Talent or Training?

For the past few years I've been following the careers of several very talented players in the Central Texas Area.  I began following them at around the 7th grade and wondered how they would fair once they were participating at the high school level.  Some of them are still doing well, but others reached their ceiling while still in middle school and are now just another player. 

Why the big difference? And what should we put more importance in? Talent or the willingness to work hard, accept instruction and learn.

Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell introduced the concept of the "10,000 hour rule" in his 2008 book "Outliers" He states that the key to success in any field is the "purposeful" practice of a that specific task for 10,000 hours as it relates to an athlete's development.

In considering that notion, Gladwell asked what value should be placed on pure natural talent — the innate genetic gift that we often view as the line between the elite and the merely professional — in relationship to, say, work ethic and the capacity to accept instruction.

A physical example — in this case, Tracy McGrady, whose combination of size, speed, power and grace beguiled the NBA in the last years of the 20th century and made him one of the league's most dominant offensive forces in the early years.

But while McGrady's abilities were awe-inspiring, his willingness to further cultivate them wasn't.  According to Jeff Van Gundy, who coached the Florida-born star with the Houston Rockets from 2004 through 2007.

Much of the game was so easy for McGrady.  You see this every year in the AAU level, where they have freakishly talented players, when it's that easy to dominate at that young age because of your physical tools  his wingspan was freakish, his size was enormous, his basketball IQ, all that got in the way of Tracy reaching his highest potential.

The basic principle makes some sense. If you're bigger, stronger, faster and more talented than the competition you're playing against, you're not forced to develop the finer points of your game, because when push comes to shove, you can just rely on your superior gifts to give you the edge you need. And when those gifts start to fade, and your competition has continued to refine their skill, if you haven't been developing new skills (or sharpening old ones) for a rainy day, you'll find yourself soaking wet in a storm that might just wash you away and you will end up just another player on the court.

A fastball pitcher coming back from major arm surgery should be working to make sure he's got secondary pitches and doesn't have to rely on the old fastball all day. 

More diligence in your training could help you avoid injuries in the future that may cost you playing time. Maybe adhering to a better regimen will help mitigated the fallout of the injuries, or will give you a healthier version of you back on the court sooner. These are reasonable possibilities.

Part of what makes this difficult to digest is the word "freakish," which both Van Gundy and Morey used to describe McGrady's talents.  In fact, that particular adjective gets tossed around pretty liberally during the summer AAU season.

I know it's become popular, but its use is sort of uncomfortable right off the bat, it casts an athletes athleticism as rare, monstrous and oppositional to the rest of us.

Freakish" sets a player's talent apart, but not necessarily in a positive way; it makes him an undefined "outsider," a dude capable of feats beyond our own. In most walks of life, we tend to look at people like that skeptically, looking for what makes them somehow normal and us somehow better. Many will look at the 500-plus points that he scored for the season but we see only the 500 more we feel pretty confident he should have pocketed if only he wasn't screwing around.

When evaluating players you are recruiting ask yourself whether you tend to overvalue potential while undervaluing what skills players actually have. In the case of the "freakishly" gifted player, folks are most likely overvaluing what they perceive his absolute ultimate ceiling to be. 

But will he be able to reach it?  If not, what will be the cost to you and to your team?