In my eyes, athletic ability is physical and thats it. How much can a person bench press, how quickly can they run a mile, what is their vertical at, etc. It has nothing to do with "mental" or "talent". Yes its a God's gift but it could definately be increased through training, without a doubt. Talent is such a broad concept i'd rather not get into it as i think it definately deserves a thread of its own, i'll just say it is completely different from athletic ability.

i think they go hand in hand because physical talent encompasses natural coordination & ability to control your body just like athleticism does... some people are just born with the natural ability to jump higher, run faster, throw harder, & while those physical talents can be nurtured through training, it cannot be taught... i define athleticism as anything that results out of physical ability, & natural physical talent falls in that category... it's not the same as when we're talking about artistic talent or other abilities that result out of the cerebral aspects of a particular individual.

[Edited by - TMS on 12-25-2008 8:22 PM]

Talent is born ability of a person to do things that other people can do only after countless years of training and efforts.
And sometimes talent is so big that no training or effort can help to even get close.
Without training and mental discipline however even great talent can be wasted and sometimes hardworking, ambitious and determined people can do stuff which only talented people can do.
And these things are same for running, lifting, playing bbal, writing poems, making paintings, of making science discoveries.
Things that some people can reach with easy other (majority) need to work hard at; and can pretty much fail anyway.