Are great athletes born or made? (1 Viewer)

[ComfortablyNumb]

Watching some Olympics has me wondering whether great athletes are born (i.e. mostly gifted with unique physical abilities) or made by hard work and unique dedication. Of course the answer is usually "both", and it also seems to vary greatly by the particular sport. It seems that basketball and football require the greatest natural abilities. No way I could have ever made it to the NFL or NBA even if I'd worked 16 hours per day at it. I played D-III football and wrestled, but at 6'0" 225 lb with a 5.1 40, no amount of work would have made me even an NFL special teamer. Maybe kicker/punter or long-snapper? But some phenomenal athletes can do OK in the NFL with a little work as can good athletes with a LOT of work. Or guys like Michael Jordan and LeBron can combine both and be the best ever.

But could I have been a world-class skier? That seems like something I maybe could have done with enough hard work and fearlessness.

What about non-athletes like golf, curling, bowling, etc? Do those even require a rare degree of natural talent such as hand-eye coordination?

Could any reasonably coordinated person be a champion figure skater with enough dedication?

How about baseball and hockey? Seems that pitchers have some innate arm strength and hitters must need a rare degree of hand-eye coordination. Not sure about hockey. Soccer must require some rare natural ability, but less than basketball or football?

Swimming and Tennis? They both require some natural ability and tons of work, right?

Could any of us FBGs have been Pro or Olympic athletes with enough dedication? I think we could have.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Both.

 

[jon_mx]

The best athletes with no motivation are unknown nobodies.

 

[Pipes]

I'd say it's 90% genetics and 10% effort. No matter how much effort you put in a sport you need to have a ton of natural ability to become successful and make money at it.

 

[Annyong]

Tons of amazing athletes are born everyday.

 

[Moe.]

Read "The Sports Gene" by David Epstein if this is something that interests you.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Depends how many drugs are allowed in the sport.

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.

 

[johnnycakes]

Both.

Carl Yastrzemski: Worked very hard to be one of the greatest.

Ted Williams: The Natural.

 

[Rick James]

I think there is a huge difference between the 4 big sports (MLB/NFL/NBA/NHL) and Olympic sports, and it relates to competition. IMO there are more people competing to play in the NFL than there are people competiting to become a gold-medal bobsledding champion, so therefore natural abilities generally shine through.

 

[sports_fan]

Depends on how you define great athlete. If it means legendary sports figures (Hall of Fame, multiple gold medals, etc) it's mostly genetics. But I think you can reach mid-level performance in most sports with mostly hard work and a moderate level of talent.

 

[SHIZNITTTT]

Well a lot of sports require a certain amount of wealth. How can we tell if ski jumping, ice hockey curling, cross country skiing have the best athletes? How many kids do you guys know who have the money and the exposure to any of the winter olympic sports? What about that horse jumping ####? Who can afford a horse and the lessons that go along with it? What does that leave less than 1% of America?

True athletic ability like running speed, and endurance is fair. Even than you need individual training and God knows what that would cost.

 

[Brunell4MVP]

Read "The Sports Gene" by David Epstein if this is something that interests you.

This is a good read. Basically it shows you need the genetics for the event/sport, and then need to work your butt off at it.

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

Well a lot of sports require a certain amount of wealth. How can we tell if ski jumping, ice hockey curling, cross country skiing have the best athletes? How many kids do you guys know who have the money and the exposure to any of the winter olympic sports? What about that horse jumping ####? Who can afford a horse and the lessons that go along with it? What does that leave less than 1% of America?

True athletic ability like running speed, and endurance is fair. Even than you need individual training and God knows what that would cost.

Agree, if the cost of entry to the "sport" limits the participation to only rich kids, then usually

Used the quotes for "sport" because some of these events, or judged competitions, are not sports.

 

[jon_mx]

Usain Bolt is a freak of nature which no amount of training by other humans could match. I am sure he worked hard to get there, but I would guess the rest of the field had to worker harder to get lesser results.

 

[jon_mx]

I would say the more skill the sport requires, the more hard work comes into play. Basketball is a sport where hard work is an absolute must and plays a very large role

 

[NewlyRetired]

Depends on how you define great athlete. If it means legendary sports figures (Hall of Fame, multiple gold medals, etc) it's mostly genetics.

I always liked Birds quote about this

"I would say my vision, my court awareness and my height are God-given," Bird says. "Everything else I've worked my ### off for."

 

[Judge Smails]

Depends on the sport. In basketball more than other they are born. In sports like baseball and golf I think they have God given talent, but they are for the most part made through a ton of hard work.

 

[Buckfast 1]

Certainly some of both. It's no coincidence that the overwhelming percentage of Olympic skiers and snowboarders grew up in mountain ski towns. It's not because mountain ski towns happen to be the birthplace of an abnormally high percentage of genetic freak athletes. Their talents are nurtured on the slopes from a young age.

 

[jon_mx]

Depends on the sport. In basketball more than other they are born. In sports like baseball and golf I think they have God given talent, but they are for the most part made through a ton of hard work.

Are you joking, basketball is a game of skill. Yes you need height and athleticism, but without working your ### off you are going nowhere.

 

[Sarnoff]

Groomed may be the best word for it.

As a society, we have excelled in identifying the best prospects early, and guiding them down the path toward athletic success most efficiently.

Spoiler

Someone not to long ago wrote an article on a similar subject, wondering why the US has failed to produce a literary talent on par with Shakespeare's versatility. IIRC, Given the size of London and of England at the time, and assuming he was between a 'once-in-100-years' and 'once-in-500-years' talent for such a population, certainly by now the US should have produced at least one, if not dozens, of comparable titans of literature. The England of Shakespeare's era had about the same population as Kansas today, and London the population of Wichita... by now Wichita certainly should have churned out a Shakespeare of its own. But the culture today is far different from Shakespeare's time; IIRC the conclusion was Elizabethan England was far better at grooming literary giants, identifying, training, and rewarding them with fame and success to a far greater degree than artists are looked at today. The society that produced Shakespeare also gave us Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Sir Walter Raleigh... they were treated like rockstars. Elizabethan society valued them highly. Such rewards are not found today for playwrights and our 'modern Shakespeares' are never properly developed.

Our society does, however, place similar rewards on athletics. Sports stars get the kind of rewards that playwrights did in Elizabethan England. And if you look at a comparable modern city like Wichita, you find it has produced just about the right number of expected rare talents: Barry Sanders and Gaye Sayers are both football HOF'ers, Lynette Woodard is an NBA HOF'er, and Wichita has had its fair share of Olympic medalists. The key is that raw talent is identified young, and that there are extraordinary rewards attached to success. With that the talent can be groomed into once-in-a-lifetime ability.

 

[Truman]

Depends on the sport. In basketball more than other they are born. In sports like baseball and golf I think they have God given talent, but they are for the most part made through a ton of hard work.

Are you joking, basketball is a game of skill. Yes you need height and athleticism, but without working your ### off you are going nowhere.

I think it depends on the position. There are millions of good athletes 6'4 or shorter between 20 and 35.

There just aren't a lot of male humans 6'10 or taller in that age range. Anyone who's a little athletic has a shot

 

[Truman]

Here we go:

Drawing on Centers for Disease Control data, Sports Illustrated‘s Pablo Torre estimated that no more than 70 American men are between the ages of 20 and 40 and at least 7 feet tall. “While the probability of, say, an American between 6’6″ and 6’8″ being an NBA player today stands at a mere 0.07%, it’s a staggering 17% for someone 7 feet or taller,” Torre writes.

 

[Juxtatarot]

Here we go:

Drawing on Centers for Disease Control data, Sports Illustrated‘s Pablo Torre estimated that no more than 70 American men are between the ages of 20 and 40 and at least 7 feet tall. “While the probability of, say, an American between 6’6″ and 6’8″ being an NBA player today stands at a mere 0.07%, it’s a staggering 17% for someone 7 feet or taller,” Torre writes.

Many NBA "seven footers" aren't actually that tall. And some of the true seven footers aren't American. I'm skeptical of that 17% figure.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

Read "The Sports Gene" by David Epstein if this is something that interests you.

beat me to it.

Here's a podcast with the author: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2013/09/david_epstein_o.html

 

[glock]

Both. While I was in the top 10% of all middle distance runner's while in high school- that 10% was a lot of people. While I had all the tools, what separated the "cream of the crop" from the likes of me was the extra time and effort they put into the sport.

That and the fact that they weren't a flaky teen who liked partying and the wimmens too much...

 

[Brony]

I think greatness depends on how loudly the athlete's parent complains to the referees during the athlete's formative years.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Both -- with the mix required to "make it" being determined by the size of the population playing the sport. Want to excel at the Luge? Practice a lot from an early age and you'll have a great chance. Want to get to the NBA? Good luck if you aren't born to play in the NBA.

 

[dparker713]

Both. While I was in the top 10% of all middle distance runner's while in high school- that 10% was a lot of people. While I had all the tools, what separated the "cream of the crop" from the likes of me was the extra time and effort they put into the sport.

That and the fact that they weren't a flaky teen who liked partying and the wimmens too much...

BS. You honestly think they only thing separating the top 10% of HS runners and Olympic athletes is effort? There is a huge talent gap between that group and the group that could actually compete at the Olympic trials.

Nothing the OP listed could a person just will themselves to the top. It takes a lot more talent then you're recognizing.

 

[glock]

Both. While I was in the top 10% of all middle distance runner's while in high school- that 10% was a lot of people. While I had all the tools, what separated the "cream of the crop" from the likes of me was the extra time and effort they put into the sport.

That and the fact that they weren't a flaky teen who liked partying and the wimmens too much...

BS. You honestly think they only thing separating the top 10% of HS runners and Olympic athletes is effort? There is a huge talent gap between that group and the group that could actually compete at the Olympic trials.

Nothing the OP listed could a person just will themselves to the top. It takes a lot more talent then you're recognizing.

Well, well. well- another one of our happy campers.

I didn't say that effort is the only thing that separates the top 10% of high school middle distance runners from the Olympic Trials. It is a large part, though. Remember- I'm not talking sprinters with all the natural ability needed to compete in much shorter distances.

However, I've run with, against and behind Olympic athletes and near Olympic athletes and one thing that truly distanced them from the rest of the pack was their total dedication to being all that they could be as well as the ability to keep "thinking" out of the equation. Distractions and "bad luck" have curtailed many an athletic career. The best don't let those things impact them nearly as much.

The OP didn't list pursuits like running, swimming, cycling in his first post because many here don't see those athletes as "true" athletes. However, these are among the "purest" spots because with them it is indeed largely a matter of mind over body for the best.

So, like I said- both.