No shortcut to the top for naturally gifted
Issue: Volume 29 Number 1
They have the ability to generate envy and frustration in equal quantities - the naturally gifted athletes who drift through their training regimes, lend half an ear, at best, to their coach’s instructions, only to turn in winning performances when called upon in serious competition.
If the bulk of the envy comes from other squad members and teammates whose hours of dedication to training and faithful following of tactical advice still leaves them overshadowed, the frustration is mostly felt by the coaches.
That is because they know that at the highest level, their protégée will come up against competitors with equal gifts who also possess the dedication and work ethic to be the best of the best. No longer a stand-out, the former star will be forced to change attitude or fall by the wayside.
Mark Holland, the head coach of Golf Australia’s elite program says that a surfeit of natural ability can actually be a disadvantage for the developing junior. ‘They can have it all too easy on the way up – they need a frame of reference to understand what it takes to be a truly great player,’ he says.
In pursuit of such a frame of reference, Golf Australia's elite program held a Tiger Woods Day. ‘We got some information on what Tiger does when he is working on his game leading up to a major tournament – he’s up at 6.00am, takes a four-kilometre run followed by gym stretches, then half-an-hour for breakfast, two hours on the driving range, nine holes of golf, lunch, two more hours on the range, another nine holes, some pitching, dinner and bed,’ he said.
‘Woods is massively talented, but even so that is what he has to do to keep his number-one world ranking.’
Holland worried that modern society has created individuals who are looking for instant success. ‘The old Industrial Revolution work ethic doesn’t fit any more, and in this program we have to teach our players to take responsibility for themselves and to do the work because they know they have to rather than because the coach says so.’
The head coach of the Australian Opals basketball team, Jan Stirling, believes the choice could become irrelevant in years to come because of the downgrading of sport in the nation’s primary schools.
‘The youngsters coming through now do not have the same quality of multi-disciplinary skill sets,’ she said. 'Well over 15 years ago, when physical education programs no longer became a part of the primary school curriculum, children’s opportunities to enhance their motor skills diminished.
‘We have to accept that kids are coming out of schools with lower levels of motor skill and athletic development. Sport needs to make adjustments to its basic training programs to compensate for this factor. In the past physiological development of youngsters was taken for granted but clearly motor skill acquisition has been adversely affected now that PE is no longer a priority.
‘Basketball requires a high level of fundamental ball skill development. However, if the players have poor body balance, lack agility, explosive power and lateral quickness, then trying to develop these skills when they are well into their teens makes their progression difficult.’
Stirling says that the natural athlete and the less-talented workhorse both had their discreet challenges. ‘I actually feel a greater sense of relief when the hard workers make the grade for no other reason than their commitment, effort and dedication has been rewarded in a way that gives them appropriate self-satisfaction.’
The Australian Institute of Sport/Cycling Australia senior track coach, Martin Barras, echoed the opinion of many of his colleagues when he said his ideal was a talented athlete with a ‘sensational’ work ethic.
‘Because I am coaching at national and Olympic level, there isn’t anyone who does not have a substantial degree of natural ability – you do not perform well at the Olympics without it,’ he says.
‘One of the first things I understood as a coach is that you can never want success more than the athletes you are working with. As an athlete I wanted that success really badly, but in the end I just didn’t have sufficient talent.
‘So you start coaching these guys – some of them were your former teammates – and you see they have this enormous amount of talent and you think “if this guy could just get his act together, he would be winning everything', and you end up very frustrated.
‘The first thing you have to do is find out the character of each of your athletes because you can never take them further than they want to go. That’s why I would probably favour the totally dedicated guy who just gets himself over the line, rather than the athlete who swans in and does half the work, does one out of every four repetitions in training seriously, and gets away with it.'
Tim Nielsen, of the Australian Institute of Sport/Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence, believes that despite the advent of physiological testing in schools which may favour the naturally gifted over the ‘slow learner’, most players who are good enough get a shot at making elite level.
‘In Australia the greater danger is giving players the opportunity too soon – young guys who show a spurt of potential or achieve a run of success early in their careers who are thrown into international cricket or AFL first grade and can’t cope – it hurts them and more often than not they never come back.
‘Part of our role in elite sport is to find these kids young, have an impact on them and keep them involved when they are still young and impressionable.’
Nielsen predicts the challenge for the future is not so much when to commit talented players to the first class arena, but how to keep them interested and focused as older, established players extended their careers.
‘In the old days if you got to 30 and still hadn’t played for Australia, you never were going to and it was time to get out of the game and make way for a kid,’ he said.
‘Now you have guys of 35 and older still running round out there. They are making a lot of money and they are not going to give up before they have to.
‘It doesn’t really matter how much talent you have, you are going to have to work exceptionally hard to dislodge them, and that is where the players with the desire and dedication, and the willingness to be patient, are going to be the ones who eventually succeed.’
Natural talent versus ethic and dedication
- While all coaches admired the player with natural talent, the consensus was that work ethic and dedication to training was more important.
- At the highest level of international sport natural ability is a given and only the athletes who can combine that with hard work and dedication to training will be successful.
- Athletes who tend to rely on natural ability alone need a ‘frame of reference’, such as the work put in by Tiger Woods in golf, to demonstrate that even the massively talented have to work hard to stay on top.
- The feeling is that very few athletes ‘slip through the net’; the danger being that precocious competitors may be given opportunities too early, leading to disillusionment and burn-out.
- Coaches must tailor their own desires for success to their athletes will and determination to succeed.
- Sports and coaches must make adjustments to their own training programs to cater for the fact that sport has been downgraded in Australian primary schools.
