Born or Made? Football Kicker Edition

Following up on my post on birthday effects in pro sports that suggest that to some extent elite athletes get that way through training more than pure genetic gifts, there's a cool article at the Atlantic looking at where the top football kickers come from.

The article claims that becoming an elite punter or placekicker is almost entirely an issue of training and getting high quality instruction, physical gifts are almost inconsequential. Besides lots of training, one also needs to work the social aspect of the game and get noticed by attending high-profile camps. Interesting stuff!