Basketball had John Stockton; hockey had Theo Fluery; football had Doug Flutie; and baseball has Dustin Pedroia.* Not the most physically gifted or innately talented athletes on the field, but ones who win our affection by dint of hard work, guts and determination.   They're not the untouchable gods: the Gretskys, the Jordans, the Montanas. They're the mortals, the scrappy tough guys with chips on their shoulders and something to prove.

Watching these guys, what weekend warrior hasn't thought, "With the right coaching, and a little bit of time to focus on getting really, really good, maybe, just maybe, that could be me"? 

I even joked about this in my Michael Phelps blog.  Eight gold medals is all well and good, but if I trained for 9 hours a day with the world's best coaches and lived, breathed, slept and ate 10,000 calories of swimming a day for years on end, who KNOWS how good I could get?

Introducing my new obsession:  it's called "The Beautiful Aim," and it's the video blog/YouTube serial-documentary tale of Arton Baleci.  As a young, self-confessed "average" athlete with no experience in the pros, Baleci plans to do the scrappers one better:

My name is Arton Baleci. I am 23 years old and originally come from Stockton-on-Tees in the north-east of England. I graduated last year with a degree in mathematical physics...I did quite well academically and whilst I enjoyed school and worked hard, football (eds. note:  shin, not shoulder pads) was what I wanted to do. I played for the school team and for a few Sunday teams, but never at a higher level... By April 2006 I was a certified NLP trainer and had became fascinated about the possibilites that stemmed from the application of the forgotten primary skill of NLP modeling.  What if I could use modelling to go far beyond any level I had ever played at and land up in the ultimate footballing environment as a result?

Essentially, it's the ultimate 'nature vs. nurture' smackdown. 

The "NLP" that he mentions here is a much-debated method of accelerated learning called "Neurolinguistic Programming,"  and so part of Baleci's case study will determine just how effective the NLP method of learning is as applied to high-level athletics. 

But Baleci has a whole team of experts in place:  a nutritionist, a strength and conditioning coach, at least one Feldenkrais practitioner, numerous experts on the game itself.  So in a broader sense, Baleci's project tests not only his own work ethic or the efficacy of one coaching system, but the very limits of human performance training itself.  Just how good are these experts' methods?  Truly, how broad is our understanding of human performane? 

Baleci's giving himself just one year to find out, and the clock started ticking last September.

Perhaps understandably, I'm fascinated by this endeavor.  I've made no secret of my geekish obsession with the sci-fi movie Gattaca, in which a genetically flawed but determined Ethan Hawke achieves his dream of becoming an astronaut in a Brave New World society where genetics determine everything, and Baleci's seems like a similar enterprise.

When asked, it's clear that all his coaches want to think it's possible:  they're charmed and inspired by his determination.  So am I.

Here's the first episode, in which he lays out his plan:

Here's Baleci talking to a football vet about his chances in an early episode:

...and here's his strength and conditioning coach:

:

Hope at least some people become similarly obsessed.  Go Arton!

*Sports ignoramus that I am, I had to consult my sportswriter buddy Tris Wykes for these names. Basically, Tris, thanks for not telling me to go to hell.