Peter, I think that Veggiecook answered your question already, but I will add some thoughts.

The key how to deal with your question can be found in Sifu's I-Liq Chuan book (page 21):
"Having acquired the wisdom sword we now need to be on the right ground to fight the right battle. It is very important at this stage to ask the right questions. First of all, identify who or what is the real problem. When the identification of the problem is not clear, the answer can easily be faulty. We cannot identify the true face of the enemy, and we literally create more enemies for ourselves. As a matter of fact, the ground for battle is within us. This is physical and mental. The body, feeling, mind, nature and law of nature are the ground which we need to penetrate and understand."

[/u]The question you raised, could lead to endless theoretical discussions. Depending on the own experiences or opinions, one can vote for talent, another one for hard and consistent training. Everyone knows a lot of examples when this or that happened only because of talent or hard work... At the end of all discussions, one would accept those opinions which are closer to his feelings. No other benefit.

If we acknowledge, that the right battlefield for almost all our "problems" is within ourselves, we can start to generate the right questions. That could be in our gsneral question Talent vs. Hard work" omething like this:

What do I feel if I say "talent"?
What is a talent?
Is it a real thing or is it rather a mental concept?
What is I-Liq Chuan? Is it a real thing I can master? Or is it rather a concept?
Isn't a martial art style no more than an opinion of someone? Does it exist only because people accepted it as a style? Or would it exist independently too? How do I influence the style with my thoughts and actions?
Can there be a talent for I-Liq Chuan? If yes, where does it come from?
Or is it rather a talent for Martial Arts in general? Where does this come from?
Or is is rather a general talent for movement?
If a talent is a real thing and it is superior to hard work, so what?
Superior in what? What do I look for? What will change when I get it? What will be after that?
Do I look for a point at the end of my road or do I rather look for a perpetual joy while going somewhere?
What is it hard work?
Is is something painful? Exhausting? Grimm duty? Something, we don't like? Is it worth to do it?
Or is the training process satisfactory for its own sake?
Are there really only 3 types of martial art practitioners (talented, average and clueless)? Who put an individual practitioner in one of these categories? A third person? Who has got this authorization? Or did they put themselves to their particular level? If they did, why? For what reasons and for which period of time?
If someone is on a certain level today, where will he be tomorrow?
Is who am I today the same person as I was yesterday?
What was my level of skills in I-Liq Chuan yesterday or one year ago? Is it better now? Do I want to compare my level with the level of other individuals or rather with mine?
What about measuring the level? Does the scale need to have 11 levels like we have it in I-Liq Chuan system? Or is it rather like a rainbow with an infinite range of colors?
What does it mean to "make progress"? Towards what? Towards 1) the inner satisfaction, towards knowledge about the Self? Or towards 2) a stronger self confident ego which wants to dominate other people? How does it help me or other people if I made progress on the way towards 1) or 2)? Questions over questions... It is just a beginning...

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