Sucess through hard work - naturally

If I had a pound for every time I have heard Sir Ian Botham go on about "letting Kevin Pietersen play his natural game", I could build a new clubhouse at the Valley. Sorry 'Surian' but you are talking baloney. In watching KP's marvellous and game-changing innings of 187 against India today, it was obvious that he wasn't playing his natural game - he was playing his 'Indian spinners on a turning sub continent wicket' game - and doing it rather well. His success was not so much due to natural talent but down to the hours of hard work KP has put in with, amongst others,  Mushy, the England spin coach, to make sure his game is ready for the conditions he will face. Yes, this is the old nature v nurture debate but let's put this debate to bed once and for all.

KP is a worthy example of what can be achieved through sheer hard work, rather than relying upon, perhaps dubious, talent. Growing up in South Africa, KP was an ok spin bowler and and even less ok batsman. But one thing that KP certainly has in his make up is self-belief and he knew he should and could achieve better than 'ok'. So he worked hard, very hard by all accounts, and then fell foul, in his eyes at least, of the SA quota system and so came to England determined to suceed - the rest is a colourful and as yet unfinished story. But the point is that KP's talent, or natural game, was nowhere near good enough by itself to play International cricket - it was sheer hard work and dedicated practice that made him the batsman he is today.

Any serious coach should not be in any doubt that the talent myth should not be perpetuated any longer - it is rather the ability to work hard and learn from all that effort that should be held in high esteem. For students of theory look no further than the research by Carol Dwerk1 who clearly showed that students who believe that talent is a prerequisite to success quickly became demotivated by failures - 'it's not my fault, I'm just not good at this' - whilst students whose mindsets are that ability could be improved through effort saw failure as something to be overcome and an opportunity to learnt from mistakes. So the good coaches don't say 'you have a wonderful natural cover drive' they say 'how can you hit the ball better?' Of course some players are born with better eye-hand-ball coordination or faster reactions than others but hard, specific practice, and lots of it, with a smart coach will quickly achieve better results than a reliance upon God-given talent. So if you are told you don't have the talent to play at the highest level, think yourself lucky and just start practising.

1. Bounce by Matthew Syed.