What does it mean to have a “talent” for swimming? What are the distinctive traits that make a swimmer a young “talent”? Here are some thoughts….
The talents factory is the very top of the most delicious cake; it is the sweetest cherry of all, but also the bitterest to taste. Talent means willpower, virtue, determination and desire. It is, above all else, a gift: divine according to believers, natural for our secular friends.
I have deliberately used the plural “talents” in the title, not so much to refer to all the different athletes in question, as all the different abilities, behavioural qualities, habits, skills and attitudes that make up a TALENT.
When I think about spotting talent, I do not so much think of a group of scientifically selected children with exceptional motor skills who are genetically advantaged, but rather of a miscellaneous group of children of different age, size, ability, physical qualities and levels of interaction and motivation (i.e. our ordinary Peters and Janes).
Question: do all children have talents? The answer is…..yes! One single talent will not turn a swimmer into a champion and, vice-versa, the lack of any particular talent will not prevent a swimmer from becoming one; that is because nobody has…
