Mr Lange was the mentor to coaches of many different countries for the past 17 years such as Thailand and Indonesia; he produced multiple SEA Games Gold Medalists and World Champions (with World record in 5000m); is in charge of various sports development projects all over the world and published numerous research papers on sports and exercise science and training methodology.
Information and image taken from: http://www.singaporeathletics.com/singapore-news/gunter-lange
Today, I attended a talk by Mr. Günter Lange (pronounced as goon-ter, lung-er), a renowned German expert on the field of coaching, especially in Track and Field. His talk was focused on the topic “Early Specialization versus age and development”. It was rather insightful and it made me wonder a lot about what he told us. Also, it made me relate the things that he spoke about to the topic of art.
Students should not specialize in a certain fixed field from a young age. To think about the events that he or she might possibly do would probably come in at a much later date. I agree to full extent on what he mentioned about nurturing athletes rather than runners. A runner is someone who is simply able to run, run and only run; while an athlete is someone who possesses the knowledge and skills when it comes to track events or even in games and is able to apply them as well.
side note: An athlete should be knowledgable, and educated about trainings and coaching- things involving him or her. This knowledge not only helps them to better understand their trainings, they also help the athlete to be exposed and aware of the various opportunities for improvements.
In the context of art, likewise we should not undergo early specialization in what field of art that we undertake, what type of subject matter we should focus on, what kinds of medium we should specialize in. Like running, there isn’t an easy way out. It is a long, life-time journey that one needs to go through for her development. The process is ever-changing and there is no fixed solution to the various problems. It is something free for discussion, open to new boundaries and solely self-exploration. This is how we actually surprise ourselves when we achieve things we never thought we could. Also, we should not be nurturing ourselves to be people who create art for the sake of making it but rather people who do art because they simply enjoy it and attempt to use it as a tool for self-expression.
In the Q&A session, a primary school teacher asked Mr. Lange, on what is he is able to do to improve and probably change his P.E. lessons in such a manner that it would enrich his students the most (aged 8 or 9 and above till the teens). Mr. Lange replied that students should be given various opportunities to experience everything and anything. Not only should they try out track or field events such as running, throwing or sprinting; they should also try out various other sports such as volleyball, tennis or netball. Or even, instruments! Also, there should be important emphasis put into skills taught to the students at a young age. Skills come in different forms and it is of great significance that the students are not only confined to the walls of the track events and forced to only run or hurdle for all the various skills of other sports are likewise important in nurturing him or her to be a better athlete. A fine example would be the act of catching a ball when someone passes it to you. Such simple actions would help to enhance one’s coordination of the eye and the hands.
This instantly made me relate it to art, especially in the basic skills in practical that we do to improve ourselves. Despite all the things that we regard now to be our ‘style’, our ‘personality’, our ‘self-identity’; they are all subjected to change. Without opening oneself to broader perspectives, wider range of choices and experiences, we would never push ourselves to the maximum limit that we can achieve or discover. As such, freedom to explore is important. Likewise are skills. This is the blunt reason why certain assignments or practice are tailored in such a manner that we learn to copy and imitate from the Masters. To improve our most basic skills in terms of drawing or painting, we do corrections; learn from them, practice and practice. Some may easily disregard such efforts and refer them to being pointless. However, these basic skills serve as our foundations and are what allows for more change and possibilities in the future. Like what I have once heard in a documentary video, “There’s no vision without technique”.
It is interesting how art relates to my everyday life, when things start to link up on its own. How interesting it may be when art presents itself in a totally different form during different occasions.
