My sister says this to me all of the time. As if any training I do is pointless because I don’t have the natural abilities of Lance or something. As if the “born athletes” just get to the starting line and magically race, without any “making.” She majored in exercise science for goodness sake. She says this to me whenever I ask her a training-related question.
Me: “How do I know if I have tendonitis?”
My sister: “Athletes are born not made.”
Me: “Will building strength in my legs ward off running injuries?”
My sister: “Athletes are born not made.”
Well, I have to get that rant off my chest. She’s oversimplifying everything. I think the greatest athletes are a combination of raw talent and hard work. You could be born a great athlete but never get off your butt or discover the sport you’re great at. I could work harder than the best athletes and still not come close to their times.
It’s okay though. She can keep saying that. I’m going to wear black shoes to her wedding instead of the specified silver. So ha. And I’ll keep training.
If she or you were to look at the research of the last few years, it would show that to become world class endurance athlete will take on avg about 10,000 hrs of training. This can be all types of aerobic development even if tri’s are the primary sport. Hiking, soccer, S/B/R, kayaking etc. anything that helps develop the aerobic plumbing in the body
I had an exercise physiology professor put it best. Talking about elite athletes he said that fields are born but champions are made. You have to luck out in the genetic lottery to start the TdF but you have to work your ass off to beat all those other genetics freaks with you at the starting line.
We are born with some genetic tendencies:potential height, muscle composition, bone structure, heart rate and blood composition. It is easier for some athletes to excel than others.
My brother was six feet tall by the time he was thirteen. He had very long arms and a short torso. Everyone in my family has a low heart rate and high red blood count. He was unbeaten for seven years in swimming competition.
I started doing triathlons when I was forty. By forty-one I had taken fourth at Nationals. I new that I would never take number one because I was too heavy for fast running even though I only had six percent body fat.
There are certain body types that perform incredibly well. If they train properly they become the champions. If not they are still local heroes.
At the elite level all athletes are genetically gifted. On any given day anyone of them will win.
Everyone has an opportunity to win. You just have to set up your game so that you have an opportunity to win. Winning is self improvement. Hitting your best time or performing in a way that exceeds your past performance. It can never be based on someone else’s genetic make up. There will always be someone who is faster.
On our high school swim team we have guy that is 6’3’ and can lay down a 21 in the 50 without even practicing for a month.
We have a freshman that just went under 5 minutes in the 500 that is about 5’4". Not the perfect swim body but he compensates by twice a day workouts 8-10K yards.
Sometimes this kills my motivation to train. If I beat my head against a wall for 3 years to get better, and someone with better genetics beats me in his second week of riding, I’m a bitter person. Maybe that’s the downfall of a competitive nature but if I’m going to suffer for something, I want to be good at it…
I believe that genetics play a huge role, more than hard work and training, in deciding who will become “elite”. But then again, the potential of the human mind to achieve improved performance is probably bigger than we understand at this point… I don’t know what to think.
“I’m going to wear black shoes to her wedding instead of the specified silver”
ok, that was just awesome!
seriously though, did you ever think that maybe she doesn’t really know how to answer your questions and that’s all she knows to say? honestly, don’t give her so much credit by thinking that she knows alot (I don’t want that to sound mean, but maybe it does?). exercise science, ha…it’s just school, not experience.
besides that’s kind of an all or nothing attitude…who needs that. i’m sure you love her (and then hate her…she’s a sibbling after all) but she’s not a good resource for you. so, spit out her words and keep racing.
"At the elite level all athletes are genetically gifted. On any given day anyone of them will win. "
I saw some Vo2 results from top tour cyclists and not all of them had gifted capacities. There were some that had “normal/average” capacities. What they lacked in natural gift they made up for in technique and efficiency.
Simple, most times what sets the elite apart form the non-elite are “things you cannot teach”.
In almost any sport, when a pro scout is looking at an athlete, they are looking for the “things they cannot teach” (i.e. natural ability, size, quickness, etc). All of the other stuff they can, well, teach to the athlete.
You could be born a great athlete but never get off your butt or discover the sport you’re great at.
Potential is simply unproven ability. In most cases, potential is useless. Potential by itself never got anything done. If I, at 32, could go back in time and talk to my 19-yo self … these statements are what I would explain. I was young, dumb, and expecting to be successful simply on “my potential”. Potential is too mysterious to use for any predictive means.
**I could work harder than the best athletes and still not come close to their times. **
I wish many parents would figure this out.
Athletes can always improve, but they can never rise higher than their cieling. My goal for athletes is to find your celing … that’s all you can do.
on the whole i think sprinters are born not made. endurance sport is something that you can give a good go in terms of getting up there.
yeah but look at the kenyans and etheopians (ok i can’t spell I’ll admit)…those people have alien blood. they run so damn fast over such a long distance. in reality, elite athletes are genetic freaks. unless a person is born with that “makeup” elitism won’t happen. sure work can make a person good, but it can’t make a person elite unless they’re naturally gifted.
someone posted the other day about how their wife never really ran before but went out and did a 22 minute 5K. ok, that’s fast and natural ability. i ran my ass off and got that time…once. there are people like that.
hell, with all of the years of sports under my belt I’m just happy to be out there now. but i’d say this topic bothered me most in college when i had alot of potential for rowing, but just didn’t have the height. damn. i couda been somebody.
I agree, lots is genetics, but as I’m witnessing here, lots is also mental. We set our own limiters. I’ve mentioned this friend before on this site, I wouldn’t say he’s genetically gifted, but has worked his ass off to get where he is today and it’s been a ton and ton of training. Riding up Palomar mountain every weekend for a summer. Not just from the bottom of Palomar, but a 100 mile ride which included Palomar. He did this solo. He wanted to get to Kona, took him three years, but he got there and now he’s going back for his third time this year. I wouldn’t say it has come easy and I don’t think it should be assumed that it comes easy for all. It takes a lot of work and dedication. I should also add when people see this guy running at the front of a pack it’s not uncommon to hear, “who’s the big guy?”
The tough part of this to swallow is that there are other freshmen who rarely practice and have little work ethic that can also go under 5 minutes for 500. If that person finds the desire… then 4:20 becomes possible but for the kid who’s already working his ass off, he’s a lot closer to his “ceiling”. That’s life I guess… It comes down to the gifted vs. the dedicated I guess. If a person has both, then they get the “rings” tattooed on themselves…
I think it’s more, “some people have the drive and dedication” and some do not. I do not. I love the sport, but after witnessing my friends training…HECK NO!
The other kid is the one that fascinates me. If he ever got serious and actually trained - wow. He’s also a D-1 caliber water polo player that will be playing at a JC since he is a bird brain.
I think I’ll turn this into a bitch/envy session right now.
Earlier in my life as a cyclist I toiled for years at the cat3/4 level with no results to speak of, and before that I was a mediocre soccer player and even worse wrestler in HS. Years of just banging my head against the wall.
Then I would read stories in Velonews or Bicycling about some jerkoff who catches the TdF on TV one year and decides it would be neat to try. They propmptly win the first few races they enter and within months they are racing in a semi pro field an considering a pro contract in the next few seasons. This happens at least a few time a year.
Talk about demotivating.
OK I’m done unloading now. I think I feel better. I’ll probably go slog through some more 1/2mile repats on the track at about a 7min/mile pace this afternoon unitl I feel like throwing up after about 4.
