Book Review: The Sports Gene by David Epstein
In a market dominated by absolutes, ‘The Sports Gene’ offers a refreshingly different point of view to books such as ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell and ‘Bounce’ by Matthew Syed. Both of which having been the subject of significant criticism, as a result of their distortion of scientific studies.
However, to think of this book as a sea change in thinking on the topic of nature vs nurture would be too simplistic. Epstein argues that practice is still what ultimately decides whether a person will eventually reach their potential. If they are to become truly world class then they need an amount of genetic potential. The analogy he uses to describe this is that without top of the range ‘hardware’ you will never be able to get the most from your ‘software’. This is particularly the case for learning the patterns of decision-making in sport.
He critiques the work of K Anders Ericsson (the initial proponent of the 10,000 hour rule) by pointing out that there is no hard and fast law of 10,000 hours. For some it may take longer, some shorter. The main problem being that most studies start with high achievers and as such, much of the population has already been screened out. He also points out that no two people respond to training programmes in the same way, for some, more hours may well be detrimental.
“if only accumulated hours of practice mattered, then why do we separate men and women in athletic competition?”
He uses some statistics from the NBA to support his hypothesis, stating that “of all American men aged twenty to forty who stand seven feet tall, a startling 17 percent of them are in the NBA right now” He also deals with the prickly issue of race stating very clearly that “the athletes who are the fleetest of foot, in both short and long distances are black”
Possibly most interesting is his passage on motivation and how far it is inherited. He cites some interesting studies, looking at fraternal and identical twins and how the identical twins are far more likely to share similar activity levels as each other. This is a developing area of research and one of great interest to all teachers.
Overall, ‘The Sports Gene’ is a highly enjoyable read and once again opens the debate about what ultimately shapes a person’s performance in a given discipline. Here are some interviews with the author that are worth reading and listening to before purchasing the book:
http://files.libertyfund.org/econtalk/y2013/EpsteinDsports.mp3