Have you guys ever thought what makes guys run under 10 seconds over 100m and elite women run under 11.20 over the same distance.
Not only that in regards to elite results but other such as high school kids running 10.3 and girls running 11.4 at age 16 yrs old. What do they have the other kids dont?
I was researching some data on gentics/genes and what I found was most top elite sprinters had more ACTN3 gene in their DNA make-up.
What does Gatlin, Greene, A Powell, Crawford, Torri Edwards, V. Campbell, Felix have that others dont… I wish I could compare these guys DNA make up w/ 10.5-10.7 guys, would we find that the elite women make up is the same as average high school boy sprinters?
The Top Elite women post times btw 11.10-10.90 that’s high school boys marks.
I certainly believe genetics is very important as I have observed it first hand. I have a friend of mine who sits on the couch all day and eats Fritos by the bucket full. When he actually decides to do some physical activity he can get up and hit a golf ball 350 yards or he can crack a baseball a mile. This guy obviously possess some unbelievable genetics. There’s no way I’d be able to match what this guy does no matter how hard I train. Same goes for other sports. Genetic freaks rule the world.
I’m way more interested in the what the future of genetics holds in regards to athletes. Genetic engineering; choose your own genes, design your own child. One day, anyone who wants to be fast, wants to jump high, or wants to be strong, will be. But you do raise an interesting point, can someone without “favoured” genes train hard enough to overcome a “natural?” The answer is probably yes, but how often? Genetic variability is unimaginably diverse, so maybe it’s just luck which genes you are delt or maybe theres more too it? :eek: ? I’m ganna be thinking about this all night now!..
can someone without “favoured” genes train hard enough to overcome a “natural?” The answer is probably yes, but how often? Genetic variability is unimaginably diverse, so maybe it’s just luck which genes you are delt or maybe theres more too it? :eek: ? I’m ganna be thinking about this all night now!..[/QUOTE]
Yea, the crazy part is, Take an athlete similiar to A. Felix skinny not much muscle at all but fast as all get out
My question is was her parents fast?
I know her brother was an ok Sprinter for USC from 2002-2005… It’s a tricky subject…
You would think if both of your parents ran world class times you would be super fast…
Example: Parents Athlete A runs 9.93 Daddy 10.05
Mother 11.10
Athlete B runs 10.48 Daddy 9.83
Mother 10.90
But can this happen, Both of your parents
sorry in athletics, slow as hell, I am talking best marks over 100m, NOT Yards 10.87 for your pappy and 12.3 for your mother their college times
My question is was her parents fast?
I know her brother was an ok Sprinter for USC from 2002-2005… It’s a tricky subject…
You would think if both of your parents ran world class times you would be super fast…
Example: Parents Athlete A runs 9.93 Daddy 10.05
Mother 11.10
Athlete B runs 10.48 Daddy 9.83
Mother 10.90
If both parents were fast, more likely than not, their child will aquire favoured characteristics which may allow them to more easily become fast, but then again, theres always that genetic variability, and the possibilty of recessive/dominant alleles and random fertilization and all that good 1st year bio stuff, which creates all the diversity in the world!
And other obvious factors are up-bringing, diet, training, work ethic, attitude…etc. genes will make up a large portion of ones athletic ability, but if anybody works hard enough, the results will come:) IMO.
So what makes a person fast? in comparison to others (who may or may not have genes which could enhance their ability)…so many possibilities, hard work, proper training, willingness, attitude, diet, charlie francis:D, a belief system? Its ganna be a big combination of them all.
Those are all great times and far above simply “average” genes (maybe not superstar top 100 in the world, but definitely GREAT times). I think desire and childhood factors would have more to do with progress then, rather than genetics.
EDIT: Even 10.87 and 12.3 are above average marks for people. Not anything that is shocking, but definitely fast (sub 7 60m is pretty fast for the general pop).
I would say that genetics have role in things but hard work and proper training can get u there it will just take longer. For instance i have a childhood friend that was the “slowest” person in our elamentry, he started running track in 5th grade with my summer team and at the end of middle school he was the second fastest person in the county next to me and we pretty much battled it out throughout high school, now were both at colleges running track and we both can go 10.5 and down as college freshman. But i dont actually know if it was genetics or hard work i would like to believe that it was hard work on both of our parts to ge tto were we are now. But to me and him it is GOD that gives u ur ability’s either it be speed, strength, work ethic, etc…
I personally am going against genetics my dad was a long distance runner all the way through high school 400s, 800s, and mile, my mother didn’t do sports, and i am working to be a fast sprinter. I also see kids with prefered genetics running amazing times, some without working.
I often thought if i would ever stand a chance against these kids, but after seeing them train and watching them warm up i can see that its not will i become fast, but when assuming i stay consistent.
I didn’t compete my freshmen year, i ran a 12.24 hand my sophmore year, and have run an 11.6 hand so far this year. I want to beat these kids, so im gunna have to work this summer too and come into the season strong next year (senior year), maybe walk on to a team when i go to college.
Do your genes change based on the type of work you? For instance, if you are very athletic your whole life, is your chance of producing athletic offspring greater than if you sat on a couch your whole life?
not in any genetic sense as we know it. If you’re really athletic, you’re less likely to let your kids waste away their lives on the couch/eat crap/etc etc.
A few comments: First, I’m sure we will see first hand in about 20 years if two extremely fast athlete’s children are fast (Marion Jones’ child).
Second, I work with athletes from the ages of 7+. Pre-adolescents who are faster than the others seem to follow Charlie’s talent ID checklist in Training for Speed. I have noticed fast kids are extremely hyper and energetic, just waiting to be let loose. Their line hops scores are far supieror to even college aged athletes who are NOT fast. I have also noticed with their limited musculature, they have high calves similar to many elite sprinters.
I believe that these kids who do show these traits and train fast during their adolescent years, have potential to become extremely fast. Just how fast depends on their training and coaching. I encourage young kid to sprint and jump when they play. Kids love to jump and skip and hop, jump off the couch etc., and parents often restrain their kids (at least when I grew up). They are performing explosive activites in a fun environment. Compare these kids to those who play video games all day.
It is true, as coach John Smith says, “you will not get a donkey to win a Kentucky Derby”, but with proper training and development, you can help a person use the most of their given potential.
Besides all the individual things and genetics etc. there must be a STRONG sociological factor, too.
People look at sprinters and think: Wow, West Africans are fast. They surely have good genetics. But why only Nigeria and Ghana??? Same applies for the “New World”. Why the USA and not Brazil? Why the tiny Jamaica and not the much bigger Cuba?
It simply can’t be explained based on biology.
Have a look at all Nations with Sub10 sprinters - with the exception of Leonard of Cuba (Altitude run in the 70s) and Pognon’s 9.99 (last year) all 50 guys come/came from English speaking “capitalistc” systems with educational systems based on Anglo-American culture…I would call that more significant than and look at genetics…
USA
Nigeria
Jamaica
Trinidad
UK
Canada
Ghana
Australia
Barbados
Cayman Islands
Cuba
France
Namibia
St. Kitts/Nevis
To Aut 71 the reasons that the American continant has fast sprinters is cause they were shipped to the american contenate as slaves from west africa then they were breded like horses for 300 od years so that only the “strong” ones were left to work the fields, while the weeker ones had there nuts cliped so they couldnt reproduce and were made into house slaves. That is why even the non athletic black guys in america look like they are. I believe that almost every race has the potential to be “fast” they just have to have the mind frame to do it. Its like hear in america everbody thinks blacks are the best so they dont even try, but guys like myself have been raised to belive that no one is better than you just cause, it only comes from hard work and if you do the hard work to, than the sky’s are the limit. Heck and having parents that make you stay outside all day and play helps…haha.
no…when it comes to genetics, theres a large difference in whether you are athletic and have an athletic physique, or whether you have the ability to sit on a couch? which anyone can do.
You cant change the genetics your child will recieve by training. For example if you are a skinny runt, who eventually builds muscle through years of training your child will have those skinny runt genes
Of course I know all these theories, they sound probable, but reality (and the history of slavery) is more complex than that.
It does not explain the fast sprinters of Nigeria and Ghana.
It does not explain the difference between the sprinters of Nigeria and Ghana and neighbouring countries.
It does not explain why the same cruel procedure resulted in having fast sprinters in the US but not in Brazil.
Why does the said “selection” produce fast sprinters but not powerlifters, weightlifters, long distance runners, triathletes or any throwers?
Sprinting was no way a supported, required or necessary quality at all.
How fast pictures can change: What about the drastic decline in %age of Afro Americans in MBL? What about the change in heavyweight boxing, all reigning champions used to be Afro-Americans, now all former USSR?
In the Carribbean you can even find a lot of West Africans who were first generation slaves when slavery was abolished in the 1830’s (so no “darwin factor” at all).
Summary: sometimes theoeries which sound probable at first look are meaningless when you look at it in detail. In fact they don’t explain a thing. Usually their main purpose and success is propaganda.
And one little “real world example”: A relative of mine (born Jamaican) came to Europe at the age of 8. In grade 5 he was still best in his school when it came to LJ, throwing by far and in the 60m only beaten by a Croatian boy playing soccer at quite a high level (for his age).
Now he is 15 and after a few years of TV, PC, XBox, Fast Food he is in shocking shape…if he was born here nobody would ever get the idea of him being a talent at all…
As the great KK once said 10 years ago at a world junior team camp to a room of all white athletes…
“they cant all run fast and they are all not great singers”
he probably does not remember saying this but it has stuck with me and i will remember this until the day i go senile…
should be another year or 2 i guess
well Aut71 you do have very valid point in which i was not thinking of. I dont really know why Ghana and its naighbors are “fast” it has to deal with some form of evolution and to the way they had to survive. And shoot i just pain out believe God gives you a gift and you have to decide wat your gonna do with it.
or maybe theres more too it? :eek: ? I’m ganna be thinking about this all night now!..
