Best athletes always striving to get better

On rainy days, and we've had more than a few of those lately, friends and I sometimes discuss some of those great questions for the ages. In times long past, these would be face-to-face. Now, these discussions take place via phone conversation, e-mail or through that a forum even I'm surprised to find myself participating in: Facebook.

Often, these questions don't really have answers, which makes the discussions even more fun, as you can go forever making points, knowing that no one's answer will necessarily be correct and none is automatically wrong. Using the word "debate" brings up an argumentative tone - and it's seldom that.

And me being me, the triggers that spark these conversations come from far-reaching sources - usually something written about soccer in London or abroad, but also perhaps something written about swimming or cycling or some other relatively obscure sport. I like good writing, and search it out with an electronic divining rod.

The conversation focused on what makes a good athlete, and the source typically came from deep left field. In an interview preserved on YouTube, Uruguayan guitarist and teacher Alvaro Pierri was asked what makes a good guitar player.

First, Pierri admitted that the answer is a long one. "In fact, it could be never-ending," he said, which means I ought to include him in my next rainy day sports topic discussion.

Remember, my friends and I discussed what makes a good athlete - but see if you see some common threads here.

"A good guitarist must be a good person, must be a good soul, must be a curious person, must be a humble personality, always trying to learn and discover and discover," Pierri said. "(A guitarist) must be a very auto critical personality, just to discover where you are and how to get better."

I thought about this quote throughout the weekend, first in watching Mooseheart's football team play Kirkland-Hiawatha on Friday and then while at Wheaton College's upset victory over Bethel University on Saturday.

These are two entirely different levels - Class 1A football between two of the smaller high schools in Illinois and then two of the nation's small-college juggernauts.

But there are good athletes on every team and in every sport. What makes a good athlete? What made Mary Descenza such a great girls swimmer at Rosary? Why was Marci Miller such an amazing girls soccer player at St. Charles? Why is Gabe Kendor so talented at Mooseheart? What made Alex Pokorny so good at Geneva and now at Wheaton College?

The answer, certainly, is different for every athlete and depends on the sport in which they compete.

But in each of these instances, I never heard someone say "he (or she) just won't learn." In fact, the desire to become better sometimes becomes insatiable.

I recently had the pleasure of talking to Jarrett Payton, son of the late Chicago Bears great Walter Payton. I first saw Jarrett when his St. Viator team fell to St. Charles in the IHSA quarterfinals at Norris Stadium - while his dad played proud papa watching.

The younger Payton went to star as a St. Viator football player and then at the University of Miami and finally for a time in the Canadian Football League.

Jarrett Payton said he would wake up in the middle of the night worried that his competitors were getting an edge on him. So he'd go and work out at 2 a.m.

I have often told the story of Mike Fisher and Mike Dunne - the two always seemed to mentioned in tandem in Batavia - who were practicing one day as I walked by to talk to someone else. They were alone on a very hot day, going hard against each other. The ball came my way and I started to run to get it.

"It's OK, we need the exercise," Dunne said.

The stories of these greats always contain that component. In another oft-told story, I first saw Marci Miller working out with Bret Hall when she was a middle schooler while I interviewed St. Charles coach Tim Dailey on another very warm day. The drills were never-ending yet Miller worked through them all.

There's more, of course. Here is how Pierri finished his answer to the question: "It must be somebody who, through music, discovers the language that could be possible to express with this instrument or another instrument. The most important instrument is the idea or the ideas. What makes a guitarist is if you want to reduce (it) to something - is curiosity and love."

Practice and performance are two different things. I can practice forever and still not be able to play soccer like Fisher, Dunne or Miller, or to swim like Descenza or football like Pokorny, Kendor or Payton. And I can't play guitar like Pierri.

There is something that separates the average from the good, the very good and the great. At some level, each of the athletes I've mentioned have or had the ability to transcend practice and spoke their sport in a different way. Watching Descenza glide through the water was more than just watching a woman throw her arms forward and propel herself forward. There was magic to it.

Watching Pokorny on Saturday, in the driving rain and on the waterlogged artificial surface at McCully Field, Pokorny still glides as he did for Geneva. It wasn't a good day for receivers - the Thunder only completed 2-of-11 passes. So the words "pass intended for Pokorny" were heard most frequently on the PA system.

But you could see the moves, the cuts and the artistry in trying to get open. Sometimes, the cuts were planned, other times, there was innovation required - the curiosity Pierri spoke of.

I doubt any of the athletes I've mentioned has a clue who Alvaro Pierri is, and I haven't seen many Uruguayan guitar teachers at our local stadiums over the years.

But if the two groups were to sit around and talk about "good athletes" and even "good guitar players," they would probably find that their discussions would merge into one.