in the sense that grit is intangible and resides within the young man before he ever becomes a college football player. But grit can also mean a toughness that comes through intense training, conditioning and being put in situations that test your mental and physical fortitude, resulting in a stronger, more focused individual. The latter can certainly be developed. I think of marines or Navy SEALs and the way they would have to train and develop into the soldiers they eventually become. It's not a process that happens over night. Sure, they arrive with a certain intangible quality that is there when they start and continues to push them through, but they largely develop a greater, more tangible quality of toughness through being physically and mentally subjected to difficult circumstances over and over. After several weeks, hard things become doable and the pain that they suffer becomes much more manageable. They have to rely on both that "heart" they had in the first place as well as the "toughness" that they developed, like a piece of iron being forged into something stronger. One could argue that both of those qualities make up grit. I don't know if the analogy really resonates here, but to me I can definitely see the types of qualities that both you and Lamb describe and I think you both describe them correctly.