talent vs potential vs outcome

[warriorsingh84']

so..how can I tell if I have talent or not?? so far from the time I've been going down to the gym for the past 4-5 months, I haven't had too much difficulty learning the basics and every time I ask my trainer how I'm doing, he just says "I'm doing fine" and that i'm coming along nicely. Also one thing I want to know is that is it true that if you weren't much of an athlete during high school, you won't really have any potential in a sport like boxing if you take it up later in your life??

[Kid Achilles]

I've seen video of Mike Tyson throwing a basketball and he looks so awkward and uncoordinated in his movements that you'd never guess he was a professional athlete.

Don't worry about how you did at other sports, concern yourself with boxing.

Punchdrunk, I agree about not all talents being physical. Like I said, the ability to have mastery over your fear, the talent of self confidence is a huge advantage and there are some great fighters (like Tyson) who did everything else right but lacked this.

You also have guys like Joey Maxim who had a few talents (very good chin, decent power) but overall were not to be considered talented yet beat superior physical specimens because of his great ability to think and operate in there.

Joe Maxim to me was the ultimate overachiever in boxing if you look purely at physical talent. He was neither fast nor exceedingly powerful, and in boxing if you don't have speed or power you are usually at a huge disadvantage, but Maxim had a great career.

The fact is though, Maxim had a wealth of intangible boxing talents: he had confidence, grit, and timing and a mastery of the fundamentals of boxing. He was an incredibly skilled individual who got thing done in there against faster and stronger opponents.

Very few people are so well wired for boxing however.

So yeah, talent is hugely important, but don't think of talent as just how fast you are or how hard you can hit.

[eazy_mas]

talent is just a headstart and something that comes more naturally to you compared to other.

for example some people are born smarter, stronger and some are not....etc.

but usually if you train hard you could beat a talented person.


and an extrme version of talent is geunius where somebody is really really good at it and that is a rare occasion you get to see one but even though he needs to train to be better

[j]

Talent is potential.

talent is the outcome.

i'm not a believer in natural born greatness. many, many people do evolve into being better at certain things than others, but this is a product of hard work combined with insight/understanding.

as a person's understanding(and insight) of something developes, so does potential. when that person trains to fulfill that potential, it is turned into talent - sticking by the model of the original thread.

yeah, all people will develope certain attributes based on genetics. however, i don't see genetics as being a big part of talent.

i mean, being tall is not a talent, is it? neither is being skinny, or fat, etc.

tiger woods wasn't born with any special genetics. he was just handed a golf club when he was four and was encouraged to develope an understanding(insight) of how to swing it and such.

[Verstyle]

i like talent over potential. cause with a talented fighter u can build him up even higher to where the potential fighter wants to be.like 2 ppl racing that run at the same speeds.If 1 guy has a pretty big head start the guy with the headstart will win if he keeps that motivation all the way threw the race.

[j]

i like talent over potential

there's really no difference between them. refer to my previous post.

[Verstyle]

there's really no difference between them. refer to my previous post.

potential is u COULD have the tools to get u there. talent is u HAVE the tools to get u there

[j]

my bad, i misworded what i was thinking.

i basically meant to say that they are inseparable in at least one sense.

if you haven't created the potential for talent, you will never have it.

if you have talent, you have worked with your potential.


ahhh hell, i'll just stick with my original post about this topic.

[PunchDrunk]

talent is the outcome.

i'm not a believer in natural born greatness. many, many people do evolve into being better at certain things than others, but this is a product of hard work combined with insight/understanding.

as a person's understanding(and insight) of something developes, so does potential. when that person trains to fulfill that potential, it is turned into talent - sticking by the model of the original thread.

yeah, all people will develope certain attributes based on genetics. however, i don't see genetics as being a big part of talent.

i mean, being tall is not a talent, is it? neither is being skinny, or fat, etc.

tiger woods wasn't born with any special genetics. he was just handed a golf club when he was four and was encouraged to develope an understanding(insight) of how to swing it and such.

I think you're confusing talent with something else. Talent is certainly not the outcome. Talent is what you're born with, that gives you the possibility to become great, IF you add work.
Talent and hard work is like Cool Aid. Talent is the sugary stuff, hard work is the water. You can't drink the powder, but if you add water, you have something sweet. If you don't have the sweet, yet work hard, you can satisfy your thirst, but it's just water.

You can be certain Tiger Woods was born with special genetics! There's a million golfers out there, busting their asses 15 hours a day to be as good as him. What sets him apart is TALENT. Ability, skills and coordination he was BORN with.

Try training a bunch of kids for a few years, and you'll see the difference between the mediocre and the truly talented does NOT lie in how much they work at it (check out my previous post). It's just there.

[Trick]

Sorry, but you're so wrong. Talent is something you're born with, and the TRULY gifted fighters cannot be touched by someone with very little talent, no matter how hard they work.

I've been training fighters for years, and I've seen all different combinations of talent and hard work. One of my currently HARDEST working guys is unfortunately cursed with a mediocre talent. He's not even that bad, and has SOME talent. When it comes to training, NO ONE can get close to him. Long distance running, he's my best guy. Intervals, sprints, best guy. ANy kind of training we do, he's ALWAYS the guy pulling the other guys through, the one leading the way. He's got 75 fights. I put him in with an above average talented 17 year old with 30 fights, he gets knocked around like you wouldn't believe. And this 17 year old is a lazy SOB, always cutting corners. Both are featherweights

I have another 17 year old. A lightweight. He's a ***********. This kid is so talented you wouldn't believe it. A natural, You show him something once, he's got it down to perfection. He's 34-1, his only loss coming in his 4th fight against the National junior champion at the time. Now, because he's an Arab, he's always got commitments with his family and such, so he really doesn't train much. 3 times a week maybe (my other fighters train every day). In September '06 he fought in a tournament in Germany. His 3 opponents were all from the German national team. He knocked out two and outscored the third one in round 2. The German national coaches were calling him the next Amir Khan (sure hope so ). If you've ever seen such talent, you'll know that talent is BORN.

Now these two guys are at each end of the scale, one with little talent and the hardest working guy you'll ever meet. The other doesn't do much training, but has all the talent you, me, and everyone else ever DREAMED of.
Hard work does NOT beat talent every time. Like I said, it depends on HOW MUCH talent, and HOW MUCH hard work. Yes, it takes hard work, but without talent you can forget about it. If you want to get to the top, you need both. If you think otherwise, you're just kidding yourself.

Haha, well Punch Drunk, you do know what you're talkin' about, but I don't think a philosophy can be WRONG. From what I know medically, talent doesn't really make sense, well I mean born talent. Genetics plays a key role in about everything. But I can tell you now, I've had to analyze every damn chromosome from 1-23, and there ain't no boxing talent gene. People pick things up better than others for a whole host of reasons. Like I said, I personally believe that it's all post-natal influences, I could be wrong. The RIGHT answer I don't think can be found to that one. Cong**** on your little Amir Khan though, try to get him in the gym more often, because even the most talented guy won't go far unless he's dedicated.

Peace,
Trick