Martial Arts, genetics and talent vs. work ethic

[drop bear]

That’s one I haven’t seen. Unless you’re talking about very low resistance/no resistance drills at the start. But some folks can’t even do those.

Yeah. The low resistance ones. Which everyone wins at.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Yeah. The low resistance ones. Which everyone wins at.

Yeah, those are designed that way. And some folks still manage not to win. I've had folks who couldn't do a wrist release reliably even when my hand was more or less just draped on their wrist.

 

[mrt2]

I was just going to say - doesn't it also matter what one's purpose is? To be an Olympic competitor? To be able to kick above his or her own head? Or to be able to surprise a back alley mugger? All different goals, all variously dependent on one's natural athleticism, genetics, and training.

I am five feet even (that's not "short" - it's "gravitationally superior"), with bad hips, bad back, some arthritis in both knees, multiple concussions, and a messed up spine. What I can achieve with training is limited - because some kinds of training are so unbearably painful to me they lose all effectiveness. However, I can compile my own training program, where I can become effective and proficient. I will never be an Olympic competitor - that's ok. I will never be able to kick anyone in the head, because the amount of pain that will cause to me will knock me out - which sort of defeats the purpose of kicking my opponent. But can I get to a point where I am an effective self-defender? By all means. Very reachable despite my limitations. And, possibly, better than other people BECAUSE of my limitations.

We all have a ceiling, but with hard work, hopefully we are capable of getting closer to that ceiling. I have a basis for comparison with my past practice, which I started at age 14 and concluded at age 17. So I was a teenager, but if I am remembering myself from back then, I did not think of myself as a child in the dojang. I am hopeful with several years of training, I could get back to what I was, even if I cannot kick as high as I used to. But I will have to lose a lot of weight. So that is part of my goal. Lose 25 lbs initially, maybe another 25 by the end of the year, and another 25 lbs next year. I think to properly execute some of the more athletic kicks in TKD, I need to drop the weight.
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[gucia6]

To reach the very top of the heap in just about any endeavor (Olympic gold medalist, UFC champion, etc) you need just about everything going for you - natural ability, insane work ethic, starting young, first-rate coaching, and a bit of luck.
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my thoughts exactly

I sometimes wonder what so called "natural talent" really is?

After all, when we are born nobody is able to say that we have talent here or there.

And even if "talent" was genetic it can be easily wasted with the wrong guidance or lack of it. On the other hand a great teacher can be the key opening the gate to the success.

A real life example:
A 10 y.o. kid having problems still with writing correctly, absolutely having no idea what is going on in the maths, having troubles learning little poems or songs, one day discovers a very cool computer game that goes around spelling. Other day this kid discovers another game, this time around math. After a while the kid switched from almost the bottom to almost the top. This kid finished the high school as second best not studying much, all remembered from the classes. This kid graduated university as engineer as second best in his year and second only because was slightly lazy.
If someone looked at that kid when he was 10 years old, he would say, the kid lacks any talent for science.
But looking at the same kid when he was 18 years old, people would say he is extremely talented in science.

But this 'talent' is made of many variables: the good guidance of the game (I know, this is poor equivalent of teacher ), luck of finding the game, stubbornness of the kid, hard work.

I believe it can happen similarly with sport. Here of course the important factor is physical condition, but the rest (motivation, hard work, good guidance, luck, opportunity) does not change. Of course praise and critic have also great impact on the creation of 'talent'.