The Mental Toughness Digest (MTD)

My definition of talent is the ability of learning things like movements in sports at a surpassing speed compared to the average. You will therefore easily see whether an athlete “has it” or not in daily training, the question if he uses it in an ideal way is where the (mental) coach comes in. Parents and other people close to the performing athlete are biased and will recognise “talent” where in reality there is no hint for it.
As a so called talent it is important to know who to listen to, where you’re true strenghts are and how to improve them.

Talent and potential are such interesting tags arent they. Anyone wanting to read more on the subjects should try “talent is overated”. Or ‘Mindset’ by Carol Dweck, both great reading. “Bounce” by Mathew Syed is a real favourite along with “Human Potential” and the “The brain that changed itself”.
Streaming of young athletes or artists or mathematicians is such a powerful tool that makes opportunity to progress virtually ubiquitous.
What a world we could have if we could stream everyone!
It is surely one of the great parenting, coaching, mentoring challenges.

M – thanks for your comments. The only issue about the current crop of “talent is a myth” books is they lack anything substantial in terms of maximising the learnable factors. I can’t help by wander how many people read these books, are sold on the idea that it’s all about effort but are then stuck on how to optimise their effort. GJM

In psychology the nurture/nature debate is ubiquitous.Over and over the conclusion is that it’s a combination of the two, of course. You should expect that the debate would stop and everyone accepts this duality, but the opposite is true. It’s a fact that we can’t deny nature and it’s an advantage when your body is made for sports. But who doesn’t know a gifted athlete who didn’t reach the absolute top? Here in Belgium we have tennis player Xavier Malisse (X-Man). He’s very talented but is hot-tempered. Now that he is a couple of years older,he has found some inner peace and he is showing some very nice things. He has learned to deal with his body and temperament. This is what a sport psychologist can do. Give the athlete mental tools and skills to learn to accept the nature part and work on the nurture part. As another example you can look to Lleyton Hewitt. With a lot of training and perseverance he reached the number one position and this with his rather short length.

Natural talents in sports are only ever going to get individuals so far. It may open doors at a young age because they appear to have the potential to go onto bigger and better things. However, if the individual is not willing to put the required effort into making improvements to their game and performance, then unfortunately that “natural talent” can be wasted. In order for the individual to make these steps to continue improving and bettering themselves it requires psychological training and strength in order to have them develop the appropriate mindset. So often we hear about players, who appear to have natural talent, state that they just need to continue working on different facets of their game to improve. They continue challenging themselves to find ways in which they can obtain the upper hand over their competition. This is the exact mindset that can keep a player continually improving and reach their goals within their sport. One example of this that springs to mind is Dirk Nowitzki, a professional basketball player in the NBA, who appears to have the physical attributes to play the sport as well as natural talent in terms of his above average shooting ability. However, over the years he has continually worked on different areas of his game, such as being able to attack the basket with both hands, which has propelled him to be considered one of, if not, the most difficult player to defend in the NBA today. This continued development can be attributed to his mindset, psychological strength to continue challenging himself and his desire to achieve.

@David Barracosa: A natural talent is like the Loch Ness Monster. Just because people talk about it doesn’t make it real! GJM

I’m currently reading a book called The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle where the notion of talent is addressed. From what I have read, it appears that talent is not a genetic component, but a biological one; the source of all talent lies in myelin.
Coyle stated that the more the particular signal (movement, thought, action) is “fired” the more myelin we develop (leading to faster and more fluent performance).

Coyle also suggested that there is no particular cell type that geniuses (natural talents) possess that we don’t. Maybe there is a small percentage of people have an innate, obssesive desire to improve. This leads me to think that “natural talent” is not necessarily natural performance of a high standard, but maybe more of an innate ability to improve through self-driven practice at a high level i.e. the talent is not in performing, but in learning. As you said Gareth, our genetic composition cannot be changed. It is true that talent is acquired through both genetic factors and environmental factors. But for a talent to be natural, maybe this suggests that some people are born with a particular gene to practice well (leading to quality performance) which is enhanced by an ideal environment (frequent, high intensity training, positive mindset and many other factors).

I am coaching an under 12 rep netball team, there is one girl in particular who, at the start of the year “appeared” to have a natural gift or talent for the game. She could pass well, she found space well, she read the game well, she looked like a 12 year old girl with the mind of a 15 year old. Everyone who watched her play said that she had a great “netball brain.” But currently, she is now one of our weaker players. Her performance has not necessarily decreased, but everyone else in the team has improved at a faster rate. I agree with David, natural talent will only get you so far. Even looking at this player’s development in 6 months, talent is not enough. Perhaps the other players have a greater ability/talent to take in information and learn new skills.

@Ash F: The real issue with anything biological is that knowing it is more likely to create mental weakness than strength. The best example is height for basketball. If you believe that height is useful for basketball and you are short are you adding an imagined barrier to your potential success. I recently attended at the awards dinner of one of the NBL teams and couldn’t help but notice that the three most valuable players for the season just ending were three of the least tall players. It’s almost like being tall is actually an overall disadvantage to basketball as the effort required in the development years (arguabley the most important) might be less. Fast twitch fibres are another example. “Yes”, they are useful for sprinting and “yes” some of us have more than other but does anyone actually benefit from knowing how many / few they have compared with others? From the mental toughness of the actual athlete’s point of view my vote would be a “no”. GJM

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