Speed Gene Mumbo Jumbo

[Islandman]

http://www.sportinglifearkansas.com/...-of-the-world/

Yes, there kind of is one.

But to understand how it works, you first have to know the explosive, “fast-twitch” muscle fibers which all elite sprinters have a lot of contain a structural protein called alpha-actinin-3. There are two versions of the ACTN3 gene that codes for this stuff.

One version – the X variant – has a genetic “stop sign” that stops production of the protein. Another version – the R variant of ACTN3 – functions normally and facilitates production of the protein. Each person inherits either an XX, RX or RR combination from their two parents. If you have an “XX” combination, you’re pretty much not going to be an elite sprinter no matter how hard you train, according to Epstein. These variants are found in different ethnic groups in varying proportions.
According to one study cited in “The Sports Gene,”a quarter of people of East Asian descent had two copies of the X variant. About 18 percent of white Australians had two X variants. But, it turns out, every sub-Saharan African population has only less than 1 percent have two X variants. This means there are far, far fewer people of African ethnicity who lack an R variant for explosive, fast-twitch muscle fibers.

Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACTN3

[Islandman]

What it can and cannot tell us:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...ally-tell-you/

[World Fan]

Is this consistent with swimming, gymnastics, an equestrian, a fencer, table tennis player.....?

Or does this just applies to sprinting?

[Stonigut]

Sprint superiority via fast twitch muscle theory??

Genetic athletic superiority of Jamaicans; Mumbo jumbo, hocus pocus, voodoo hoodoo, whatever you want call it is a bunch of hogwash and a waste of our time and energy.

Why some Jamaican people feel pride in saying that genetically we are different I just cannot understand it, it is a false pride, a total waste of time explaining.

This is exactly what some non Jamaicans want to say, it is a genetic thing, it is not as if you are really doing anything, much the same argument is used on the Kenyans and Ethiopians, high altitude, development of lungs over thousands of years of those people living where they do, to handle low oxygen levels at higher climes gives a definite advantage at sea level for these runners, that plus they are slim built, narrow waisted Africans means they are genetically disposed to win long distance races, more hogwash, there is some slight advantage that could be gained there but many other people live at high altitude and have not done much with that advantage, we haven't seen any Sherpas winning any long distance races or even any other group living in the Himalayas, Andes or anywhere else that have even been competitive because of such an advantage and we see American guys like Rupp, Centrowitz and Symonds all non-East African runners competing from 800 meters up to 10K and doing so successfully beating the big lunged, long limbed, narrow waisted Kenyans and Ethiopians by just training hard and dedicating themselves to their objective.

The same is true for Jamaica and it's sprinters, this ridiculous fast twitch gene business even has supposedly well trained intellectuals talking pure foolishness, about superior metabolism and slave ship survival and all kind of trash talk, every time I hear someone trying to explain this theory it makes me cringe. If that was the case then every single country with a west African slave heritage would be tearing up the Olympics, Columbia, Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, each alone probably have more than twice the number of people of west African descent than Jamaica has, yes each of those countries have more than 3 million people of primarily west African descent, not to mention Brazil that probably has close to 100 million people of primarily West African descent. What? are those fast twitch muscles are a little slower than ours, maybe it's dancing Reggae that makes us faster!? and please don't bother talking about food as much of the food across the Caribbean basin area is pretty much the same thing.

Well let us further look at this fast twitch business, what about the home of fast twitch people, the West Africa region and countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal etc etc, not seeing too much dominance coming from there are we and that population is probably about 300 plus million just looking from Senegal to Cameroun and we not counting a lot of other countries with a strong Bantu population as that is the root of the West African population.

Why not just say the truth, we have a long tradition of athletics in Jamaica, it is our primary sport, we have built many core cultural institutions in Jamaica with track and field being a corner stone. Why not talk about the hard work, the sacrifice, the blood, sweat and tears, but no we want to fall into the hands of the small minded with this overbaked genetic theory.

We don't have to do much, just a little running and before you know it we are breaking world records,the just in the genes theory, are we paying attention when Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce says she has never, never missed a training session even with full time school and other responsibilities, nobody even noticed that point, that is what we should be talking about, instead we are wasting time on the chase of the Holy Grail of the fast twitch gene!!!!

I wish from here on out that not one single Jamaican will ever mention this fast twitch theory as the primary reason for our success, instead let's all focus on the real deal, hard work, traditions, building a comparative and competitive advantage in athletics, pulling together superior knowledge gained over 100 years of competition, focus, execution etc etc. That is the real deal there. The widespread numbers of people of West African descent across West Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean that have done nothing exceptional in Track and Field (except Cuba) wipes away this genetic theory as a credible significant factor for Jamaican success.

If we actually do a rough analysis of the 100 meter winners from 1896 to 2012 what do we find, that of 27 champions only two are from non-English speaking countries, Germany in 1960 and Russia in 1980, so 93% of the winners are from English speaking countries, so does that mean that speaking the English language gives an advantage in sprinting?

What it means is that English speaking countries have a stronger tradition of competing in the 100 sprint and have the institutions and traditions developed over a long period of time that creates an advantage in producing sprint champions, that is the real advantage nothing else.

In explanation of our success let us focus on the talent identification system, let us focus on the structure and organization across the island, let us focus on the incredible volunteerism that supports the track meets in Jamaica where in Nigeria they cannot even get the parents to volunteer for free for their own kids competitions, these are the real advantages, let us focus on the incredible high school system as flawed as we still know that it is but still has produced institutions all over 100 years that continue to churn out athletes, scholars and some of our best most productive citizens, let us talk about the development of tertiary level athletics through GC Foster, Cast, Denis Johnson etc etc, let us talk about MVP and Racers and all the coaches throughout the length and breadth of the island.

Let's kill this genetic explanation as the focal point once and for all and focus on the real advantages that we have, as it is through the continuation of these things that we have done well and what we have improved recently is the real reason for our success, continuation and a focus on improving these processes will lead to further success.

[Mosiah]

Why can't we stand the truth?!?

Clearly, it is not all about genes. There is the "hard work, traditions, building a comparative and competitive advantage in athletics, pulling together superior knowledge gained over 100 years of competition, focus, execution etc etc. ".

But there is also "the genes".

Deal with it! No need to dwell on it, but it dideh!

[Islandman]

I have never heard anyone on this forum claim that Jamaicans are in any way genetically unique. That would certainly be Mumbo jumbo.

[Islandman]

We cannot stand it Because it feels better when you can say my success had nothing to do with what I was born with, it is all about what I have done.

Of course we all know that natural talent alone gets most of us nowhere. It has to have an environment to thrive in. In fact I have no problem with the viewpoint that genes gives an advantage but the deficit can be overcome with focus, hard work and the numbers you throw at the problem.

For example, China has 1.3 billion people so even if talent in any area is rare there , one in a million for them is 1300 people while for say Jamaica it is not even 3 people. I would think that if they focus on just about any area of life with enough intensity they should be able to find more elite performers than we can.

But those who want to claim that "anybody can achieve anything" with enough hard work, and natural talent does not play any part, well....keep your heads in the sand but the science says otherwise.

[Islandman]

I don't know if any particular type of muscle fibre could give enough of an advantage in activities like those. Swimming maybe but not the others. They are much more complex sports.

However it would not surprise me if people who have a genetic predisposition to be tall are, at times (no not always), found to be disproportionately successful in activities that give tall people an advantage. It would just make sense, they are.....well, tall!
Don't know why this is so painful for us to consider.

[Stonigut]

Not specifically here but I have seen a number of documentaries on speedy Jamaicans where our experts make some really strange claims about Jamaican sprint genes and origin, never stopping to think that there are very similar populations of people like us concentrated in greater numbers in many places, thus the theory goes if we set up shop in say guineau bissau or in cartagena columbia we should be sble to replicate jamaicas success very quickly if the advantage is truly about some superior gene.

Now I am not saying that people of west african descent are not better endowed for sprinting ad clearly they are but the success of jamaica relative to the more than 500 million people with that background clearly makes that advantage irrelevant, thus there is much more to our success than just genes, we do ourselves no good by following the hype that our success has less to do with jamaica and more to do with natural selection, nonsense when looked at via this standpoint.

[Islandman]

I don't really disagree with anything you say here , except I would probably not say that our predisposition is irrelevant, I would say it doesn't take anything away from the superiority of our track and field culture which is what I call the secret sauce of our success.

My interest in this topic and even the discussions on this forum predate Jamaicas current golden era or athletic success. For me it has been more about the reason for the dominance of West African sprinters generally, and why it seems to be even more dominant on the male side than the female.

Genetic biology is tricky when skin color is even remotely involved and always a hot button issue but I see no reason to ignore the area completely. Strangely enough we never have a problem when scientists say people of Africa decent or European descent are more likely to develop certain diseases, conditions, etc. but touch on physical activities or worse mental ones and daggers get drawn quickly.

As has been said here before race is not a scientific classification, once we can get that and believe it these things are not nearly as touchy to dig into.

[Jangle]

Stoni, this is your best ever post on this forum.

[Don1]

I don't really disagree with anything you say here , except I would probably not say that our predisposition is irrelevant, I would say it doesn't take anything away from the superiority of our track and field culture which is what I call the secret sauce of our success.

My interest in this topic and even the discussions on this forum predate Jamaicas current golden era or athletic success. For me it has been more about the reason for the dominance of West African sprinters generally, and why it seems to be even more dominant on the male side than the female.

Genetic biology is tricky when skin color is even remotely involved and always a hot button issue but I see no reason to ignore the area completely. Strangely enough we never have a problem when scientists say people of Africa decent or European descent are more likely to develop certain diseases, conditions, etc. but touch on physical activities or worse mental ones and daggers get drawn quickly.

As has been said here before race is not a scientific classification, once we can get that and believe it these things are not nearly as touchy to dig into.

I guess some fear the eugenics Boogie Man

What people who don't want to consider the very small advantage that genetic predispositions may give to people of West African descent ignore is the FACT that sprinting is a game not really of 100 or 200 meters...but of inches.... it is at that margin that a decision by a measuring system is usually made. Although some neophytes want to consider reaction time as a decider....woooiiiieee

Winning or losing in sprints is sometimes a matter of 1/10 or 1/100 of a second....except for a certain Usain Bolt of course

Given the small margin between success and relative failure...the small advantage conferred by physiological factors... looms large....but only if one follows logic

That said every sensible person knows that preparation and support is paramount over ANY other factors.... let's say it's 99%

That golden 1% is where well prepared West Africans run di cut....woooiiieee

Seems pretty simple to me

[Islandman]

Correct, at the elite level we are talking about minuscule differences between good and very good.

It is very simple but because of the history it makes us uncomfortable.

[Sir X]

Where is the fast twitch gene on the football field , the fastest footballer on the field are two caucasians ,one from portugal (ronaldo ) and one from wales (Bale).

Football would offer a more balanced presentation as to speed over field.

Just asking , as Stoni says basically we have a specialised enviroment to produce , i.e champs.

[Islandman]

...we have a specialised enviroment to produce , i.e champs.

Yes we have created a specialized environment for producing top class athletes and we should feel very proud about that. I agree 100%!

Where is the fast twitch gene on the football field