Talent vs Skill

Early June is an exciting time in the sports world as there are a number of major events happening for fans to follow. The NBA Finals, the NHL Finals, women’s college softball world series, men’s college baseball super regionals and world series, the French Open in tennis, and other important events are taking place. I have enjoyed watching many of these events and seeing the best of the best perfrom at the highest level under extreme pressure.

One phrase I hear often during these broadcasts when talking about particular athletes is how “talented” they are because of the different things they can do. I’m sure we have all watched someone perform on the court/field and thought, wow what an athlete they are and how blessed he/she is to be able to be so successful.

However, if we dig a little deeper, what are we actually observing? I think of talent as something that someone is naturally good at. A better word to use might be skill….I think of that as something someone does well after much practice and work. Unless we know someone personally, we have no idea how much time and effort he/she has put into an activity to develop the skills needed to be successful. Are the athletes we are watching talented or are they skilled?

I’m betting the majority of the people we are watching are skilled. In this book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell’s research shows that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of work to master a skill. I honestly have some issues with the research as I don’t believe that just “putting in time” will help you master a skill. I am a firm “quality over quantity” when it comes to putting in time to get better at something and how you do something is more vital than how much you do it.

When I think about the best players I have coached over the years, often times, I hear people talk about their talent, when in actuality, I knew how hard those players worked on their skills in their free time and in practices and many times made the game look easy. This leads to people thinking of their talent, and not notice the unseen hours put in to develop their natural “talents”.

Obviously, becoming that skilled competitor clearly does take time and effort and consistency of work to get better. In order for that time committment to occur and for success to happen, the player needs to have a love for the activity to drive the motivation to work hard at it and improve the skills. That motivation needs to come from the player-not from a coach, a parent, or anyone else. Without the “want” to be there and to get better, success is not going to occur.

I want to end this week’s newsletter by connecting what we have talked about to youth sports. Summer is an incredibly busy time for many young athletes….AAU tournaments, middle school sports opportunities, open gyms, and other activities are available for kids. Most of us have been to these activities and I’m betting we have looked at a player and said, “wow, he/she is so talented-they are going to be so good some day.” I’m betting we have all done the opposite about a player as well and thought, “wow, what are they doing out there, that player isn’t very good at all.”

This is a very dangerous mindset to have for coaches and parents of youth sports. We should NEVER pigeon-hole a young athlete into a particular role or pattern when most haven’t put in a lot of time into a particular sport/event and we don’t know what he/she is going to do from this point forward. We should support each athlete with regards to where he/she is at and encourage to them to have a growth mindset and continue to work on skills in activities that they really want to work on. Make sure kids are having fun with the activities they are involved in-they are more likely to work harder in activities they enjoy vs. ones they feel they have to do.

What a huge impact adults can have on young athletes by supporting their current reality and positively encouraging the work needed to become a “skilled” performer! The process of putting in the time and effort to improve and keep a growth mindset is much more important than the current results athletes may have! I hope you will remember this while watching all of the big games ahead and thinking how good these athletes are…what path have they taken to get here and what lessons can be passed on to athletes who want to be those all stars some day? Enjoy the games and have a great week!

Coach K