Arbuckle’s Advice

Dedication beats natural talent in coach’s outlook

In sports, dedication is the most common way to improve and better one’s ability. There is often the case of natural talent and a lack of ambition for betterment. Natural talent and devotion are both traits that a coach would want any athlete to have but does natural talent deserve to be celebrated or honored more than hard work and dedication.

According to “The American Journal of Bioethics”, natural talent is rare in an athlete, but when an athlete has a natural talent, they often perform just as well as an athlete that trains for that particular sport. Most coaches want dedication because it shows commitment to that sport. An athlete that takes time to train and work outside of practice is most likely to perform better at meets and competitions compared to someone that may be but talented and does not work or train outside of practice.

“As a coach, I would much rather have a dedicated athlete of average talent than a naturally talented athlete who lacks dedication,” coach Brandon Jerrell said. “Naturally talented athletes without dedication are frustrating to coach because they waste the incredible skills that they have and never come close to their potential.”

Sports take time and dedication in order for athletes to better themselves, and athletes are more likely to do better at their sports if they put in extra work and cooperate with their coaches. Coaches experience frustration with naturally talented athletes without dedication and would rather have athletes and players putting in the time and work to better perform.

“I take a lot of pride in seeing my athletes improve over the course of the season so it is very discouraging when someone doesn’t put the effort forward to get to the next level,” Jerrell said.

Being naturally talented in a sport does not mean that player or athlete is lazy and has a poor work ethic, and even though a player can be naturally talented in a sport, he or she still needs to put forth work and training outside of practice. Talented athletes still need to work toward bettering themselves in sports.