How often have we heard talk about genetics in sport? About how genes inherited from our closest relatives may influence an athlete’s sporting career. In countries that belonged to the former Soviet bloc, it was common practice in the period from 1970s-90s to study the genes of children approaching sport for the first time, in order to find out whether they could be competitive at the highest level and which sport they should focus on.
Studying the influence of genes on performance is an extremely interesting but highly complicated subject. It is so complicated that even leading scientists have only managed to study what seems to be the tip of the iceberg in research that is turning out to be more complicated than expected.
The main problem with the studies is the incredible number of genes influencing athletic performance involving endless tiny influences that are too difficult to trace at the moment.
The theory Malcom Gladwell recently proposed in his book entitled “Outliers. The Story of Success”*, in which he set down the “10,000 hours rule ” caused quite a controversy. According to Gladwell, you can only really become an expert in any field (from computers to swimming) after 10,000 hours’ practice. Notice he says expert, not…
