
The Sports Gene
Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی

July 15, 2013
Are Tiger Woods, Jim Ryun, Serena Williams, and Michael Jordan natural athletes whose success in their own sports would have occurred whether they developed their gifts or not? Are some individuals genetically disposed to some sports, while others lack the genetic predisposition to succeed at the same sports? Sports Illustrated senior writer Epstein probes these questions in a disjointed study. Drawing on interviews with athletes and scientists, he points out that “a nation succeeds in a sport not only by having many people who practice prodigiously at sport-specific skills, but also by getting the best all-around athletes into the right sports in the first place.” Epstein observes that some scientists and athletes confirm that the so-called 10,000 hours of practice produces quality athletes, while others assert that the number of hours spent in practice matters little if a team has not already selected superior athletes in the first place. Epstein comes closest to scoring a home run in his provocative and thoughtful focus on the relationships between gender and race and genetic determination—why do male and female athletes compete separately, and are there genetic reasons to do so? and why do the best sprinters always come from Jamaica and so many long-distance Olympian runners hail from Kenya? While he helpfully leads readers into the dugout of modern genetics and sports science, his overall conclusions challenge few assumptions. In the end, he concedes that “any case for sports expertise that leans entirely either on nature or nurture is a straw-man argument.” Agent: Scott Waxman, Waxman Leavell Literary.

David Epstein, who combined science expertise with writing for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, looks at the research and theories of what makes a good athlete. Epstein's dual interests come through in his enthusiastic narration. He provides a survey of the genetic research done since 2003's Human Genome Project, stressing that genes aren't the whole story. Studies that cover accumulated practice and the skills it helps develop as well as the conditions under which athletes develop are also discussed. These scientific discussions are interwoven with stories of athletes, including a college student who made a seven-foot high jump on the first try. Epstein covers the topic thoroughly, pointing out the drawbacks of genetic tests as he discusses the new findings. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
دیدگاه کاربران