| BoleroOfFire said: @Happy Squirrel: You mentioned that the people at the top tend to be the ones with the best combination of talent and experience. But isn't experience affected by (sometimes) uncontrollable factors? Would you agree that there can exist others on earth with the right talent but who lack the experience? That they're not in the right place at the right time, if you will? @Khuutra: I agree completely. Especially if all of the UFC rules were removed. |
The most gifted athelete I ever met was a little white guy who was the running back in my (crappy) highschool football team and could run a 40 yards in 4.1 seconds in grade 10 in full equipment without any training. He was able to get a scholorship to a US university to play football in grade 12 (which is remarkable for a Canadian highschool student, in particular in western Canada where football isn't that popular) and all he had to do was graduate and write the SAT; unfortunately, he decided that it was cooler to get high and skip school then to go to class, and he was kicked out of school.
In contrast, one of the least talented atheletes I knew growing up is now a (minor) professional primarily because he puts 10 times the effort into everything he does.
Having talent is great, but it doesn't make you the best athelete ... Hard work, determination, training and experience matter far more than raw talent; and the best atheletes (not the atheletes with the most raw talent) tend to make it to the higher levels. I do know that there are some people who do get screwed because, although they are a great athelete they do not fit the play style of a sport at a higher level (for some reason) ... but it is difficult to say whether a player that is great at a style that is (typically) unsuccessful is any better or worse than a "poor" (by league standards) player at a successful style. Doug Flutie is a good example of this because his style was (very) well suited to the Canadian game, and he had a good couple of years in the NFL, but he really was way too small to be successful how most coaches wanted a quarterback to play
