Skill needs past struggling (9)
I believe the answer is:
adeptness
'skill' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'needs past struggling' is the wordplay.
'struggling' is an anagram indicator (the letters struggle or wriggle into a new form).
'needs'+'past'='needspast'
'needspast' is an anagram of 'ADEPTNESS'.
(Other definitions for adeptness that I've seen before include "complete skill" , "Deftness, adroitness" .)