Played with a guy who won some national-level violin competition when he was 14. Played his $40k violin like a fiddle with our band. Country fans think Charlie Daniels can really play, but this guy did Orange Blossom Special about twice as fast and twice as clean as Charlie ever dreamed about.

I think it's actually fairly common for fans of popular genres of various activities to overestimate the skill of their heroes. For instance, the X Games has a motorcycle high jump event.

[image|http://expn.go.com/media/sxg01/010820/010820_stepup2_i.jpg||||]

Fans knew that the guys winning this event were world-class riders. Until the 7-time supercross champion showed up, practiced for about two days, and [link|http://expn.go.com/expn/summerx/2004/story?pageName=040806_motox_instant|whipped them all].

I'm not normally into the X Games. But I just love a story that reminds people there's something to be said for years of practice and dedication.