Who denied that Bolt (and Frater and Carter and Powell) had talent?
We know that. We also know that’s not something we can control as athletes or coaches. If track and field really is as simple as “some have it, some don’t”, then people would have realized it and abandoned practice a long time ago.
We want to know about what variable factors aided Person X when he beat Person Y. If Thompson beat Dix for silver ONLY because Thompson has faster genes, great, everyone can stop having serious discussions about training and repeatedly make bad jokes about yams. It certainly frees up some time for Thompson too.
I think Bolt does have “fast genes”, faster than anyone else in history. But I don’t think that means we can throw our hands in the air and ignore everything he does.
I think another reason to look at the prep. of these guys is to see how you prep. such immense talent. Its not what MAKES sprinter always, but what lets them realize there potential injury free and doesnt screw them up long term.
One would think that even if there are “speed genes”, that out of a population of 1.3 billion people (versus 2.7 million) there would be at least one genetic annamoly that would produce a Chinese genetically gifted person in sprinting.
Nah, I’m just kidding. He did say immediately after the misspelling in his post that he knew he spelled period wrong and spelled it correctly the second time.
What exactly are speed genes? AFAIK, scientists have not been able to isolate or identify a gene or set of genes that code for speed.
Assuming that you have somehow managed to identify the genes, can you explain why they are only in Jamaica? I’m much more inclined to think that there is a “speed culture” rather than a speed gene in Jamaican.
Speed genes…lets see…the gene that determines CNS effieciency? gene that determines achillies tendon length? gene that determines testosterone levels? gene that determines muscle fiber composition? gene that determines brain and muscle reaction?
Doesnt have to neccesarily be a gene that DETERMINES something, can also be one that influences those things, likely for something like a CNS or testosterone levels there’d be multiple genes that have a influence on those.
Don’t be obtuse, you know very well what he is implying. Jamaicans are much more likely to have better muscle/tendon ratios, longer limbs, higher percentages of fast twitch fiber, higher testosterone levels, and lower body fat than the average Chinese person. All of these things are not determined by a single gene, but by a combination of them. That, however, does not change the fact that some populations are built for an activity and others aren’t.
Unless you’ve done some statistics, you might be surprised with how unhelpful it is in having 500times the population of a speedier group of people. It’s amazing how quickly that normal curve will go to zero for a massive group of people with a small standard deviation.
no. His best ever is a 10.43 and cause crawford went a tired a slow 10.4 isnt the same. It’s like Carl Lewis running a 10.8 now cause he is old and saying Dr. Sprint is a gold medal talent.
There was an article somewhere in one of the newspapers here about something called actinen found in muscle, responsible for more fast-twitch muscles and it said Jamaicans tend to have a high percentage of this (dont know much weight that holds). But seriously I think it really comes down to culture coupled with strong genes that puts our Jamaican sprinters so far ahead, and its not just Jamaicans its the whole caribbean that does well in sprinting, its just that we have a stronger culture in track and field.
But IMO there must be some biological reason for it being so difficult for whites and asians to dip below 10.00s…
Remember, no SB winning black QB ( don’t start with the redskins…doug williams was the 2nd…), so it has to be genetic!Defense reading gene, how long before a “scientist” finds it?
Maybe we have that in common with apes?
