The Role of Excellence in Sports

Journal Reflection 5

Excellence is a characteristic that some people in this world have been able to achieve. It is a seemingly, somewhat common phenomenon in today’s world. We may not see this excellence first hand in out everyday lives but our world is filled with excellent people, some being athletes or movie stars and some being scientist and business tycoons. All of these people have achieved what can be commonly called excellence but they all took different paths to get where they are today.

I do not believe that there is a “common thread” that links all of the people of excellence in our world. There are an enormous number of factors that contribute to what people do with their lives and where they end up; and these factors are different for every single individual on the planet. To say that there is a common thread between all people of excellence would be to say that anyone with that particular characteristic would be an excellent person. For example, many may say that motivation could be this common thread, however there are millions of highly motivated people in this world that have not and will never achieve “excellence.” To site a specific example of this, Ralph Nader has been running for president since 1992, however he has never won a presidential election. This proves that someone who has a strong motivation or drive for something may not achieve it. Also I believe that every decision that a person makes in their life will lead them to excellence or not. That being said, if there was a common thread of excellence it would mean that all people of excellence would make exactly the same choice in any given situation, which is simply not possible. Ericsson’s notion of the common thread in Chapter 1 appears to be “deliberate practice.” I do believe that practice is a very important part in achieving excellence but I still believe there is no common thread, even practice. I believe that there are people in this world who have a natural ability for certain skills. Some people are born with greater IQs or athletic abilities and this leads them to be excellent with far less practice than someone without these advantages.

The nature of excellence in sports would be the ability to become the world champion of a specific sport; and this is achieved through dedication, motivation, practice, athleticism, coaching and many other factors. All of these components combined (along with other life experiences) will lead one to achieve excellence in the field of athletics. If there is a single most important component in achieving athletic excellence I believe it to be natural athleticism. Without the natural ability to be an athlete all of the training and determination in the world is completely useless. People born with natural athleticism have a very large head start on those who are born without it. Those born with this characteristic can often excel in multiple, perhaps not at an international level in many sports but greater than the average person in some and an international excellence in one or two. For example, Michael Jordan, perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time can be considered a natural athlete. After his basketball career Jordan was able to join a professional baseball team for over a year, a feat many baseball players never achieve. The example of Michael Jordan is one of many that proves natural athleticism is very important in sports and is quite possibly the most important component of the field.