There have been a lot of books published over the last few year's on the existence or not, of natural ability in sport. Books like The Talent Code, Bounce, Outliers and Mindset to name but a few, they put forward the argument that it's focused practice, hard work and the right opportunities to coaching, training venues and training groups that ultimately creates an elite performer. Some dismiss any notion of talent and stress that it's all about the coming together of these external factors, along with the intrinsic motivation and commitment from the individual.
While I agree whole heartedly with many of the assertions of these books, what of genetics? Doesn't this have a part to play? It's very easy to over simplify what is a complex subject. When we start to look at different sports we start to find some commonalities that practice and opportunity does not answer. If we look at Rowing or Basketball the sports naturally favour very tall athletes. How many of the current GB rowing team are under 6 feet in height? Very few if any. That's not to say its not possible for a person under 6 foot to make it, it just makes it less likely given the competition for places. Equally Matthew Pinsent made a great rower but would struggle to make weight if he were to take AP McCoy's place as a jump jockey!
That said, no athlete on the planet can make it to an elite level without an extraordinary amount of hard work and dedicated practice and taking a whole host of opportunities that come their way. Maybe these are some of the things we miss when we declare Roger Federer a 'genius' for hitting that incredible shot between his legs. We forget that he has hit the best part of a million balls every year for the past 20 years and dedicated his life to hitting just that kind of spectacular shot. Its a bit like watching a great stand up comedian, it seems like every sentence is off the cuff and incredibly quick witted, instead of a really well crafed routine, that has been delivered hundreds and hundreds of times.
How good would we be at our chosen sport if we dedicated 20+ hours per week of purposeful practice for 10+ years? How many languages would we be able to speak, or musical instruments could we play, my guess is quite a few more than we do right now. But what else would we have to sacrifice to get there? Nothing... because those few people that choose this path don't see what they are doing as a sacrifice. Its a natural consequence of becoming the best they can be. It's like falling over when you are learning to ski - it's all part of the process.
Carol Dweck author of 'Mindset' is convinced that encouraging children to believe in what she calls a 'growth' mindset will ultimately have a huge effect on their performance, in all areas of their life. Her experiments have revealed that some children believe their physical and mental abilities are 'fixed' by nature while others hold the growth mindset, believing they have the capacity to develop their physical and mental abilities without barriers. The results when they come up against percieved 'barriers' are remarkable, and John Ford's old addage "if you believe you can or can't you are right" still holds true of human nature.
Keep going friends. Improved performance is only as far away as you believe it to be.
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