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One of the most common forms of athletic ability comes from the hat trick. Often used in a variety of sport, many writers and broadcasters will use the term without explaining its meaning to the listener or reader. Since much of a sport's audience may not be as familiar with the terms of a given sport, it makes since to at least explain the terminology, but alas, with sports having been around in some cases for hundreds of years, it's not possible to explain every sports-related term that comes up. Hence, when hat tricks are mentioned, most of those watching a sport will just sit and wonder, "What's that?"

In its most basic form, a hat trick refers to a group of three. This can be a group of three players, three scores or any other number of possibilities; mostly in sports, it refers to three scores as opposed to anything else.

Hat tricks first evolved from their form in cricket, most specifically the custom of giving your hat to a bowler who would then take three wickets in a row. This concept of giving someone your "cap" is where the term hat trick derived. Often, bets were collected in hats during a game, and if someone was lucky enough to make all three shots, they would win the proceeds gathered in the hat, making it quite the trick to succeed.

Two of the most notable sports that use the terminology of hat trick include soccer and hockey. These sports have included the terminology as it derived from cricket, meaning scoring three times and this is the most common usage of the term in modern day sports.

Both ice hockey and filed hockey use the term hat trick. It was introduced in the early 1940s when a Toronto clothing designer gave away free hats to any Maple Leafs player who could score three or more goals in a game. Thus, they were given a treat for their trick's effort. In modern day ice hockey, when a player scores three goals in the time limit of one game, they were generally throwing something on the ice causing a delay of the game as a way to acknowledge the feat. Often times, the goods are then given to local charities and players will aspire to try to score three goals in one game for that purpose. Also, a natural hat trick in hockey refers to one of two feats: Either scoring three goals consecutively or scoring three goals in one period. This term is strictly related to ice hockey.

One of the most infamous stories of things being thrown on the ice refers to the Florida Panthers in the mid-1990s. Fans will throw plastic rats when players would score a hat trick as a way to pay tribute to Scott Mellanby who killed a rate in their locker room with his hockey stick before a game. Thus, throwing plastic rats onto the ice was a way for fans to pay tribute to one of their favorite starts in a most memorable way.

Eventually, the National Hockey Association (NHL) banned fans from throwing items onto the ice, because it delayed the game significantly in some cases. Teams must not petition for special events if they want, for a reason, fans to throw items onto the ice. In most cases of charitable reasons, the NHL will allow such an event to take place so long as it doesn't shorten playing time considerably. If it is not sanctioned for fans to throw items onto the ice during a game, but they do anyway, the home team is penalized.

Within soccer, most leagues use the term hat trick when one player scores three goals in the time of a single game. Usually, when this feat is accomplished, the player is allowed to take the home ball – usually reserved for the home team's Most Valuable Player (MVP) – with them. The term "true hat trick" is the feat of scoring with both feet and the head during a match, though this is considerably rare and if often very hard to achieve even for the most gifted of soccer players.

Overall, the hat trick has been adapted to sports from its initial use in cricket. As athletes get better at their sports, no doubt, a hat trick might become one of the most common achievements during a game and a new term will arise to describe an even more spectacular feat. In the meantime, a hat trick is not something that occurs often, but when it does, it comes from a player and a game that is unmatched to none.