The Psychology Podcast 4: Discussing the origins of extraordinary athletic performance
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Dec 6, 2014 David Epstein discusses the interplay between nature and nurture in athletic performance, the impact of mentality on success, how potential is assessed, sex differences in sports, and achieving greatness at any age.
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Reaction Time Is A Poor Predictor For Hitting
- Reaction time correlates poorly with elite hitting skill in baseball.
- Epstein tested Albert Pujols and found Pujols scored only in the 66th percentile versus college students, challenging old reaction-time selection claims.
Myostatin Super Baby Case
- Epstein recounts the "super baby" whose myostatin mutation caused extreme muscle growth and led to discovering the myostatin gene.
- The baby's mother was a professional sprinter, and related gene variants appear in racing dogs and sprinters.
Limits Of The 10,000 Hour Claim
- Deliberate practice matters but is often overstated because many studies suffer restricted-range sampling.
- The 10,000-hour violin study sampled elite students, so it can't separate practice from selection biases like innate talent.