Redefining Genius - In the light of Sam Ruthe

Redefining Genius

I had the overwhelming privilege of watching 15 year old Sam Ruthe run the fastest 1500m for someone his age in the history of ever.

Form the time I was eight years old and saw Bayi, Walker and Dixon run incredibly well – I was hooked on the sport.

Sir John Walker blew my mind by being the first human to run under 3min 50 seconds for a mile. Then he won the Olympic 1500m gold medal in 1976 words genius, talent and giftedness need to be redefined, for the good of children, every field of human endeavour and the inspiration of adults.

Much of the theory on the development of “gifted and talented” children is problematic. Firstly the concept of talent, including IQ, as being fixed. Secondly the emphasis often not about the welfare of children but the gratification of their parents or the benefit of sports institutions, coaches, (or schools). There should also be huge concern about the effects of labelling – both on those included under the labels and those excluded. Most importantly, regardless of the starting point, I cannot find a single example of a human performing at an exceptional level in any field that has not worked extraordinarily hard to get there, been through many struggles, shown great sense of purpose and remarkable resilience.

I got to meet Sir Peter Snell in a trivial table tennis situation. Far more importantly I spent three hours with his coach, Sir Arthur Lydiard, in the late 1990s.

In recent years there has been significant change in our understanding of the human brain and the development of ability. To name of few influential thinkers there is Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck and her growth mindset work, Matthew Syed (Bounce, and now – a children’s book – You Are Awesome) and Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers, David and Goliath). Syed wove his first book, Bounce, around the 10,000 hours concept and has meshed his recent work into Dweck’s mindset concepts.

The ideas are important for every human. They have the ability to develop exceptional skill and knowledge sets but to do so requires guidance, many hours of purposeful practice and opportunities to attempt things and respond to both failures and successes.

At present there is huge concern about the mental well-being of young people and adults. The understanding that abilities are grown over time, that “talent” is developed and is available to us all in some form – is mind-changing for young people and for the enhancement of their opportunities in life. Classroom teachers change from being ability categorisers and brain fillers to genuine developers of aspirational humans. The length of time it actually takes to become good at a complex skill also changes the approach of sports academies. Instead of “talent identification” they can become developers of ability with a much healthier approach to young people. Above all – it gives young people hope about themselves.

If we understand that “genius” is a developed state schools and other institutions should still be providing for young people who already have a high degree of developed ability. There is no down side to this. But in doing so they need to emphasise to the need to keep taking risks, seeing failure as a stepping stone, and eliminate the negatives of labelling. It is about the child not the future of the school or sporting code.

These concepts are inspirational for adults too. If you were told as a child that you didn’t have a musical bone in your body - they were wrong - Syed’s book You Are Awesome tells your inner child so.

Sam Ruthe appears to have the perfect combination of great heritage and very good coaching. Every human has the opportunity to decide if they have done the best with their opportunities.