Condor Performance Blog - Nature

One of the most common things parents say to us is “my son / daughter is such a natural talent but he / she wastes it”. When you look closer at the natural talent concept it’s really just the old nature vs. nurture debate in disguise. As sport psychologists we don’t think there is any point in debating it any longer due to two facts. Fact 1; there always has been and always will be genetic variation between people. Fact 2; you can’t change these genetic components so talking (thinking) about them seems as silly as shouting at the traffic. The parts that can be improved on are all learned (non genetic) so it makes sense to focus all your attention on this slice of the performance pie. Cheers, GJM

Enjoyment is one of the trickiest psychological factors in sport. One of the more common enquires we get is from parents asking ‘can you help my son / daughter to enjoy their sport like they used to’? Generally the two main reasons why someone will stop having as much fun is because they are growing bored of the same old type of practice / training (relatively simple solutions to this one) and they’re no longer as competitive. Being competitive in children’s sports is relatively easy and the biggest factors are genetic ones such as size. However as soon as a girl hits about 14 years of age and a boy about 16 everything changes. Suddenly those who have put in the work start beating those with “natural talent” (see whole upcoming blog on this). So, the only way we know how to help someone enjoy their sport more is by actually doing what we do anyway…help our clients to be able to perform to their maximum potential. Any other tricks to help someone enjoy themselves more are simply band aids. GJM