Is "Heart" something you just have or can it be learned?

336Robin said:
Heart comes from knowing.

When you know how you do what you do, thats confidence.

When you have confidence you can develop heart and not until.
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Hi Robin,

How does a 5, 6, or 7 year old child develop Heart when they've never played the sport before?

I figure you're talking specifically about pool but my point is that one can have Heart without confidence. One with Heart will put out a certain kind of effort that others may not.

There is NO give up in one with Heart. I have seen some very confident, arrogant, & cocky ball players simply give up when the tide turned against them or their team.

Best 2 You & All,
Rick
 
I will say one more thing: a guy can have all the heart in the world. Without a brain to guide and control it, he'll end up broke and living in the gutter.
 
WildWing said:
If anybody can make sense of this, "Shirley, pay the man."

Bottom line, all the good players have the skill. Those with the heart are born with it. I hope I don't have to keep restating this.
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and you are welcome to that opinion. Many old timers in ever game or sport think that way, regarding both heart and skill. Science tends to disagree.
 
I would have to agree as well. Here's one of the more important summations in that article:

"Heart is what gets us to compete authentically with our true nature."

I would think we could agree that "our true nature" is what we are born with. Of course, some still may want to fight this.
 
love for something creates the desire.

http://youtu.be/YRYLvAr898Q


I think what Nick is saying is, its not as simple as just to "love" fighting.

Someone can love fighting all they want but I dont know anyone who loves getting punched in the nose, but it becomes acceptable when you see it as just a part of what you love/hate. I dont know anyone who loves pushing their body to its limits but they recognize the need so they do it because they want to, they have a desire pushing them. Ultimately, its the love for something bigger than it all that creates a desire so strong, but along the way to getting what you desire you will experience both love and hate and without this realization and a desire strong enough to let you experience a wide range of emotions, or worse, it will be easy to quit when the going gets tough... or when you hate it.

It's the same in pool or any other endeavor. You wont always feel like practicing, or like practicing what you really need to work on which isnt always fun, but that desire will push you to. And there will be times when you feel like giving up, but with a big enough reason "why" you will keep going. It comes down to this... How bad do you want it... and is the motivation pure? With both, you will have heart.

No one has ever questioned Nick Diaz's heart.
http://youtu.be/_4h3qv471fo
 
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Not sure about "heart" or character being a learned skill exactly, but I believe it is something that can be developed even if it's not part of a player's make up from the day they take up the game. Maybe not everyone can have it, but I'm pretty sure there are plenty of players that do that haven't always had it from the very beginning.
 
DogsPlayingPool said:
Not sure about "heart" or character being a learned skill exactly, but I believe it is something that can be developed even if it's not part of a player's make up from the day they take up the game. Maybe not everyone can have it, but I'm pretty sure there are plenty of players that do that haven't always had it from the very beginning.
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I thought about this earlier but I got side tracked elsewhere.

You mentioned the word.

This thread is asking about Heart.

In the movie & I'd guess the book, The Hustler, it was about Character. Eddie was good, very good, near 'the best', but he lacked Character. That is, until something in His Life brought it to him or out of him.

I know it's just a book or a movie, but it's worth considering when it comes to being born with it or getting it later in life.

I think it's both. Some are born with it & others get it one way or another later in life. But I don't think it can be learned. It's just something inside an individual & that something most certainly can be & probably is Love.

Eddie did not say the words but it was there. Click on the link here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx3BVozrrbw or in my signature for the clip.

Best 2 You...& All,
Rick
 
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Yeah Rick, maybe you have signatures turned off because that's been mine since the day I joined here. ;)

The ability to persevere, overcome, rise to the occasion, etc., is in some people from the very beginning, some develop it and some will never have it. It can start from simply getting sick and tired of losing, LOL. Some will simply give up while others will bear down, dig in, and scratch and crawl to the finish line no matter what.
 
ENGLISH! said:
I thought about this earlier but I got side tracked elsewhere.

You mentioned the word.

This thread is asking about Heart.

In the movie & I'd guess the book, The Hustler, it was about Character. Eddie was good, very good, near 'the best', but he lacked Character. That is, until something in His Life brought it to him or out of him.

I know it's just a book or a movie, but it's worth considering when it comes to being born with it or getting it later in life.

I think it's both. Some are born with it & others get it one way or another later in life. But I don't think it can be learned. It's just something inside an individual & that something most certainly can be & probably is Love.

Eddie did not say the words but it was there. Click on the link here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx3BVozrrbw or in my signature for the clip.

Best 2 You...& All,
Rick
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The Hustler is a great movie. Eddie is a perfect example of what I was talking about in my earlier post when I mentioned "pure motivation".

Eddie had the desire to win all his matches. But when his desire was ego driven he lacked heart. It was when his desire to beat fats and the backer was created from love of the girl that he was truly determined to win no matter what.

His character was shown again in TCOM. Especially at the end... he says "I'm back". Yeah hes back alright... back to letting his ego get the best of him... something he battled with throughout.
 
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DogsPlayingPool said:
Yeah Rick, maybe you have signatures turned off because that's been mine since the day I joined here. ;)

The ability to persevere, overcome, rise to the occasion, etc., is in some people from the very beginning, some develop it and some will never have it. It can start from simply getting sick and tired of losing, LOL. Some will simply give up while others will bear down, dig in, and scratch and crawl to the finish line no matter what.
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Agreed.

I've seen your Sig Line. It's a true statement when one is truly challenged.

That's why when there are players of nearly the same ability many coaches would rather have a player with Heart/Character playing over one that does not really have such, even if the former is the one of lesser ability.

Best 2 You... & All,
Rick
 
(((Satori))) said:
The Hustler is a great movie. Eddie is a perfect example of what I was talking about in my earlier post when I mentioned "pure motivation".

Eddie had the desire to win all his matches. But when his desire was ego driven he lacked heart. It was when his desire to beat fats and the backer was created from love of the girl that he was truly determined to win no matter what.

His character was shown again in TCOM. Especially at the end... he says "I'm back". Yeah hes back alright... back to letting his ego get the best of him... something he battled with throughout.
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I don't think I agree with you as to the TCOM thing.

If it was about ego, he would not have unscrewed & forfeited. He would of said just BS to what Vinnie told him & kept playing.

When he said, 'I'm Back', I think he meant that he was back to doing what he Loved...& with Character & where he could show some Heart & not just running a business.

But Like Dennis Miller often says about himself, I could be wrong.

Best 2 Ya,
Rick
 
ENGLISH! said:
I don't think I agree with you as to the TCOM thing.

If it was about ego, he would not have unscrewed & forfeited. He would of said just BS to what Vinnie told him & kept playing.

When he said, 'I'm Back', I think he meant that he was back to doing what he Loved...& with Character & where he could show some Heart & not just running a business.

But Like Dennis Miller often says about himself, I could be wrong.

Best 2 Ya,
Rick
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I enjoyed both movies and I like how TCOM ended letting the viewer decide what happpened.
 
ENGLISH! said:
Agreed.

I've seen your Sig Line. It's a true statement when one is truly challenged.

That's why when there are players of nearly the same ability many coaches would rather have a player with Heart/Character playing over one that does not really have such, even if the former is the one of lesser ability.

Best 2 You... & All,
Rick
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This is why I originally stated I don't believe it can be learned. I don't know who coined this quote but I've seen it to be true, "pool does not develop character but it certainly will reveal it".
 
I think that you either have it or you don't, it is all a matter of how much you hate losing and how much time you want to put in practicing.
 
Johnson said:
I think that you either have it or you don't, it is all a matter of how much you hate losing and how much time you want to put in practicing.
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I think simply hating to lose can cause a lot of problems, like making you tense up and playing not to lose rather than playing to win when the going gets tough. This fear is not wanted.
 
(((Satori))) said:
I enjoyed both movies and I like how TCOM ended letting the viewer decide what happpened.
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The way I understood it when he said "I'm Back", was that he had his confidence back. I was kind of under the impression, he became a backer mostly because he went on a losing streak of some sort and felt he couldn't compete with the best anymore. Of course, this could have been a little bit of false confidence and ego driven as some have mentioned, but I think his belief in himself and desire had comeback. To me, it didn't look like he was really motivated by money (as a player, not backer), but the desire to win at all cost and he knew he would win, eventually......
 
Lynch said:
The way I understood it when he said "I'm Back", was that he had his confidence back. I was kind of under the impression, he became a backer mostly because he went on a losing streak of some sort and felt he couldn't compete with the best anymore. Of course, this could have been a little bit of false confidence and ego driven as some have mentioned, but I think his belief in himself and desire had comeback. To me, it didn't look like he was really motivated by money (as a player, not backer), but the desire to win at all cost and he knew he would win, eventually......
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Yeah, I know that's why he said "I'm back". I was looking for a deeper meaning behind the line.
 
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