It’s time to revisit the mother of skill – this time in the world of skateboarding.
Jonny Giger is – according to some – the best flat ground skater in the world, and by any measure very, very good (here’s a good sample).
What I like about JG is that he makes it look easy, but shows and tells us – over and over – that it isn’t.
In this raw version of the video above, we see him repeat tricks over and over until he sticks them.
And in another really fun series (sample embedded below) he recreates classic tricks by skate legend Rodney Mullen – including a couple of tricks that only two or three skaters have been documented completing in nearly thirty years.
So in the videos we see Jonny, pro skater with fifteen years of experience, breaking the tricks down into baby steps and taking several days – and in one case over a thousand practice attempts – before he succeeds.
Conclusions:
- Skateboarding is hard.
- Jonny Giger is a pro because he practices…
- … and he practices because he’s a pro.
- Practice brings the impossible closer.
More posts on practice and excellence:
Gravity Bites
The Practice School
Anders Ericsson on deliberate practice
The Mundanity of Excellence (1); (2); (3)