It's said that he worked out four times a week in prison, and caught passes from other inmates-but surely his hard-won professional skills degraded.

It would sound too much like an apology, as though she did not properly value her own hard-won skills.

Alea realized he had made his point with skills hard-won, but of diplomacy, not fighting.

Obviously the professionals bring tradition, deep experience and hard-won skills to their work.

Staying on pace is a hard-won skill for marathoners.

The hard-won skill of these artists is up against their own fledgling experiments.

You may feel guilty at letting hard-won skills go to waste.

Would she still be able to use all her hard-won skills to help those about her less fortunate than herself?

She'd rather have the audience appreciate her hard-won elocutionary skills.

Men from the past, in a ship that was already old ninety years ago, were instantly out of date, their hard-won skills obsolete.