Having said all of that…
GREATNESS CAN COME OUT OF NOWHERE
Only one-in-four Americans comes from towns of fewer than 50,000 people, but nearly half of NFL players and PGA golfers are from those exact small towns, according to two recent studies.
It’s a weird statistic, because small towns don’t have loads of money, or the best coaches, or the best facilities. What they do have, though, is the effect of reinforcing how good somebody is — a sort of “big fish in a small pond” effect, as some have called it. Indeed, one study considers sport in big cities to be too organized — kids being too dedicated to sport before their teenage years are more likely to end up exhausted than skilled. It’s a feeling many Chinese athletes know too well …
