Counterpoint: Great Athletes Aren’t as Great as You Think
Contrary to popular belief, great athletes aren’t really as great as you think. The truth is great athletes are only great at amplifying what makes them great. Their strengths. This may be only 3 to 5 skills, sometimes less, depending on the sport.
Moreover, they don’t let their opponents expose the other 3 to 5 skills they aren’t so great at executing. This is because great athletes also have the uncanny ability to manage their weaknesses so they don’t get in the way.
Author Geoff Colvin provides a great example of this using NFL all-time great Jerry Rice. In the book Talent is Overrated Colvin explains:
Rice didn’t need to do everything well, just certain things. He had to run precise patterns; he had to evade the defenders, sometimes two or three, who were assigned to cover him; he had to out jump them to catch the ball and outmuscle them when they tried to strip it away; then he had to outrun tacklers. So he focused his practice work on exactly those requirements.
Not being the fastest receiver in the league turned out not to matter. He became famous for the precision of his patterns. His weight training gave him tremendous strength. His trail running gave him control so he could change directions suddenly without signaling his move. The uphill wind sprints gave him explosive acceleration. Most of all, his endurance training — not something that a speed-focused athlete would normally concentrate on — game him a giant advantage in the fourth quarter, when his opponents were tired and weak, and he seemed fresh as he was in the first minute…
Rice and his coaches understood exactly what he needed in order to be dominant. They focused on those things and not on other goals that might have seemed generally desirable, like speed.
Jerry Rice Was Great Because He Focused Only on What He Could Control
Jerry Rice retired in 2006 after playing at a high level for the majority of his 20-year career. At this point, Jerry Rice’s career stats are still #1 all-time in the NFL for wide receivers. He is the undisputed greatest of all-time in his position. He was never even close to the fastest, could not jump the highest, and was only average size. He didn’t go to a big-time college either.
In fact, there was absolutely nothing prototypical about him. His main talents were his mind and his hustle.
What made Jerry Rice great is that he never worried about his weaknesses. It never mattered to him that he wasn’t the fastest. Instead, he poured all of his time, energy, and hard work into those things that he could control, and he became the best at those things.