On Friday, 16 December 2016 07:37:37 UTC, T i m wrote:
On Thu, 15 Dec 2016 03:37:58 -0800 (PST), Halmyre
wrote:

snip

[1] I race RC Lasers [ http://www.rclaser.org.uk/ ] and on one fun
sail a lady was always coming last. She suggested it was her boat so
for the next race I offered to swap my boat with hers. She still came
last and I managed to get her boat into the top three g. That said,
her boat *was* harder work than mine (not as well set-up) but the
experiment did allow her to see there was nothing major wrong with it.
;-)

The one-off 1970 Questor Grand Prix was a mixed race for Formula 1 and Formula 5000 cars. Legendary (and curmudgeonly) Indycar racer AJ Foyt was struggling at the back of the field so, while Foyt was elsewhere, his team boss asked Jackie Stewart to go out for a few laps. Stewart set a middle-grid time and breezily suggested to the team that the car was OK, maybe it was the driver that was the problem. Foyt got to hear about it and came looking for Jackie...

Hehe. Doncha hate it when that happens. ;-)

It's funny though, whilst there are 'naturals' who appear to have a
gift re their ability to do something better than most (if not all) it
may be simply that 1) not everyone else has tried (or had the
opportunity to try) and so they can became the 'World Champion ... (of
all those who have given it a go') or 2) they apply more effort /
practice / money / time on it than most 'ordinary' people can or want
to. So, they *could* be champions, if they were bothered?

Like 'Miss Universe' ... how much notice did they give to all the
other life forms in this universe. ;-)

But it's like many of the current F1 drivers came up from karting and
how many parents today could afford (or be willing to afford) what it
costs to put their kid in a competitive kart at the right age?

We have given our kids the opportunity to try as many things as we
could (inc karting) to see if there is something they might either
enjoy as a hobby or be naturally good at. The frustration comes (as a
parent) when it's obvious they are good at something but aren't
interested in it themselves.

Cheers, T i m

Can't imagine anyone being good at something they aren't interested in.