talent necessary as opposed to dedicated practice to gain success? Gordon gave an illustration where practice was the key feature. A German music college experimented with violinists and extended practice. All had been tutored since age 8. Those practicing over 10,000 hours performed to world class solo standard. Those over 8,000 were superb orchestral players and those over 6,000 became very competent teachers.

There were no exceptions, research proving practice more important than talent. Performance standards have also improved over the years. Some piano pieces by Liszt

were thought practically unplayable when written, but are now in the concert repertoire. The Olympic 100 metres record in 1900 was 10.8 seconds now reduced to 9.58,

Mozart received intensive training from his father at 3 years of age and before he was 6 had received over 3,500 hours. In the world of golf Tiger Woods had been introduced to golf before aged 1 by his father, could hit a ball over 80 yards by the age of 2 and had professional training from the age of 4. Gordon's argument was therefore extensive purposeful practice was the main road to success. After discussion from members David Sandford offered Gordon a hearty vote of thanks.