Lecture Notes – 6
Nature vs Nurture
• Nature: studies of twin and family studies (heritage project) or identify genes
◦ Heritage study:
▪ inherited genetic effect on Vo2max scores (more similar to family)
▪ environmental/training effects difficult to determine
▪ what about elite athletes?
▪ Associations between genes and endurance, muscle strength, exercise intolerance?
• Incosistent evidence
▪ selection based on individual genes (ACTNG gene - specific enzyme)
• the speed-gene (found in sprinters but not in other people)
• however, hard to know if only this gene is causing this
◦ different phenotype
▪ male and female genes are different (weight, length)
▪ sport-specific (e.g. being tall can be advantageous → body parts specialized over
years)
• before thought that average body is advantageous
• big bang of body types: bodies start to deviate more and more (e.g. NBA player
very tall and has very long arms)
• Nurture: many hours of deliberate practice
◦ practice leads to performance
◦ early specialization (may lose enjoyment, more injuries)/ early diversification
▪ early engagement more about play
◦ different athletes have different pratice-histories → can build career in different ways
◦ Rees: objective review on the performer, environment and practice/training
▪ birth date (moderate to low evidence) → youth selected born early in year (relative
age effect), however starts to disappear with the years
▪ genetic contribution (moderate evidence) → may be helpful for some sports (being
tall): e.g. swimmer had characteristic which are helpful, however, these
characteristics change a lot specifically for children and some children develop later
▪ anthropometric and physiological factors (high evidence)
▪ psychological skills and motivational orientation (high to moderate evidence) →
same are useful but cannot only use personality to select athletes
▪ personal…
◦ The environment
▪ birthplace (high to moderate evidence)
▪ support from parents, family, sibling, and coaches (moderate)
▪ athlete support programs (moderate) → different people can deveop talent at
different time (… model)
• the trajecctory to super-elite status appears distinctly nonlinear
◦ Practice and training
▪ volume of sport-specific practice and training (high to moderate)
▪ early specialization vs sampling and play (…)
• Continho: path ways to expert performance → deliberate practice (however, many
differences between and within sport)
◦ for children want to stimulate intrinsic motivation and not so much deliberate practice
◦ early diversification
▪ sampling different sports → let children try it out
▪ before investing in one sport
Nature vs Nurture
• Nature: studies of twin and family studies (heritage project) or identify genes
◦ Heritage study:
▪ inherited genetic effect on Vo2max scores (more similar to family)
▪ environmental/training effects difficult to determine
▪ what about elite athletes?
▪ Associations between genes and endurance, muscle strength, exercise intolerance?
• Incosistent evidence
▪ selection based on individual genes (ACTNG gene - specific enzyme)
• the speed-gene (found in sprinters but not in other people)
• however, hard to know if only this gene is causing this
◦ different phenotype
▪ male and female genes are different (weight, length)
▪ sport-specific (e.g. being tall can be advantageous → body parts specialized over
years)
• before thought that average body is advantageous
• big bang of body types: bodies start to deviate more and more (e.g. NBA player
very tall and has very long arms)
• Nurture: many hours of deliberate practice
◦ practice leads to performance
◦ early specialization (may lose enjoyment, more injuries)/ early diversification
▪ early engagement more about play
◦ different athletes have different pratice-histories → can build career in different ways
◦ Rees: objective review on the performer, environment and practice/training
▪ birth date (moderate to low evidence) → youth selected born early in year (relative
age effect), however starts to disappear with the years
▪ genetic contribution (moderate evidence) → may be helpful for some sports (being
tall): e.g. swimmer had characteristic which are helpful, however, these
characteristics change a lot specifically for children and some children develop later
▪ anthropometric and physiological factors (high evidence)
▪ psychological skills and motivational orientation (high to moderate evidence) →
same are useful but cannot only use personality to select athletes
▪ personal…
◦ The environment
▪ birthplace (high to moderate evidence)
▪ support from parents, family, sibling, and coaches (moderate)
▪ athlete support programs (moderate) → different people can deveop talent at
different time (… model)
• the trajecctory to super-elite status appears distinctly nonlinear
◦ Practice and training
▪ volume of sport-specific practice and training (high to moderate)
▪ early specialization vs sampling and play (…)
• Continho: path ways to expert performance → deliberate practice (however, many
differences between and within sport)
◦ for children want to stimulate intrinsic motivation and not so much deliberate practice
◦ early diversification
▪ sampling different sports → let children try it out
▪ before investing in one sport
