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If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in 2006's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk:

如果你打算在 2006 年世界杯锦标赛上调查所有足球运动员的出生证明，那么你很有可能发现一个引人注目的巧合：

elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months.

优秀足球运动员更可能出生于每年的前几个月而不是后几个月。

If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this strange phenomenon to be even more pronounced.

如果你接着调查世界杯和职业比赛的欧洲国家青年队的话，那么你会发现这一奇怪的现象甚至更明显。

What might account for this strange phenomenon?

什么可以解释这一奇怪的现象呢？

Here are a few guesses: a) certain astrological signs confer superior soccer skills;

下面是一些猜测：a）某种占星术征兆使人具备更高的足球技能；

b) winter-born babies tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina;

b）冬季出生的婴儿往往具有更高的供氧能力，这增加了踢足球的持久力；

c) soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania;

c）热爱足球的父母更可能在春季（每年足球狂热的鼎盛时期）怀孕；

d) none of the above.

d）以上各项都不是。

Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University, says he believes strongly in “none of the above.”

58岁的安德斯·埃里克森是佛罗里达州立大学的一名心理学教授，他坚信"以上各项都不是"这一猜测。

Ericsson grew up in Sweden, and studied nuclear engineering until he realized he would have more opportunity to conduct his own research if he switched to psychology.

在瑞典长大的埃里克森，一直研究核工程，直到他认识到，如果他转向心理学领域，他将会有更多机会从事自己的研究。

His first experiment, nearly 30 years ago, involved memory:

他的首次试验是在大约30年以前进行的，与记忆相关：

training a person to hear and then repeat a random series of numbers.

训练一个人先听一组任意挑选的数字，然后复述这些数字。

“With the first subject, after about 20 hours of training, his digit span had risen from 7 to 20,” Ericsson recalls.

"在经过大约 20小时的训练之后，第一个试验对象（复述）的数字跨度从 7个上升到 20个，" 埃里克森回忆说。

“He kept improving, and after about 200 hours of training he had risen to over 80 numbers.”

"该试验对象不断进步，在接受大约 200个小时的训练后，他复述的数字已经达到 80多个。"

This success, coupled with later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one.

这一成功，连同后来证明的记忆本身不是遗传决定的研究，使得埃里克森得出结论，即记忆过程是一种认知练习，而不是一种本能练习。

In other words, whatever inborn differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person “encodes” the information.

换句话说，无论两个人在记忆力能力上可能存在怎样的天生差异，这些差异都会被每个人如何恰当地"解读"所记的信息所掩盖。

And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice.

埃里克森确信，了解如何有目的地解读信息的最佳方法就是一个为人所知的有意练习过程。

Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task.

有意练习需要的不仅仅是简单地重复一个任务。

Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.

相反，它包括确定明确的目标、获得即时的反馈以及技术与结果的浓缩。

Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer.

因此，埃里克森和他的同事开始研究包括足球领域在内的广泛领域中专业执行者。

They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers.

他们收集了能够收集的所有资料，不只是表现方面的统计数据和传记详细资料，还包括他们自己对取得很高成就的人员进行的实验室实验结果。

Their work makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated.

他们的研究得出了一个非常令人惊奇的结论--我们通常称为天分的特征被高估了。

Or, put another way, expert performers - whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming - are nearly always made, not born.

或者，换句话说，专业执行者――无论是在记忆还是手术方面，在芭蕾还是计算机编程领域――几乎总是培养的，而不是天生的。