Skills are the "how-to's" of a role - capabilities that can be transferred from one person to another. Knowledge, on the other hand, comprises what you're aware of factually as well as what you have learned from experience. Experiential knowledge is what you pick up over time as you reflect back on your experiences and draw connections and patterns and includes, your unique persepective, your biases, and your values. The athlete who is able to analyze their competitive experiences to determine what works best during competition is developing their experiental knowledge.

Talent is distinct from knowledge and skill and is the product of how your brain's pathways developed in response to your unique upbringing and which kinds of thinking and behaving were rewarded or punished along the way. In short, your talents are your recurring thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.

There have been identified three types of talents:

1. Striving - this talent explains the "why" of an athlete.  What motivates them? Are they competitive, achievement oriented, afraid to fail?...
2. Thinking - this talent explicates the "how" of an athlete. How they think. Are they disciplined? Organized? Spontaneous?
3. Relating - this talant explains the "who" of an athlete - who they are drawn to or repelled by, are they introverted or extroverted?

Great coaches should find their athletes roles that play to those athlete's talents. They can do so in two ways. First, they can create the environment that allows each athlete's talent to flourish. Second, they can define the right outcomes and allow each athlete to find their own routes to those outcomes.

Some coaches might question the idea that qualities like "drive" and "motivation" are unchangeable. There is little that is as frustrating as the highly skilled athlete who is not motivated to train or compete they perceived potential. Accepting that an athlete's source of motivation is unchangeable does not necessarily mean that you cannot succeed with them. It just may mean that you have not yet individualized your approach enough to help their particular striving talent to emerge.