Talent Development (TD) or Talent Identification (TI)? I must confess that I am procrastinating from finding the answer to this question by writing in this blog post. Procrastination is usually a negative trait, but the ability to hyperfocus on a task and have it completed, while still doing a good job might actually be a very powerful skill. Heavy emphasis on doing a good job though. It’s easy to do a terrible job.

If we were to consider procrastination as an attribute in talent identification for school, would it generally be something we identify and select against? Do most people tend to lean towards procrastination and there are a talented few that do not? Is that talent, or is it just training and experience? Does the student learn techniques to manage procrastination, or are they naturally gifted with higher willpower. Do kids who do well on the “Marshmellow Test” naturally have more willpower, or do they find better coping methods to delay gratification?

Well, it depends (my favourite response). Shouldn’t it depend on the sport or whatever activity we are looking at? For example, really tall people may be good for basketball, but are they good for gymnastics? So, my question would have to take a look at my sport of interest: badminton. However, I will speak about (TI/TD) as a broad concept so you may reflect on your own sports and activities.

As I am still going to the research, I would like to share my initial beliefs. That way it will be good to see where it may differ from the literature. I personally don’t believe in talent in general, and I believe it is more general development based on deliberate practice. I am in the deliberate practice camp for sure, and I would be biased towards that. However, deliberate practice is also not for everyone and depends on growth vs. fixed mindsets. Can mindset also be discussed in a nature vs. nurture debate? Probably. And down the rabbit hole we continue to go.

Additional elements that may be part of it include grit (via Angela Duckworth) and flow (via Mihály Csíkszentmihályi). However, a key proponent to this discussion is that sport is often a zero sum game. We NEED a winner and loser. General success in music, business, and other activities aren’t necessarily a zero sum game. Grades in school are not either, but positions into a prestigious program may be. I think where we define expertise is often also relative to many things. How successful do we need to be? In sport, what is an appropriate level for expertise? Sometimes I ask myself if I would consider myself and expert in my sport? Maybe relatively in Canada, but against the rest of the world, I’m not very certain.

Based on those questions, would we need to have a Gold Medal Profile to know which attributes are the most important before talent identification? In other words, don’t you need to know what the best attributes are in high performers before looking for them in the upcoming potential?

So, for ease of commenting, here are a few questions:
1) In your sport/activity, would you lean more towards talent (nature) or hard work (i.e. deliberate practice; nurture)? Any thoughts on mindset (growth vs. fixed)? Flow? Grit? Anything else?

2) How good do you have to be at something to be considered an expert? Is this relative to actual demand, or is 10 000 hours good enough (according to Malcom Gladwell)? As a though experiment, if many people achieved 10 000 hours, then would an expert not need to have more hours than average then? We cannot all be experts, or can we?

3) Does it depend on the type of sport? For example, measuring a physical feat (e.g. stronger, faster, higher) in some sports, getting judged in other sports, versus winning a game, whether through sequential means or non-sequential means. For example, in badminton, it is more or less a sequential game where each side hits shots back and forth, one shot at a time only. For martial arts, it would be different because you can make your move despite whether your opponent moves or not.

Thanks for reading and commenting. Just for fun, here’s a video on “Marshmellow Test Magic”!