The Sports Gene

My basic approach to understanding prodigies is the same as it is for understanding any expert performer. I ask two simple questions: What is the exact nature of the ability? and, What sorts of training made it possible? In thirty years of looking, I have never found an ability that could not be explained by answering these two questions.

“Deliberate practice”: K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer, “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance,” Psychological Review 100, no. 3 (1993): 363–406, ht​tps:/​/grap​hics8​.nyti​mes.c​om/im​ages/​blogs​/frea​konom​ics/p​df/De​liber​atePr​act​ice(PsychologicalReview).pdf/.

those who participate in sports like tennis, swimming, ice hockey, and running are more Internal than comparable groups who don't.9 Internals achieve more than Externals in hockey, marathon racing, and children's gymnastics.10

David Boudia, says there are two types of game-day athletes. He calls them “plus or minus athletes.” His theory is based on the research from George Miller. The principle that the average number of information bits we retain in our short-term memory is seven. For example, the length of our phone number.25 Plus-two athletes can comprehend more infor