Perhaps you were born in September, maybe you remind the coach of a player who went on to do great things, or you have a particular skill that catches the eye. Whatever it is, the end result is the same – we confuse skill with luck. The issue, of course, in time, and over time, luck disappears – physical size might no longer matter, the coach changes and the skill you had down is no longer the only show in town.
I’m not sure much will ever change when the game is to win because luck is as good as skill in the here and now. But, what can change is our understanding of luck, skill, and probability and that’s important because we are telling kids who are committed that it’s their skill that is not up to scratch when really what we mean is they are simply out of luck.