Talent and Speed Kills

A player’s mother once asked me about judging talent and coaches that work with the talent. Her statement was that coaching was about 95% of importance to winning in high school ball with the team needing only about 5% talent to be successful. She continued to claim that in college sports, the converse was true. The team would only need about 5% coaching with 95% talent to win My first reaction, which was to laugh, but I kept my composure and proceeded to explain that everything she held as a belief about winning in sports was wrong. The cold fact of life is you need talented players to win. The better the talent, the more you win. High school, college or professional teams need the great athletes to win consistently.

I am awed and amazed by the fact that coaches still recruit slow players. All sports seem to be changing at record speed. Football now plays a wide open game similar to sandlot games we played Saturday and Sunday with other kids in the neighborhood. Spread the field! Make the defenders have to protect every inch of the field. Slow does not cut the tomatoes anymore. Speed kills in traffic and speed kills in football, only in football, speed can be offset by defenders with speed! The same can be said for soccer, basketball, volleyball and other team sports.

Did I say team sports? Whoa! Individual sports as well. I just watched Roger Federer dust off his opponent at the U. S. Open Tennis Championship. He is fast. Give me athletes with speed!

Having spoken of football, Michigan needs a healthy dose of speed and quickness. The attempt by Michigan to stay up with those Oregon receivers was embarrassing. Speed kills! Speed may cost some jobs at the end of the season thus killing careers.

What about Notre Dame? Penn State beat them like the old tom-tom. Does not Notre Dame have the” messiah of football coaching”? The man from the Patriots! He was going to save N. D. football. He will not be hugely successful until he gets some speed! He has slow players. The sad point is Penn State looked great against N. D., but did you notice? They are slow also, but they were faster than the ole N. D., meanwhile L. S. U. romped over Virginia Tech. The Tigers are loaded with speed. Team speed! The defense can run to the ball and the offense can explode in a heartbeat. They are not the only teams that have the speed!

The Oklahoma Sooner’s are a fast team. Their receivers and running backs can cover the ground in a hurry. They are dangerous, because they have talent and speed. Coaches drool over talent and speed. I have actually slobbered at the mouth talking about talent. Watch coaches when they get excited about an athlete. They begin talking louder and faster (speed) and using gestures of which speech teachers would be proud.

I recognize coaches have no control over who they get in high school. Gordon Wood who coached at Brownwood, Texas for years and won many state championships was asked one day how they could win a state title? Coach Wood gave this advice that is so rock solid and true, they ought to proclaim this to the world. He simply said to win, you must hire on at the high school with the largest enrollment in the district or league you play. The larger the school enrollment, the more students you have to choose from athletically. Many parents like the lady that asked the talent question do not understand this reality.

College and professional coaches get to recruit or draft their players. I feel there is not an excuse for trying to get as fast and as talented athlete as possible. Some coaches will work extremely hard to identify those athletes that fit these requirements, but others give in to easily.

In college, there are demands to give alumni kids a scholarship even if the athlete is just a borderline player. This does happen and the coaches program suffers. Sometimes the coaches just can not judge talent. When this happens, the school program will never be successful. You can say the same for professional coaches.

Professional coaches get blinded by not having a keen eye for talent. A perfect example was Kevin Durant during the last N. B. A. draft. He was labeled weak, because he could not bench press around 165 pounds. They were blinded by this statistic instead of seeing him as a 25 point per game player with unbelievable skills.

Talent is the name of the game. Talent with Speed is the total package. If you still do not believe anchor facts, I hope to recruit or play against you someday. Another victory will go on the coaching record.

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