I'm late to this party - and I realize the following is going to sound arrogant - but what I don't see in any of the comments are the insights of anyone who has played a sport at a professional level.

First, sports and music are not the same thing. My observations lead me to believe that in music, who you know is more important than how much you believe in yourself, or even how well you play. However, I'm not a musician, so I'm basing this on knowing a lot of really good musicians who never made it big.

Second, I think a big part of the problem here is semantics. There's not really a word for what the sportscaster is trying to say when he says "knowing how to win" or "confidence." My trainer used to call it "puissance." It's what books on Zen Archery try to teach you - that moment when everything comes together and you CAN'T not do everything perfectly. It's what lets you make that Hail Mary shot which you could never make in practice, at just the moment to win the big game. Experience and confidence don't guarantee it, they just makes conditions for its appearance more likely.

My sport was show-jumping. In the ring, I consistently beat people who were far better than I was in practice. One of my best friends was an incredibly talented rider everywhere BUT in the ring. She was far better than I was, in terms of talent, hard work, determination, experience, and everything but being able to do her best when it counted.

One of the starred posters made the comment that talent was necessary but not sufficient. I'll go you one better - talent isn't even always necessary. Sometimes what's necessary is it being your day. As a thirteen-year-old girl, I won a blue ribbon against a horse and rider who would later win an Olympic gold medal. Was I the better rider? Hell no. Was my horse better? Nope, I later sold him to a successful Grand Prix rider who couldn't do a thing with him. The same sort of thing happened to Paul Wylie, a mediocre skater who had one great shining moment that made him a silver medalist. Wylie's not particularly talented, he just had his moment. A sports commenter might say he had "heart" or "gave it his all" or some other cliche, but as someone whose great talent was beating people more talented than myself, I can say there's no virtue involved. It's just something that happens, as if God Himself came down and painted big red instructions on everything. Is that "talent"?

It isn't "believing in yourself," either. But if you try to describe it to other people it comes out sounding like believing in yourself. I've done it when shooting too, defeating someone who was a professional competition shooter. (I'm a hobbyist at best, and he was pretty shocked.) The "thought" that went through my mind was something like, Having made this shot once, there is no reason for you to ever miss. So I didn't miss, for the rest of the round. When you do that in a public place, people trying to make sense of something which doesn't make sense will say things like, "She must have really wanted it bad." Well, no. That's not it at all. But what "it" is, is something that's very hard to put into words - and sportscasters get paid for words.

Sounds like the Neo-Cons treat Plato with the same high level of respect they accord the Bible.

Chosen few, destined to rule? Yep, that's me! Supposed to be a guardian of the others? Must have slept through class that day.

Homosexuality an offense to God? Terribly important, don't dare allow any leeway on the interpretation of those verses. Give all you have to the poor and follow Me? Not so much.