can you be finely tuned for a sport?

RHunce

can you be finely tuned for a sport?

eg michael phelps etc

just wondering because this came up in convo last night with the lads, while i think that you can train and become better they say you are born that way, but regardless you need practice

what do ye boardsies think?

TheZohanS

Yes.

I'm a finely tuned athlete.

If anyone doesn't believe me, just watch me in action at the AH Beers ton ight.

Pop's Diner

Bit of both I reckon. There's certain people who could do all the right things and practice a sport every minute of every day and never be good enough. Similarily if Phelps just sat around indulging his famous junkfood diet all day and didn't train as much as he does then I doubt he'd be picking up any medals (except for pie-eating of course).

builttospill

Obviously you need to have both attributes and be of a very special caliber both mentally and physically.

LD 50

RHunce wrote: »

can you be finely tuned for a sport?

eg michael phelps etc

just wondering because this came up in convo last night with the lads, while i think that you can train and become better they say you are born that way, but regardless you need practice

what do ye boardsies think?

You can be finely tuned for sport, or pretty much anything for that matter. Phelps was born to swim though. He has a tall thin body for less drag in the water, his arms are longer than his body giving him more power in his strokes, his legs are short for someone his height, and his body produces 1/3 less lactic acid in his muscles than average.
If thats not "Mother Nature's Special" reicipe for an olympic swimmer, I don't know what is.

phasers

Yeah, some people have webbed toes so they can probably swim pretty well...

K-9

YEP, Snooker and Darts.

WindSock

Do you mean train?

Sofiztikated

Can you, as in people in general? Yes, some people are naturally built for certain sports.

Can you, as in asking me, can i be finely tuned for a sport? No. I've resigned to the fact I'm ****e at them, and have stopped trying.

davyjose

LD 50 wrote: »

If thats not "Mother Nature's Special" reicipe for an olympic swimmer, I don't know what is.

Michelle Smith had a special recipe of her own - the broad shouldered ginger hulk

MarkR

The things I'm good at, while an entertaining past-time enjoyed by most, is unfortunately not considered a sport.

consultech

K-9 wrote: »

YEP, Snooker and Darts.

Very similar timing release technique, less-so golf too. I know one of the Irish snooker pros who had a few months off in the last year so took up darts, and was hittin 100/140's within hours, mad to watch given he's never chucked an arrow in his life. He's playin quite regularly now on a pub team.

Yeah I think it's the old sporting nature vs. nurture debate. Some people practice various sports all day long, are in peak physical condition, and still can't improve. Others seem to be able to do it with little to no effort. I personally think it also has a lot to do with how you learned a sporting technique, aside from "being born to play" a certain sport, which obviously wind out. I'm a fairly good snooker player, can make a century every 15-20 frames or so, but had to grind 6 hours a day for years at that, but learned with a gammy technique when I was younger so could never be a pro.

Blazer

davyjose wrote: »

Michelle Smith had a special recipe of her own - the broad shouldered ginger hulk

I would have thought her recipe was illegal steroids?

Aidric

davyjose wrote: »

Michelle Smith had a special recipe of her own - the broad shouldered ginger hulk

Ha good aul Michelle, the ginger enigma. Does she still have the golds?

Dragan

Yes, the people who make it to the Olympics are exactly that.

citizen_p

if you get paid to do that one sport 8-12 hours a day everyday youll undoubtly get better at it...

especially if its voluntary

cock robin

During the cold dark days of the USSR (CCCP) The rooskies used to train athletes from a very early age and in multiple disciplines. They reckoned at the time they could produce enough atletes through their training programme to have a full Olympic team in every event. They won shed loads of medals. Some of the wimmin looked a bit odd though.

Snowie

to the point where your reactions are so quick there automatic then yeah you can...With out a shadow of a dout.. takes a lot of commitment but if its a sport you love then yeah you can...

jdivision

A bit of both plus being born close to the cut off date for underage sports. Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers has some really interesting facts about how the part of the year you're born in makes a huge difference.

devereaux17

Some people are better equipped but anyone can have the chance of becoming a somebody in their chosen sport.

yerayeah

The thing that hasn't really been mentioned here and is vitally important is natural speed. You can have all the skill in the world but if you're caught for pace then you won't fill your potential in a lot of sports.

spylon

jdivision wrote: »

A bit of both plus being born close to the cut off date for underage sports. Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers has some really interesting facts about how the part of the year you're born in makes a huge difference.

Yes, and he also calculated that it takes around 10,000 hours practice to become an absolute master at any given sport or hobby.

Unpossible

If thats not "Mother Nature's Special" reicipe for an olympic swimmer, I don't know what is.

What about those clown feet thorpe had :pac:
We used be told that everyone has a certain amount of two types of muscle fibre which determined if you would be a sprinter or long distance (I don't know the official names but the coach called them fast and slow twitch )

winston82

Yes - gsp & anderson silva

consultech

GSP has tiny skinny legs

Not really :eek:

Nolanger

Not in this country - the opposite is true. The system will f*ck you up so you'll either underperform in your chosen sport or just get pis*ed off. That's why we'll win so few medals in London 2012

rebel girl 15

Reading an article about Andy Potts, a US triathlete who took his training to a whole new level using feedback training monitoring three variables - wattage (the power his body produces), candence ( the tempo of his arm and leg movement) and heart rate. he does not use training schedules, or periodisation, only the raw biological data. And him and his trainer use the data to decide what training he will do the next day. In less than five year, he went from an overweight former swimmer into an elite member of the athletic community.

You can be born with natural talent, but unless you train and are given the correct training, you still won't be the very best. With the correct training from an early age, the average guys and girls can be the best. Training can be both mental and physical training, psychology is a big thing now.

reminds me of the story of a person with an extremely high IQ that could not take exams and scraped passes in them

Amazotheamazing

Def a bit of both. I've two nephews roughly the same age. One is very short for his age, but plays loads of sports, really skillful and determined. Captains his soccer team, plays first team rugby and hurling, and also plays a bit of Gaelic football (think he's giving it up though), also pretty ok middle distance runner. He is not very physically suited to sport, always breaking bones etc, but mentally he's very committed.

My other nephew is the complete opposite, very big for his age, very naturally strong, which are attributes which suit him in rugby and rowing, but he has absolutely no drive or ambition to make the most of his potential. it's his personality and there's no changing it, nor would I want to.

Of the two, my smaller, more determined nephew is the better athlete despite the fact that he lacks the physical ability for it.

You can have all the natural ability in the world, but if you don't have the desire and determination to go with it, your natural ability will only get you so far.

Gonzales

RHunce wrote: »

can you be finely tuned for a sport?

eg michael phelps etc

just wondering because this came up in convo last night with the lads, while i think that you can train and become better they say you are born that way, but regardless you need practice

what do ye boardsies think?

Yes, it referred to as specificity in sports science circles.

imaleper

Yes, but I can see where your coming from... Rugby for example, you need to fine tune your body hugely to be in with a chance of being paid to play. And then to go down as one of the greats you need to be a good decision maker... which you cant train to become!

imaleper

yerayeah wrote: »

The thing that hasn't really been mentioned here and is vitally important is natural speed. You can have all the skill in the world but if you're caught for pace then you won't fill your potential in a lot of sports.

But speed can be worked on!

Eoin

imaleper wrote: »

Yes, but I can see where your coming from... Rugby for example, you need to fine tune your body hugely to be in with a chance of being paid to play. And then to go down as one of the greats you need to be a good decision maker... which you cant train to become!

Depends on the position. You could be a world class front row without much natural talent. They are skills that you can learn, but I think what makes a back special is a talent that's hard to teach.

yerayeah

imaleper wrote: »

But speed can be worked on!

To an extent ya... But if you're naturally snail-like you'll never make it in Gaelic football, hurling, as a back in rugby or in most positions on a soccer field...

walshb

Very very few athletes right at the top can afford to slacken off and still
be number 1. Bolt,&Phelps would be two whom spring to mind as athletes
who could still be number 1 with less effort and training, but not too much less
effort and training!

Raze_them_all

It's a mix of both, I know guys who had amazing natural talent when we were young, they knew this got told this by everyone, now there's just better than the average guy because they never busted there asses in training