Talent vs Practice
Compistion 1
Mr. T
23 October 2011
Talent Doesn’t Make It Easier
In our culture athletes are revered and almost conspired super-human by some. Every once in a while, one of those stars turns to the camera and says something to the sorts of “keep practicing and work hard to achieve…” How much of what he is saying is true? It’s the idea that if you do your math homework, then you will also do well on the test since you practiced by doing the homework. But what about the ones that don’t do their homework, but still do well on the test. Can it be said that they don’t need practice to be perfect? Is it possible to just get by with talent alone? Natural abilities are considered to be a part of the talent side of things. Body built is very important in sports. If someone is 5’4” and 175lbs they probably wont have the same natural abilities as 6’1” 250lb linebacker in highschool even with endless hours of practice. Football players are a great example of natural birth given talent with a little bit of work. Football players tend to be thicker and double if not triple the size of the average person. Runners or cardio athletes will be built for endurance, have a larger heart, and capillaries to circulate blood flow better to the muscles. So how does say athlete acquire these traits? Is it through genetics or just sheer hard work? “Until quite recently researchers commonly believed that percentages of muscle fiber types and aerobic power are more than ninety percent determined by heredity for males and females" (Ericcson 364). What this could mean is that speed process, ease of muscle growth, and even memory retaining are all passed down through our genes and some of these special traits can not be improved by practice. Practicing, however, can improve certain skills and add on to ones already obtained through experience. Experience offers us the ability to recall an event or situation that we have been a part of or seen and is able to use the experience
Mr. T
23 October 2011
Talent Doesn’t Make It Easier
In our culture athletes are revered and almost conspired super-human by some. Every once in a while, one of those stars turns to the camera and says something to the sorts of “keep practicing and work hard to achieve…” How much of what he is saying is true? It’s the idea that if you do your math homework, then you will also do well on the test since you practiced by doing the homework. But what about the ones that don’t do their homework, but still do well on the test. Can it be said that they don’t need practice to be perfect? Is it possible to just get by with talent alone? Natural abilities are considered to be a part of the talent side of things. Body built is very important in sports. If someone is 5’4” and 175lbs they probably wont have the same natural abilities as 6’1” 250lb linebacker in highschool even with endless hours of practice. Football players are a great example of natural birth given talent with a little bit of work. Football players tend to be thicker and double if not triple the size of the average person. Runners or cardio athletes will be built for endurance, have a larger heart, and capillaries to circulate blood flow better to the muscles. So how does say athlete acquire these traits? Is it through genetics or just sheer hard work? “Until quite recently researchers commonly believed that percentages of muscle fiber types and aerobic power are more than ninety percent determined by heredity for males and females" (Ericcson 364). What this could mean is that speed process, ease of muscle growth, and even memory retaining are all passed down through our genes and some of these special traits can not be improved by practice. Practicing, however, can improve certain skills and add on to ones already obtained through experience. Experience offers us the ability to recall an event or situation that we have been a part of or seen and is able to use the experience