Hoops

Athletes - born or made? nature vs nurture

For what its worth I think its an inversely proportional relationship between talent (born) and training (made) but that can be heavily skewed by which side of the fence you put attitude on! If you think attitude/work ethic/commitment is bred into you, then most athletes are made. If you think those attributes can be developed, then they are made. If you think its probably a bit of both, then we are back to a nice cross-shaped graph!

Ie, the les talent you have, the harder you have to work. There are absurdly talented athletes whose attitude sucks yet still make it (though i would suggest never to the very top) and there are very limited athletes whose attitude is fantastic who make it depsite their physical shortcomings.

I've long-maintained if you lined up Todd Woodbridge and Andrew Gaze along a line of the best 100 athletes in their sport, they are not near the top - yet both are arguably among our best-ever at their chosen sport.

Its when you get a top-ten athlete with a top-ten attitude that you get Jordanesque greatness. They're the guys whose athleticism gives them opportunity and they're attitude gives them longevity.

Then for each sport you need to overlay a threshold of primary attributes. If you're a 5'6 point guard with NBA aspirations, you'd better be amazing. Likewise if you are a 6'5 gymnast hoping to dominate the floor, maybe work on being an announcer.

Of course these thresholds are the a moveable feast depending on what level you are talking about. The lumbering ridiculed white guy who can't jump in the NBA is probably among the best 10% of athletes on the planet if you include everybody. He just looks pretty lame next to Superman!

Then there's the school of thought that says repetition is absolutely the key (along the lines of Gladwell's 10,000 hours theory) and a NY times article of a couple of years ago pointed to girls tennis schools in Russia where they aren't allowed to play matches, and girls golf schools in Korea where its all about the driving range as evidence. Google 'ny times myelinisation' for the article.

And then overlay all of that with the vast mysterious world of the BA development pathways! :)

As far as I knew , I was a fairly good shooter and not much of a player.
A better junior than senior.
Those that worked harder went passed me.
We've all got it within us , for whatever we want to grasp for.
Basketball is 10% ability and 90% training .

Athletes are made. It's all about the mental discipline someone has to do the the training required, putting in the time needed to improve themselves physically and mentally, eat right etc.

50-60 years ago where the likes of "Sports Institutions" and "Conditioning Centres" didn't exist, you could have attributed "Natural ability" to people that stood out in their sport; but nowadays with the right knowledge about the sport and the contacts, any person can engineer themselves into being a great athlete; all about time and discipline to put into it.