When you tell somebody “you’re a natural receiver” what you’re really telling them is “you got lucky to be so good.” That phrase “you’re a natural” degrades any work a person has done to achieve their level of skill and makes it seam like they simply won a genetic lottery.

I don’t think coaches should be sending this message. Even if somebody really did win the genetic lottery. If an athlete really is a natural at some skill I still think it’s better for them to be told “wow, your reception is great, you must have worked impressively hard to learn that.” This phrase will, hopefully, show them that hard work is praiseworthy and if they work hard that is something to be proud of. Even if they didn’t work hard to begin with and they really are a natural, maybe now they’ll start working harder.

If an athlete starts to believe that they’re naturally talented at something they might believe that they are naturally untalented at other things. The naturally talented receiver might come to believe that since they currently aren’t a very skilled spiker that they must not be a natural at that and have no chance to improve. They will subsequently not put their best effort at trying to improve their spiking. Furthermore, the natural receiver is only as good as their nature. So if a better receiver turns up they might as well fold up shop and not work hard to improve their game. What’s the point if somebody is just naturally better?

The phrase “you’re a natural” is a bit of a trigger for me. I get praise often for being pretty smart. I have heard many times “you’re naturally intelligent.” This insults me and I feel it devalues how hard I have worked at becoming a good learner. What people who tell me this don’t know is that when I was in elementary school I was in “special” education classes and was thought to have a learning disability. I don’t think anybody was praising my natural intelligence at this point in my life.

But now, I’m naturally intelligent. Telling me that isn’t a compliment. It devalues the hard work I did to become smarter. As we now know that the brain can change over time (neuroplasticity). So we can become more intelligent than we currently are. We can become better learners. Not only this, but the more we practice learning the more easily we are able to learn future skills. This tells me that should praise people for being learners and working hard.

So stop telling athletes that they’re a natural at [skill].

1. If they aren’t a natural (most likely) you’re insulting them and devaluing work they had to do to learn the skill in question.
2. If they are a natural, you should still promote the value of work ethic and becoming a learning. Because they won’t be a natural at everything. They shouldn’t stop working hard in case an even more skilled natural turns up.

End of rant.