Analysis Of What It Takes To Be Great By Colvin

In the article, Class and Cleats: Community College Student Athletes and Academic Success, Horton first examines the statistics of evidence showing college athletes and their underachievement. There are many instances of concern about college athletes and their poor grades having an affect of their athletic responsibilities, though this belief is usually denied due to a student always being a student before anything else. This study researches the idea of the way that college students and college athletes view success. Many college athletes tend to state that success is passing all courses and being more successful in their sport, rather than academics coming first (Horton, 2009).

In the article “Playing With Pain” by Michelle Crouch, published by Scholastic SCOPE, in December 2015 and January 2016, is about how when you specialize in one sport, you put a lot pressure on yourself to do well and be the best you can be, but some consequences can be life changing.

Every elite athlete makes it look easy. Splashing through the water or striding gracefully down the track making it look effortless. Some people assume they are “naturals,” that their perfect DNA sequence is what has brought them to this level. Others argue that hard work and drive is what has made the difference, separating the elite from the average. These thoughts are the ones that give rise to the age-old nature vs. nurture debate. Countless hours of studies and research has concluded: it’s both. High performance sports consultant Ross Tucker puts it this way, “The science of success is about the coming together of dozens, perhaps hundreds of factors” (1). The relationship of such factors, including genetics, types and lengths of

What many people fail to see in an athlete is the amount of talent in them, the commitment they have, the intense training they go through, and the competitive attitude they posses. The physical challenges they face and endure is astonishing. An average person works eight hours a day behind a desk with his computer. Imagine working the same number of hours everyday while training your abilities, maintaining your physical form, and sharpening your skills (Anonymous par. 4). That is what a professional athlete endures. Athletes face short career lengths. They also face a lot of competitiveness; therefore, an athlete is at the top of his game when he is still young. Professional athletes also face the risk of career ending injuries when they are fighting to win a game and be the best they can. Combining all those problems they face, the average career length of an athlete is five years (Keown par. 2). Not only do these athletes need to stay in shape, but they also have to perform well. But all the hard works leads to health issues such as lack of sleep, fatigue, and continuous tension (Wilson par.3). If they are not able to put up to the

Secondly, there is a major difference between professional sports and college sports. “Students are not professional athletes who are paid salaries and incentives for a career in sports. They are students receiving access to a college education through their participation in sports...student athletes are amateurs who choose to participate in intercollegiate athletics as part of their educational experience, thus maintaining a distinction between student athletes who participate in the collegiate model and professional athletes who are also students” (Mitchell). The collegiate athletes’ incentive is the access to an outstanding education. College athletes playing a college sport is not a career or a profession. “The NCAA plays a critical role in the maintenance of a revered tradition of amateurism in college sports”(Ross). This quote is laudable because

Have you ever looked down upon a Blue-collar worker? Well, no need to anymore. Author Mike Rose, a professor at UCLA, wrote "Blue-Collar Brilliance," published in a reputable magazine in 2009 in the American Scholar. Rose argues that Blue-Collar workers are often overlooked. Additionally, Rose brings an overwhelming measure of thankfulness and support as this article assertively endeavored to persuade white-collar workers who before it demonstrated almost no appreciation for blue collar workers. He claims that in effect, intelligence cannot be determined only by the knowledge we collect in school but also through how we learn skills in our daily lives. Rose effectively argues his claim by using pathos, ethos, and logos through personal stories, and comprehensive counterarguments.

Understanding and using intelligence is in all of us. The intelligence determines a person who uses it for their purposes that results that there are different categories of work that people work in. The different categories are different skill-sets consider the type of person in a group of people that coexists with the other people. This results that a person is to themselves based on what they can or cannot act according to their intellect. All people are not a welder or a doctor, nevertheless at least one person is one of them with the skills they gain from the intelligence or experience that they have. Understanding intelligence difference and its subjectivity are one view of understanding Mike Rose article "Blue-Collar Brilliance"

He sees the validity of this claim, however, declares that this only gives limited knowledge, in that there is much more to this. There are many other factors factoring into athletic performance, not simply genetics. With this, he shows how these athletes followed the 10,000-hour rule, demonstrating that deliberate practice was needed to perform as well as they did. These athletes dedicated large amounts of training and dedication in order to reach the success they did. This success was not simply achieved due to their genetics, it was rather nurtured through their practice. While Gladwell believes in the idea that blacks are generally better athletes than whites, he also believes that hard work is the most important thing for someone who wants to be good at a sport. His theory is that hard work and drive are more important than someone’s race when it comes to being good at a sport, in that athletic ability does not always come down to physical ability. There is no clear explanation of why and if certain races perform better than others. Ultimately, Gladwell believes there is more than one factor that contributes to

“To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, that’s all their is to it” - Adam Vinateri (American Football Player). That quote sticks out for one reason; to me it indicates that in order to develop into the “best” or among the best, you must compete against the best. Actually my interpretation might not be that far off; according to Sports Illustrated, “What seems obvious, though, is that only a small fraction of the one-and-done players in this sample completely flamed out in the NBA,” “Only a handful turned into stars – and even a smaller number into true superstars – but on average, a majority of them managed to play significant roles in the league for at least a few years.” “So I ask, if these players are missing out on such important “development” by skipping the full college basketball experience, why are they producing at a higher level than their peers?”(Moore, SI) So players not only benefit from don’t actually “flame out” and out of a job after electing to either skip college or go 1 full year. It doesn’t stop there; Kevin Pelton at ESPN, crunched numbers between players who went to college one year (One and Done) and players who attended more than one; logged their first 500 minutes and the NBA. The numbers taken by an average concluded that the One and

Many people dream of being a professional athlete. Some people make it a reality, but

This can be seen all through the practices, competition trials, and Olympic races in which George Pocock’s words ring true every time. It is during the final Olympic race in which the boys realized, “that they needed to do what was impossible, to go even higher. Somewhere, deep down inside, each of the grades at shreds of will and strength they did not know they possessed,” (Brown, 350). Giving the reader a look at how these men have to put aside everything and focus on pushing themselves through the hardest race of their lives, shows the hopes and dreams that they all share to gain what others thought might be

Finally, outside influence plays a key role in determining athletic success. Athletes must be motivated to push away negative influences, peer pressure and what others want. It’s important to have a good coach who cares about the athlete’s success and hones his skills. Coaches can mold an athlete’s physical and mental maturity and play a critical role in helping develop the athlete while putting them in a better position to handle success.

Over many centuries, society tends to frame the obscene differences to antagonize and alienate each other whether it's about a political or religious view, social reasons, or financial situations. In “Blue Collar Brilliance”, Mike Rose provides an invigorating story to persuade his audience to understand that having a blue collar job compared to a white-collar job does not determine how smart someone is. Rose uses anecdotes, rhetorical question, and logos to show that blue-collar workers learn just as much without a formal education.

The NCAA has relied heavily on the age-old characterization of college athletes as “amateurs” who are first and foremost “student-athletes” (Sanderson and Siegfried). Because they are considered students and

What makes champions in sport? At the end of the day, it is the moment when one stands at the top of the podium, holding up their well-deserved medals and trophies that all elite athletes strive for. Thus, experts have studied this question extensively to see which programs, or by what means, are elite athletes developed to achieve this goal. One of the many aspects to athlete development is the controversial topic of deliberate practice versus deliberate play. Deliberate practice can be defined as “any training activity (a) undertaken with the specific purpose of increasing performance, (b) requiring cognitive and/or physical effort, and (c) relevant to promoting positive skill development” (Cote et al., 2007, p. 185) On the