Wayne Gretzky, arguably the greatest player in the history of ice hockey was known to appear in the place on the ice, when playing the game just before the puck somehow showed up from some unclear situation in the corner of the ice ring.
He usually scored or passed the puck to another player who scored.
That’s how he build the incredible statistic of scored goals and passes to scored goals.
People mostly identify his genius to the incredible talent he was born with.
From article in New York Times Magazine in 1997:
Gretzky circling, Gretzky circling on the right side of the ice. Players are fighting for a puck on the left side of the playground.
Gretzky circling. Gretzky darts ahead. Puck suddenly comes toward his way.
Score!
How was Gretzky able to do this? Lets hear from the man himself.
“I wasn’t naturally gifted in terms of size and speed. Everything I did in hockey, I worked hard for.”
“The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say, that I worked hard every day.”
“That’s how I came to know where the puck was going before it even got there.”
As we can see from Gretzky’s words, he worked very hard to be exceptional Hockey player.
It wasn’t Gretzky’s talent to see the puck coming. It was in his deliberate practice – mental and physical.
I believe, that he worked harder than other less known players.
There is a an impression for this kind of talent out there.
It’s called Circumvented Combinatorial Explosion Via Advanced Pattern Recognition – in normal words said: The expert decision making in practice.
It is some kind of intuition build over time that makes you show up before your puck shows up.
Can you apply this to some level in your life?
Of course you can!
Just realize, that it isn’t talent that’s important, whether it is to improve you tennis game, golf swing, basketball skills, playing violin, playing chess or just to get lean and strong.
And realize, that if you work hard enough, you will get better at it. And if you work the hardest of all at it, you will probably get the best of all at it.
But, there are still going to be people out there, that will think that you are exceptionally talented at what you do. And they will never try, because they will mistakenly think, that they are not talented enough.