Quote Originally Posted by Althugz
From what i've been taught there is no such thing as a 'gifted' athlete. Sure you can be genetically better suited towards one sport than another. For example marathon runners and sprinters..the sprinter wouldn't be a good marathon runner and vice versa.

For example, Brazilians are always thought to be 'gifted' footballers. This again is untrue..Do you know how young these guys are when they start playing and practicing? It is their life..they don't have video games, they don't have any other distraction. Ronaldinho for example from a very young age used to practice kick ups with his dog..trying to keep it away from him. Basically i've been taught that it is all about practice practice practice.

People say Floyd is also a gifted athlete, same with Roy Jones Jr..I beg to differ. Look at WHEN these guys started their training..Floyd Sr said that he would have Floyd practicing punching at 6 months old. He would push and pull baby Floyds hands back and forth going through punching motions and eventually he said Floyd at 9 months would do the motion himself! So Floyd has essentially been practicing boxing since he was 6 months old!! He always complains about his lack of childhood..because he was ALWAYS practicing.

Thats why when anyone mentions 'gifted' athlete I say bullshit. A better statement would be 'I've never seen anybody more genetically suited' to this sport..but then again that's bullshit too because of the amount of differing styles in boxing!

So to wrap up..i don't believe in it. I believe in practice.
Your actually wrong. THere is about 10,000 hours that you can put into a sport when starting as a child that you will continue to improve. THat will give you the maximum level of your ability, which for the average person would make them good at what they do, and 1% of the people who already have been participating in that sport will have the ability to become a world champion or star at the professional level.