Joe (running buddy) and I were talking about what makes a great athlete during last weekend’s run. I told the story about Dennis, who had wrestling talent, but did not love the sport. I told the story about Scotty who loved soccer, had talent, and worked hard, but lacked the necessary height and weight to play Division I.
There is yet another category of athletes I haven’t mentioned. I’ve known plenty of guys over the years who loved their sport, worked hard, had the physical attributes, but lacked talent. They aren’t particularly memorable folks. Mostly they are us. Me, myself, and I; we are they - the tall girl who tried to play basketball; the slow kid who tried to be a sprinter on the track team, and the big guy who thought he could be a football lineman just because of his size. There are plenty of us who love our sports, have the right builds, and work hard, but ultimately lack the speed, strength, agility, or whatever else is required.
All of which leads me back to a previous post regarding an excerpt from Again to Carthage by John L. Parker, Jr.
His point was that to be great at a sport you have to win the lottery of size and talent attributes for that particular sport, plus you need to love that sport in order to persevere through the workouts. You have to have them all in order to be great – Love, Talent, Physical Attributes, and the Discipline to work your butt off.
Many of us have everything except talent; fortunately we can still have fun doing what we love.
I guess that is one of the joys of life.
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