Training & Nutrition - How can you tell what sport you are genetically good for?

You always see about how professional athletes who are the best at what they do always have some sort of edge due to their genetics. A flexible gymnast, small horse jockey, tall basketball player ect... Some people have the correct muscular build/body for what they do.

If you knew that you could never be great at what sport you enjoyed would you stop? Would you be less serious? Would you approach it differently?

Would you consider a sport that maybe you didn't enjoy 100% but knew you had a great body for it?

Maybe your 6'3" 340lbs but you love biking. Should you give it up and try out a strong man competition? You would have a good base that most people couldn't get and you probably could not compete on a bike.

Muscle biopsy? You're probably not suited to endurance sports if you can standing jump six feet.

Just do it

...

Overspecialization breeds weakness. Humans are the generalists of the animal kingdom and persistence has a history of triumphing over talent. For instance, there are short NBA basketball players, jamaican bobsledding teams, and a near limitless list of humans who say "to hell with standards" and do well in something they're not genetically supposed to.

I'll do whatever sports I damn well please to regardless of what I'm genetically best off doing. As it turns out though, I have a genetically slight upper body and monster quads...so I might be better off doing what I like anyway :wink:

edit: of course it all depends on your priorities: would you rather win at something you don't care about or can you stand to lose competing in something you enjoy?

I'm perfectly built for Shirling

How can you tell what sport you are genetically good for?Pretty simple, just try them. If you have talent for any sport, or any activity, curiosity and satisfaction through activity will spur additional development of the relevant skills.

In other words, people who are genetically disposed to an activity develop ability with ease. They may quickly become proficient at a sport, but that hardly means they'll become a star or a professional without years of hard work.

Winning is fun. There is a tendency for people to gravitate towards 'their' sport because they're good at it.

I suck at everything so it makes it easy for me to decide which sports to gravitate to...

NASCAR!

Az

If you don't know by now, I'd say none of them!

...If you knew that you could never be great at what sport you enjoyed would you stop? Would you be less serious? Would you approach it differently?



Well, I assessed my attributes, such as being tall and having big arms, the fact I'm German Irish and come from a long line of people built like fire plugs, and the fact that my school coaches made me play on the offensive line starting in 4th grade, so naturally I took up cycling. I'm a fat old geezer who lives in the mountains and has to climb all day or find something else to do.

in my life I've found that there is always someone faster, stronger, smarter, whatever. Does that mean I just say the hell with it and crawl into a hole somewhere? Of course not.

For me bikes were always an escape. I was a troubled kid. Hell, I still am a troubled kid in alot of ways. Getting out on the road with the wind in my face has just always been something that had a hold on me.
I guess I'm what the surfers call a soul rider. No sponsors, no money, no problem. ;)

99.9% based on Interest & Motivation. - .1% on genetics.

Woods, Jordan, B.Gates, Armstrong, (both Lance, and Neil) G.S. Patton, Spud Webb. Anyone remember Mack Herron? (5'1" St Louis Cardinals - NFL)
All of these people in their respective fields - Extremely competitve, Highly motivated.

Getting pissed losing at "Checkers" is not genetic.

http://www.bicitreregioni.com

there is a reason i like biking and climbing and not power lifting or football

I just ask my old soviet trainer...

Many years ago, I read an article called "50 Things To Do Before I Die" ... basically it was about a list of life goals the author had made, things he/she wanted to do at some point in his/her life. Some things were more immediate goals, others were "some day" goals, others were filler goals to do when life wasn't busy with something else, and so on. The author had a list of 50 of them.

So I created my own list, and in it sports activities featured fairly heavily. Cycling activities alone took up a few. I wanted to: try mountain biking, try racing, ride long distances, go cycletouring, try as many different types of cycles as possible, etc. In addition to cycling, I've got several other sports items on my list such as: archery (which I haven't tried yet), wall climbing (another one I haven't tried yet - I was going to try that this year, but developed tendonitis in my right elbow, not good for wall climbing), snowshoeing (which I started doing just a few years ago, and really enjoy), skating (I have skated a long, long time ago when I was a child, but wasn't good at it then, however, I'm a Canadian so we're required to learn ;)), swimming (I do a sort of dog-paddle thing, so would like to take swimming lessons to learn how to do it properly) ... just to name a few.

The thing is ... I didn't know, and don't know if I'll be any good at those things, or if I'll enjoy them. But since they sounded interesting I wanted to try them! If I enjoy something, and especially if I appear to have some aptitude for it, I stick with it. If I don't enjoy something, I check it off the list, and move on to something else.

I've never given much though to body composition or anything in relation to the sports I do or want to do. I just try a lot of things, and do what I enjoy. :)

Wow! I've been coming to this pub for about two years now and this is the most sensible and enlightening thread I've seen. There are many lifetimes of wisdom here. Well done folks.

So who cares? I will do sports that I enjoy and the heck of whether I am "good" at them or not. I have long ago realized that no one is ever going to pay me to exercise so I might as well enjoy it because that and fitness is all I am going to get out of it.

i'm probably genetically good for bowling, but that doesn't stop me from doing whatever i feel like :)

One thing to consider is your muscoskeletal frame. I practice all kinds of physical activities (running, hiking, weight lifting and yoga), and I love them, even knowing that my leg structure makes my progress harder. My feet are turned out (the opposite pigeontoed) and don't align with my knees. I never knew this was a problem, especially because my mother had taken me to the doctor when little to see if I needed braces, and he said no, until I started doing yoga and the instructors kept telling me to align my feet, and I had to say, I couldn't, which they wouldn't believe and then would try to align them themselves, until I had to yell out in pain, my legs/feet just can't do that, they're not built that way! Later, my bf told me that his sister tried to run a marathon, but her knees collapsed halfway through, she went to the doctor, and he told her it had been because of her knee/feet misalignment (same thing I have). 2 months ago I fell down the stairs, 2nd time it's happened in my life, and the therapist told me it was probably because of my knee/foot misalignment, since my knees go inward and my feet outward,a nd that this will always bea problem for me.

Anyway, I think it's good to know about your body (now I know I have to be super careful not just when going down stairs, but when hiking downhill), but not to let it stop you. I love yoga, and I just have to tell the instructor about my limitation, if she tries to force me, I don't let her, because I could do more damage to myself in the long run.

Also, it irritates me that that doctor convinved my mom I didn't need leg braces, and to see now that I really did!

I've gone from large and muscular to skinny and fast repeatedly in my lifetime -- conclusively that means I should be good at everything -- reality is I suck at 99% of the things I love to do, and the 1% of the things I'm good at I generally don't give a **** enough to continue them.

Climbing rules,
working sucks mostly,
Running, biking and yoga all are my 'stations of the cross,'
but then hanging out with my kids and watching them is even better...


...at least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Genetically designed for a specific sport?

Well, I'm one of those people who's just not good at anything, period. EVERY SINGLE SPORT I HAVE EVER TRIED, I FAILED AT UNLESS I PUT IN TONS AND TONS AND TONS AND TONS AND TONS OF TIME PRACTICING. I really hate it when I see someone who's "naturally" good at doing something :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

EDIT: I'm just really bitter about the "naturals" out there. Not me, I have struggle at everything I do.

You always see about how professional athletes who are the best at what they do always have some sort of edge due to their genetics. A flexible gymnast, small horse jockey, tall basketball player ect... Some people have the correct muscular build/body for what they do.

If you knew that you could never be great at what sport you enjoyed would you stop? Would you be less serious? Would you approach it differently?

Would you consider a sport that maybe you didn't enjoy 100% but knew you had a great body for it?

Maybe your 6'3" 340lbs but you love biking. Should you give it up and try out a strong man competition? You would have a good base that most people couldn't get and you probably could not compete on a bike.

I would agree that genetics plays a bigger role when participating in competitive events. For instance, using your race horse jockey as an example, it is true they must be small, but they also must be light. A short heavy person won't make it as a jockey but that doesn't mean that the same person can't enjoy horseback riding. Some jockeys are naturally small and light while others have to use dieting, sweating and even drugs to keep their weight down. Many have serious medical problems due to this routine. Likewise if you're 5'10 and 140 lbs and desire to be an offensive lineman it won't work. So I think certain gentically configured body types gravitate to those sports that suit their build.

I have a short build and very powerful legs and booty. The shortness is genetic, but I can't say whether the muscle mass in my legs + butt are the result of genes or always being active (probably both).

The sports I'm good at are the ones that require a combination of brute strength on the lower half + balance on my feet + fearlessness at any speed. Downhill skiing, snowboarding, skating all come to mind. I've often thought that if I were born 20 years later (or born a boy) I'd be a gifted ice hockey player. Girls didn't play ice hockey when I was a teenager.

I'm not a genetically gifted cyclist but my strong legs make me OK at it enough to enjoy it. If it weren't for the speed/freedom factor of cycling I probably wouldn't be drawn to it.

Develop a "sport" you would be good at, based on your interests and mental and physical predispositions. Every currently established "sport" is a result of someone doing just that. If you like cycling at a leisurely pace and recounting the high with BF banter then form a "sport" where that is the goal. You could have a hall-of-fame, super sunday, rookie-of-the-year, mvp, draft and most importantly your own set of rules to ensure that you are always the best :D

I've never been good at anything either. My whole life, like from diapers practically, I've had huge monster gigantic upper legs though. It's weird. More of a mutation than family heritage though, everyone else on both parents' sides is on the top-heavy side (though there is a lot of general stockiness, maybe I just got the bottom half, or 3rd quarter, of stocky and none of the top...). Hard to say I was a born cyclist though, I've always had horrendous (like, clinically horrendous) aerobic capacity. Cycling has done wonders for that, but that is an environmental not a heritable thing.

to answer the original post, i think it all depends on what you are looking for. There's never a reason to quit a sport that you love. If you realize that you are never going to win a race and are satisfied with that, more power to you.

If you are very competative, that makes a sport that you are good at more fun
If you are not very competative, that makes a sport that you love fun

I"m with the posters who say try everything you're interested in. But also, give it enough time to get good at it. I see it all the time with all sports and music. Getting over the hump that seperates the dabblers from the serious participants is more pychological than genetic. I think you can lump environemntal factors in the pycologyical.

I think genetics so completely over rated. You design the perfect basketball player, you get Michael Jordan. But you also get another 90% that are in the NBA plus those that couldn't even land a gig in the big show and will never win a championship. Then comes along a small, slow white guy named John Stockton dominating his position. You design the perfect hockey player and you get Mario Lemieux. Yet the best player was arguably Gretzky who was small and not exactly speedy. Yet nobody can touch his numbers or greatness in hockey.

So I say desire is 99% of the game.

it is my belief that you grow into your steady body type from the things that you did while you were growing the most. For instance, when i was 9-13 years old i used to run everywhere with my brothers and cousins just to go places. We ran to the field, the lake, etc. We played tons of soccer and capture the flag and night tag (all running activities). It was just really easy to me. I didnt sweat or weigh much, and i had tons of energy.

Then came jr.high where i ran the mile in gym and was asked to join track. the rest is history.

My legs were very developed and my upper body so scrawny that i spent my first couple years at university just trying to gain upper body mass. This was before cycling...now i regret doing that. I gotta lose some of that hard work...vanity is a #@$%!

I'm currently 21 years old and 6' 175lbs with 12.5% body fat. I just started cycling, and i purchased a racing license. Im going to try to get down to 165 while keeping my leg muscle this summer by commuting to work and riding with the local club.

You used the example of the flexible gymnast. My daughter has participated in both kinds of gymnastics: artistic and rhythmic.

Stength and flexibility seem to be at the opposing ends, yet gymnasts strive to improve on both aspects of their physical body. The rhythmic gymnasts (the elite) are very flexible but not necessarily strong in the sense of muscular and explosive power.

Artistic gymnasts have the strength and thus the power to leap off the horse with good height and do high skilled tumbling runs on the floor exercise.

Betcha it gets heated by page 3, then locked by five.

Betcha it gets heated by page 3, then locked by five.

Bet.:)