What is more impressive? A greatly talented man who gives little effort, Or a man gifted of little talent  who  gives  great effort?

And how marvelous is it to witness the greatly talented man who gives great effort? He is unstoppable!

Many sadly live with a belief that our skill, our athleticism, our talent is finite.

Perhaps it is within this vein that Thoreau wrote that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. ”

Yet, we still often tap little of our possibility . We are underachieving.

Effort

Thus the less gifted player can tap more of his own talent such that it out performs the more “gifted” player by efforting.

NFL scouts look at tangibles and intangibles.

Tangibles are 40 time, size, vertical etc.  The typical stuff you may go through at Nike Sparq camp. (see video below)

Then there are the intangibles. The attitude and the things difficult to measure but that make the complete player. Intangible  players often eclipse the so called gifted player with that word again. Effort.

My team plays some very talented, gifted teams. I make sure my staff  taps every last ounce of our players “gift”.

That is more difficult to do than just steer the gifted athlete, it means teaching new muscle memory. And most importantly helping the athlete to change some limiting beliefs in that lump 4 feet above their keester. Which is the biggest muscle of all.  But in the end, it is the athlete who must desire the tap. As it is often a difficult path of drastic change in behavior. So the desire needs to be there for them to exceed their expectations via great effort.

The way the story ends for them is that these kids will find greater and easier rewards for their efforts once they have mastered the skills. Often times the kids find they have way more gift than they could have ever expected. And almost magically that capability or gift grows.