Born or Made?

by Darrell

In soccer, there are no "born" greats. It is impossible to be born with special footballing talents. Watch any of the great players, I can guarantee you that any of them have spend thousands of hours perfecting their craft. It is like this in other sports too, such as hockey, since I am Canadian, I will talk about Wayne Gretzky. He is the best hockey player in history. People thought he was a born genius when he stepped on the ice. Little do these people know that Gretzky, spent hours and hours practicing his slap shot with roller blades on. He also spent thousands of hours on the outside rinks that his dad had built him. This is mostly how he developed his skill. Try to clone Wayne Gretzky, and deprive him of practice. I guarantee you that this player will not make it to the pros.

The same applies for Johan Cryuff, the born genius of soccer, his mom worked at Ajax, and Johan would spent all his free time down at the Ajax building kicking the ball around outside the grounds. He would be there all day, if he was lucky, the pros would let him in the stadium to watch their practices and to warm up with them during their training. And yet again, people wonder how he became so good?

Here's another story I heard, about the former Spanish international player, Ferrer. Coaches have told me that he was by no mean's the most talented player growing up in Spain, but he worked like a dog. He worked endlessly to improve his game by turning his weaknesses into strengths. Soon, he became one of the best players for his age in Spain, and ended up playing on the National team, surpassing the "talented" players by his huge work ethic.

How about in basketball? People to this day still talk about Larry Bird's three-point shooting. He practiced his shot day and night. He didn’t earn his success by accident. He was a gym rat who lived at the gym shooting baskets. Look at him; he is definitely not the most athletic person you have ever seen. Therefore, we know practice makes perfect.

The bottom line is, practice makes perfect, hard work outwits this so-called "natural talent", nurture outweighs nature. Therefore, to be a great player, you must fall in love with the game, eat, sleep, and breathe soccer, and play/practice as much as you can. Set goals for yourself, be active, and have a plan to know what aspect of soccer you are working on and why. Do this and I guarantee you will become a great player.

-on the nature vs nurture conflict