[brianwawok]

Maybe a slightly different topic.. but from what a lot in the running field think, its all about how fast your body recovers.

There are 10,000 amazing marathoners in the world. If you gave them all the same training, they would all be absurdly good, as they got better and better. But 9,990 or so of them would get injured and wash out.

So it seems at least in some sports, your limiter is not how genetically gifted you are the SPORT, but how genetically gifted you are at recovering from training so that you can train more.

So perhaps this guy has the genetics to be a pro golfer, but his body can't take the strain and recover between sessions.. so he would never quite make it.

[cyberferret]

Well, when you consider that even Tiger Woods had to take an extended break from golf and completely redesign his swing to prevent permanent shoulder and back problems, it doesn't seem to be a 'genetic' thing per se, but rather a human mechanics limitation.

Some sporting activities are just outside the scope of design of our bodies, it would seem. Much like trying to use a Japanese chef knife to prise open jar lids. It will work up to a point, but not being the core design of the tool, you are guaranteed of breaking the knife at some point, or at least severely damaging it.

It would appear that the human frame is not suited to short, explosive, twisting action of the arms and shoulders while the lower body remains planted.

[jinfiesto]

I'm not convinced that the recovery is genetic (well it is, but that's not the point.) People give themselves repetitive motion injuries in music all the time. It causes tons of otherwise amazing musicians to wash out.

It's become such a problem, that it's basically become the biggest issue the pedagogy community as a whole is actively trying to address. This is interesting, because there has been a lot of progress made in injury-preventive technique.

Even in running, a quick Google search revealed that injury preventive techniques exist.

So I guess, I'm not convinced that injury isn't technique related and that not being injured doesn't have more to do with luck (in terms of natural technique) than genetics.

[StanislavPetrov]

>So I guess, I'm not convinced that injury isn't technique related and that not being injured doesn't have more to do with luck (in terms of natural technique) than genetics.

Certainly luck is a factor, but genetics is an important factor as well. Many studies have linked genetics to a predisposition for inflammation, wound-healing, and other injury-related phenomena.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160302135149.h...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16472051

[bsder]

> It's become such a problem, that it's basically become the biggest issue the pedagogy community as a whole is actively trying to address. This is interesting, because there has been a lot of progress made in injury-preventive technique.

Could you please give me some references for this? Guitar has loads of famous people who encourage people to do things that will cause injuries. Having some actual research to fight against this would be really useful.

An egregiously bad example: Paul Gilbert (who is like 6'5" and has enormously long arms and fingers) actually SELLS an especially long guitar strap that is practically guaranteed to give you RSI. I wish I were joking: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=paul+gilbert+gu...

Side note: this made me hugely disappointed in Paul Gilbert. Prior to this, I thought of him as an amazing guitar player with a very wry/dry sense of humor who was simply making fun of the guitar stereotype crowd. Actually encouraging something which is damaging in order to profit from it crosses the line whether he is serious or joking--too many people will listen and believe him.

[brooklyn_ashey]

Jerome Lowenthal, the pianist and pedagogue has focal distonia, and speaks about it in his teaching. Opera singers get vocal nodes from incorrect use or overuse of the vocal chords... musicians often turn to Pilates, Feldenkreis, or other techniques- but mostly it is about finding the posture that is the most natural and the motion that is most efficient. Cellists have special orchestral chairs, and violinists use better and better chin and shoulder rests these days- all in service to this.

[brooklyn_ashey]

ansolutely. an expert knows the most efficient motions from refining inefficient ones or from a coach who can spot issues. inefficient motions create repetitive use injuries.

[DoubleCribble]

I wouldn't discount the not insignificant amount of luck involved either. Anecdotally, I know of one baseball player who got called up to the majors only to have his career ended by taking a bad hop to the face just before his rookie season.

[jtuente]

If his body cannot take the strain and recover between sessions then wouldn't that suggest that he does not have the genetics to be a pro golfer, but merely a good one?

[Trundle]

Kind of related is that one of the biggest advantages of using performance enhancing drugs/steroids is the greatly reduced recovery time. Even if someone tests clean before an event because they genuinely are clean rather than being on something undetectable, they still benefit from all of the extra training they managed to get in in-between events when they were juicing.

[posterboy]

> genetically gifted

No need to narrow this down to genetics. Just say "how fast you recover", thanks.

I mean, unless you give specific insights into how detrimental slack after training and superb wound healing are directly genetically correlated, you might as well not mention it.

Edit: Also, you seem to presuppose a benefit from wounding. I do doubt that.