<p>Quoting Hemingway, “grace under pressure”.</p>
<p>I have to laugh a little bit at some of the “translations”. “Diligent”? What the OP described was kind of the opposite of diligent. Diligent isn’t pulling something out of your butt at the last possible moment.</p>
<p>“Adaptable” may fit part of what I think you are trying to represent.</p>
<p>This conversation describes the characteristic often ascribed to Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, so I brought up the NY Times Jeter archive under the premise that if there’s an apt one-word desciptioon other than “clutch”, they’d have found it. The haven’t, so there apparently isn’t.</p>
<p>But JHS, I’ve often had the same question about Jeter that you raised (no assumption that this applies to the OP’s son). If he’s at his best when the stakes are highest (and his stats back this up), why isn’t he just as good on a Tuesday night in mid-May? Is it boredom? Lack of focus? Lack of motivation? If A-Rod tends to fizzle in the postseason maybe it’s because the heightened pressure and expectations have gotten to him. No problem - that happens to all of us (except perhaps Jeter) from time to time; it’s to some extent beyond his control. But if Jeter is immune to the pressure and expectations, his ability to be that good all the time is entirely within his control and it can be argued that he doesn’t always rise to that level. Tiger Woods seems immune to pressure and expectations, but he’s almost always as intense and focused in random weekly tournaments as he is in the majors.</p>
<p>How about the nickname for Reggie Jackson–“Mr. October”? Anybody of a certain age would know exactly what you are talking about. I think it would make a great little paragraph in any recommendation.</p>
<p>It’s a little generic, but “effective” is another possibility. It implies someone who gets things done in a direct way.</p>
<p>Jordanesque.</p>
<p>“Pulling something out of your butt at the last possible moment” is not exactly what I’m talking about, though he has been known to do that on occasion. “Grace under pressure” is closer to it, as is the Jeter comparison (though as a Red Sox fan I am having some cognitive dissonance comparing someone I love to a Yankee). </p>
<p>Here’s the anecdote I was going to use: In his sophomore year, he was playing piano in the school’s junior jazz band. At this point he had very little experience playing jazz, although he was a fairly advanced classical student. About halfway through the year, the pianist in the senior jazz band–an outstanding young player–found out that he was going to be unable to attend a major festival competition that was just a few weeks away. My son was asked to sub on short notice, and not only pulled the gig off, but did so well that he was cited by the judges as the group’s best player (and the band won first prize in their division, despite being without their star soloist). </p>
<p>In short, pressure and challenges bring out the best in him.</p>
<p>Do we have a winner? “Pressure and challenges bring out the best in him.”</p>
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<p>“Unflappable,” though we’re looking for the single positive rather than a double negative. “Unflappable” is another way of saying “Choke-proof” and you don’t just want to convey the avoidance of a negative outcome, but the ability to rise to an occasion.</p>
<p>gadad, I posted a thread last week looking for some help from cc members on adjectives for the parent brag sheet for my D. I received great suggestions and spent quite a bit of time working on it. My D gave it to her GC yesterday and he said “your family did not need to prepare something this thorough” (it was approximately 1 page to answer the 4 questions).He then asked her “what would you like me to say on your rec”? I was happy that it was that simple and it worked out better than anticipated but wish we had not spent so much time on the brag sheet that the schools counseling office had provided. </p>
<p>In fairness, every school may be different. It ended up very good for D so the time spent was well worth it. Good luck</p>
<p>Interesting anecdote, BobbyCT. I would not be terribly surprised if we heard something similar, given how understaffed the guidance department is at our school. But better to do too much than too little, I figure. </p>
<p>I’m leaning toward “fearless.” This would be ludicrously untrue of our son in some contexts–e.g., his encounters with arthropods–but it describes him pretty well in academic and artistic situations.</p>
<p>Fearless is pretty good. We went with Compassionate, Conscientious, Ethical and Independent for D.</p>
<p>Oh, look, I “stumbled upon” this:</p>
<p>[Tip</a> of My Tongue - Chirag Mehta : chir.ag](<a href=“Search - Chirag Mehta : chir.ag”>Tip of My Tongue - Chirag Mehta : chir.ag)</p>
<p>Our school doesn’t have any brag sheet. I just read the book “Acceptance” and was amazed at what some guidance counselors do.</p>
<p>Like most parents, we have all kinds of amazing stories about our kids but never shared them with any guidance person, or with any college. I do hope any future spouses get to hear them though.</p>