Know The Enemy and Know Yourself – Part III

While slightly more geared towards college-aged athletes playing team sports,i when motorsports coaching legend Ross Bentley offered a “free” Troutwine Athletic Profile (TAP) assessment included with registration for his upcoming webinar, Mindset Training for Drivers, I jumped at the chance to learn more about myself through a new lens. I mean really, can you know yourself too well? Given that it had also been five(!) years since I last took a crack at anything in this vein,ii that I’ve no doubt evolved in the interim, and that I have a newly sparked passion for motorsports, I figured I’d give TAP a shot.iii

Here are my results:

Ryzer TAP Athlete Profile Results - 1
Ryzer TAP Athlete Profile Results - 2

Ryzer TAP Athlete Profile Results - 3

There were a few other accessory results from the assessment but this was the meat and potatoes.iv Long-time readers may not be particularly surprised (or plussed, for that matter) but from these results, a few things stuck out for me:

1. The “Coachability” score is a meaningless result in that it combines Growth Mindset and Attention to Detail. Although I certainly prefer to delegate details in business and for the most part personal life, when it comes to sports, I can dig plenty deep into the weeds thank you very much. Plus, it’s not that I’m not coachable, I’m actually quite coachable, I just don’t go out of my way to seek coaches, because in individual sports, why would you?

2. Still, I could use to improve on my Attention to Detail. Motorsports is actually excellent practise for this because a great week will only have about an hour of seat time. The rest of the week will be spent studying the track, analysing data, reflecting on technique, mentally preparing, physically exercising, coordinating parts shipments, tuning equipment,v and reading forums for new inspiration. As such, track time is clearly more precious and scarce than “course time” or “court time” or even “hill time” were in any of my previous athletic endeavours (golf, badminton, and skiing, respectively). This is therefore the perfect summer to hone my AtD skills because my usually jam packed travel schedule is pretty, pretty, pretty fucking open at the moment.

3. Growth Mindset is such a hilarious cliche that I can’t possibly consider myself an adherent of this “self-motivated” philosophy.vi Some people are just restless and/or have a chip on their shoulder! Still, that’s one dope ass Growth Mindset score, which TAP describes thusly: “Growth Mindset measures how much one believes abilities can be improved through effort. Those with elite levels of Growth Mindset strongly believe that their efforts and hard work will pay off. These individuals consistently take action to make self-improvements.” Basically, no wonder I’m such an anti-socialist!

4. Fuck improving “Conventionality.” Not only is that shit overrated, but somehow this category includes punctuality. Bitch, I’m the most punctual fucking person around!

5. My Focus Speed needs work though. I can’t imagine that spending 3/4 of my life in front of a screen helps but more time on track definitely won’t hurt.vii

6. The average assessee needs to up dat Grit game.viii

7. I don’t even consider myself that Decisive and I frequently have to remind myself to sleep on bigger decisions, preferably for a week or even a month+, because for as much as I like to delay gratification, and I do, I can also tend towards impatience and impulsiveness when I have too much fiat burning a hole in my wallet and too much time on my hands. Thankfully investing ix and blogging clean out a lot of these clogged pipes!

8. I should definitely embrace the underdog position in motorsports, as I do everywhere else.

9. Rules are definitely “rules”.

That’s all for this round. Hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about your humble author. You can take the test yourself here.
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UPDATE 24/06/2020: Here are the aggregated results from the Speed Secrets cohort, including useful comparisons against “Pro” athletes rather than just “College” athletes:

Mindset-Training-for-Drivers-PRINT-2
Mindset-Training-for-Drivers-PRINT-1
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  1. Blech, team sports…
  2. Part I of this series was in 2014, Part II was in 2015, but both of those were based on the Myers-Briggs test, so this is a new kettle of fish, so to speak.
  3. According to Ross, TAP isn’t just a flash-in-the-pan test. Apparently:
    • NFL coach Bill Belichick swears by its effectiveness
    • The Kansas City Chiefs made it part of their organization
    • It’s used by the Navy SEALs

    Good enough for me!

  4. I’ve sent a message to Ryzer requesting the standard deviation metrics for each of the traits, and this point will be updated should they respond with that data.
  5. Ie. coordinating with the half-dozen shops that I task with tuning my equipment, which, yes, once again emphasises how Meds aren’t “White.” Per Taleb:

    To understand the Romans, essential Meds, who shunned doing things themselves but praised builders:

    “Caesar pontem fecit” means Ceasar *had a bridge built* (by others), not “built a bridge” as usually translated.

    Tr. into French would be “a fait bâtir un pont” not “a bâti”.

    Caesar I’m not, but Med I unabashedly am.

  6. While I found Kevin’s Hart‘s first book, “I Can’t Make This Up” to be massively engaging and entertaining, his recent “Growth Mindset” audiobook, “The Decision: Overcoming Today’s BS for Tomorrow’s Success” is way too painfully Protestant for my tastes. Want to be successful, he suggests, wake up at 5am! What the fuck seriously? I sleep 8.5 hours per night on average, Benedikt Taschen sleeps 9-10 hours per night, and Roger Federer sleeps 10-12!
  7. To Ryzer’s credit, for each Trait, there are about a dozen different resources made available to help athletes improve themselves in each area. The resources are clearly aimed at kids in their late teens, but many are still useful for old farts like me.
  8. By how much, it’s not clear, because the “scientists” at Ryzer don’t publish and won’t divulge the standard deviations for theirs results. Hurr!
  9. Speaking of investing, if you’re looking for better insight into the minds of great investors, look no further than Episode 1 of The Portal podcast wherein host Eric Weinstein interviews Peter Thiel. The conversation explores, in no particular order, the justice system, scapegoating, transparency, cultural violence, higher education, American exceptionalism, Judaism in pre-WWII Germany, scientific stagnation, economic stagnation, political correctness, media, and more, all in a scant 2.5 hours. It’s well worth a listen, not least of all because most of the very same topics have been explored (nearly as thoroughly, almost as eloquently, but rarely as calmly) on these very pages. Don’t believe me? Well that’s why archives are a thing. Anyways, go check out The Portal.

    (“But Pete, we don’t have time to read all that, much less absorb, internalise, and reflect on all of it.” Well then, Timmy, you don’t have time to be an investor either. Stick with what you know.)

One thought on “Know The Enemy and Know Yourself – Part III

  1. Pete D. says:

    Updated with Speed Secrets cohort data.

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