It's actually extremely comparable to golfing, especially at the PGA Tour level. Pro's can go from T10 in driving accuracy and win a bunch of tourneys, to bottom 50 (on tour) in a season. At the slightest lack of performance (maybe you have one bad tourney all of a sudden, then 2, 3 in a row...etc) you start to tweak your swing, or your setup, or the clubs....then it all compiles into an unrecognizable form that got you there.
Kicking is not simply kicking either, I think that's a bizarre take. In that case, "running routes is just running and why cant our guys get open! they have all their life!"