There has been an interesting debate going on in the GARM about whether playing hard and competing hard is a skill or talent. Morey made a comment that they view playing hard as a skill and there are numerous cases of people being called OVER acheivers simply because they play harder than others. Personally, I think it is a skill...the ability to focus and concentrate on your task at hand, and compete while you are on the floor, to me is a skill. What say you? Skill or not? And please make your case. DD
I see what you are saying about the focus, but I think that would make focus a skill. Playing hard is just a mind set. I think concentrating, and focusing are the skills. It's possible to concentrate and focus, but not have the mindset to run back fast enough on D, or cover the rotation on defense, if you are fatigued. When I was playing little league baseball, my brothers and father always told me, you may not be the best ball player out there, but you can always hustle no matter what skills you have.
I basically agree. People can debate on what the true definition of "skill" is. From a practical standpoint, I look at skills as attributes that vary amongst players and help determine how players will contribute to their team winning. Things like diligence and putting out maximal effort, to me, fall in that category.
Yes, but the important thing here isn't what player "can" do, but rather what, most probably, they will do. When making basketball personnel decisions, the key consideration needs to be expected performance. Not theoretical potential.
Just for the sake of semantics, I'd call it an attribute. Everybody has the skill to play all out, but not all do. Not everybody can dunk left handed or shoot the three at a high clip. Those are skills.
I agree with this, playing hard is a mindset, a mentality if you will, where focus and concentrating are more talents. Now maybe if you get those things together and combine them, it may look like the player is playing even harder, and that may be so, but I think they're a little different. There are plenty of people who, I suppose, who have been accused of hustle and playing hard while not having the focus/concentration they should have. Heck, I think Von Wafer was accused of that a lot of the time last season.
What's the difference between a skill and an attribute? Playing hard and focusing on nearly every play takes incredible physical and mental focus that not every player has. This relates to basketball IQ, which much like athleticism, isn't something you can teach. Yes, it's a skill.
I don't know what difference it would make whether it's a skill or not. I'd take hard work, considering the ability is there, over pure talent. Pure talent alone is too expensive and hardly ever gets a team to their ultimate destination. I am not saying that ability and skill is not required but I would feel much better about a hard-working team than a talented team with no work ethic.
It means that should be treated like its a skill. Which, for the purposes of decision making regarding personnel, makes it equivalent.
No. Skills (shooting, rebounding, defending properly, blocking shots) are unique and honed through hours of practice. Attributes like playing hard or talking on defense are achieved by just deciding to do such. You don't hone or craft playing hard. You just do it.
Wouldn't honing something through hours of practice be something you just decide to do? To me, it comes down to the same thing. Discipline.
If your definition was correct,than Battier would be the most skilled player in the league,although there are many players who are far more skilled than him. They can do things that he will never be able to do,but most of them don't work hard like him.
