Of all of the decisions parents face regarding
their children's future, choosing between shoulder pads or running
shoes for their Christmas present seems trivial. Well, according to
Kevin Reilly, president of Atlas Sports Genetics, this is a decision you should not take lightly.
"If
you wait until high school or college to find out if you have a good
athlete on your hands, by then it will be too late," he said in a
recent New York Times interview. "We need to identify these kids from 1 and up, so we can give the parents some guidelines on where to go from there."
In
December, Reilly's company began marketing a $149 saliva swab test for
kids, aged 1 to 8, to determine which variant of the gene ACTN3 is in their DNA. According to a 2003 Australian study,
ACTN3 was shown to be a marker for two different types of athletic
prowess, explosive power or long endurance. While everyone carries the
gene, the combination of variants inherited, one from each parent,
differs.
Science of success
The R
variant of ACTN3 signals the body to produce a protein,
alpha-actinin-3, which is found exclusively in fast-twitch muscles. The
X variant prohibits this production. So, athletes inheriting two R
variants may have a genetic advantage in sports requiring quick,
powerful muscle contractions from their fast-twitch muscle fibers.
In the ACTN3 study, Dr. Kathryn North
and her lab at the Institute for Neuromuscular Research of the
University of Sydney looked at 429 internationally ranked Australian
athletes and found significant correlation between power sport athletes
and the presence of the R variant. All of the female sprint athletes
had at least one R variant, as did the male power-sport athletes. In
fact, 50 percent of the 107 sprinters had two copies of the R variant.
What about those aspiring athletes that were not fortunate enough to inherit the R variant and its protein producing qualities?
North's
team also noted that the elite endurance athletes seemed to be linked
to the XX variation, although only significantly in the female sample.
In 2007, her team pursued this link by developing a strain of mice that
was completely deficient in the alpha-actinin-3 protein similar to an
athlete with an XX allele. They found the muscle metabolism of the mice
without the protein was more efficient. Amazingly, the mice were able
to run 33 percent farther than mice with the normal ACTN3 gene.
Cloudy future
Additional research is showing mixed results, however.
In
2007, South African researchers found no significant correlation
between 457 Ironman triathletes, known for their endurance, and the XX
combination. This year, Russian researchers at the St. Petersburg
Research Institute of Physical Culture also failed to establish the
XX-endurance performance link among 456 elite rowers but did find the
RR connection among a sample of Russian power sports athletes.
So, can we at least find the next Usain Bolt among our kids?
"Everybody
wants to predict future athletic success based on present achievement
or physical makeup. But predicting success is much more difficult than
most people think," Robert Singer, professor and chair of the
department of exercise and sport sciences at the University of Florida
warns in the book "Sports Talent" (Human Kinetics Publishers, 2001) by Jim Brown.
"There
are too many variables, even if certain athletes have a combination of
genes that favors long-range talent," Singer said. "A person's genetic
makeup can be expressed in many different ways, depending on
environmental and situational opportunities. Variables such as
motivation, coachability, and opportunity can't be predicted."
Destiny?
Just
as we assume that kids that are at the 99 percent percentile in height
are destiny-bound for basketball or volleyball, having this peek into
their genome may tempt parents to limit the sports choices for their
son or daughter.
Even Mr. Reilly expressed his concern
in the Times article: "I'm nervous about people who get back results
that don't match their expectations," he said. "What will they do if
their son would not be good at football? How will they mentally and
emotionally deal with that?"
For those parents that are just not ready to discover the sports
destiny of their child, or just want to save the $150, there is a much
simpler alternative. Hold your son or daughter's hand, palm up. Measure
the lengths of their index finger and their ring finger. Divide the
former by the latter. According to John Manning, professor of
psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, if the ratio is
closer to .90 than 1.0, you may have a budding superstar.
Manning explains in his aptly named new book, "The Finger Book"
(Faber and Faber, 2008),that the amount of a fetus' exposure to
testosterone in the womb determines the length of the ring finger,
while estrogen levels are expressed in the length of the index finger.
According to Manning's theory, more testosterone means more physical
and motor skill ability.
The digit ratio theory, as it
is known, has been the subject of more than 120 studies to find its
effect on athletic, musical and even lovemaking aptitude.
Don't
worry if the ratio is closer to 1.0, which is by far the norm. Plus,
you will be able to relax, enjoy your kids' sports events and only
worry about their genetic disposition to being happy.
Please visit my other articles on LiveScience.com and Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
As first seen on LiveScience.com
From the "athletes behaving badly" department (in the past month, anyway):
• NHL bad boy (Sean Avery) was suspended for six games for a crude remark.
• Six NFL players were suspended for allegedly violating the league's drug policy.
•
Another NFL player (Adam "Pacman" Jones) returned to his team's roster
after being suspended, again, for an off-field altercation.
• Oh, and NFL receiver (Plaxico Burress) accidentally shot himself in a nightclub with a gun he was not licensed to carry.
Despite
the 24/7 media coverage of each of these incidents, sports fans have
become accustomed to and somewhat complacent with hearing about
athletes and their deviant acts.
In fact,
new statistics reveal that bad behavior is clearly evident among high
school athletes, particularly in high-contact sports.
It starts young
Besides
the highly publicized stories, there are thousands more across the
nation involving amateur athletes taking risks both on and off the
field. From performance-enhancing supplements to referee/official abuse
to fights, guns and recorded crimes, the image of sports as a positive
influence on athletes may need a second look.
Granted,
in a population of any size there will be a few bad apples. However,
these actions have become so prevalent that academic researchers have
created a branch of study called "deviance in sports" attached to the
sports sociology tree.
They are
asking questions and challenging some assumptions about cause and
effect. Is there a connection between sports participation and
deviance? Does the intense competition and battle on the field shape a
player's off-the-field lifestyle? Since success in sports brings
attention and prestige to athletes, does the risk of losing that status
cause a need to take risks to maintain their "top dog" positions?
In their new book, "Deviance and Social Control in Sport,"
researchers Michael Atkinson and Kevin Young emphasize the confusing
environment surrounding athletes. They describe two types of deviance:
wanted and unwanted.
Owners,
players and fans may know that certain behaviors are literally against
the rules but are at the same time appreciated as a sign of doing
whatever it takes to win. Performance-enhancing drugs are not allowed
in most sports, but athletes assume they will improve their
performance, which helps their team win and keeps fans happy. Fights in
hockey will be, according to the rule book, penalized, but this
deviance is assumed to be wanted by fans and teammates as a sign of
loyalty.
However, related bad behavior can quickly turn on a player to being socially unwanted.
Abuse
of drugs that don't contribute to a win, (marijuana, cocaine, alcohol),
will transform that same player into a villain with shock and outrage
being reported in the media. In the Sean Avery example, a hockey player
fighting to defend his teammates on the ice can then be suspended from
the team and criticized by those same teammates for an off-color remark.
Real statistics
Most
athletes who make it to the professional level have been involved in
sports since youth. Sports sociologists and psychologists often look at
the early development years of athletes to get a glimpse of patterns,
social norms and influences that contribute to later behaviors.
In a recent American Sociological Review article,
Derek Kreager, assistant professor of sociology at Penn State
University, challenged the long-held belief that youth sports
participation is exclusively beneficial to their moral character
development.
With the focus on
teaching teamwork, fair play, and self esteem, sports are often cited
as the antidote to delinquency. But Kreager notes that other studies
have looked at the culture that surrounds high school and college
athletes and identified patterns of clichés, privileges and attitudes
of superiority. For some athletes, these patterns are used to justify
deviant behavior.
In fact, his
most recent research attempted to find a cause-and-effect link between
deviant behavior and specific sports. Specifically, he asked if
high-contact, physical sports like football and wrestling created
athletes who were more prone to violent behavior off the field.
Using
data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, more
than 6,000 male students from across 120 schools were included. The
data set included a wide collection of socioeconomic information,
including school activities, risk behaviors and at-home influences.
Kreager's study analyzed the effects of three team sports (football,
basketball, and baseball) and two individual sports (wrestling and
tennis) on the likelihood of violent off-field behavior, specifically,
fighting.
To isolate the effect
of each sport, the study included control groups of non-athletes and
those that had a history of physical violence prior to playing sports.
For
team sports, football players were 40 percent more likely to be in a
confrontation than non-athletes. In individual sports, wrestlers were
in fights 45 percent more often, while tennis players were 35 percent
less likely to be in an altercation. Basketball and baseball players
showed no significant bias either way.
"Sports
such as football, basketball, and baseball provide players with a
certain status in society," Kreager said. "But football and wrestling
are associated with violent behavior because both sports involve some
physical domination of the opponent, which is rewarded by the fans,
coaches and other players. Players are encouraged to be violent outside
the sport because they are rewarded for being violent inside it."
When
it comes to improving your golf game, you can spend thousands of
dollars buying the latest titanium-induced, Tiger-promoted golf clubs;
taking private lessons from the local "I used to be on the Tour" pro;
or trying every slice-correcting, swing-speed-estimating,
GPS-distance-guessing gadget. But, in the end, it’s about getting that
little white sphere to go where you intended it to go. Don't worry,
there are many very smart people trying to help you by designing the
ultimate golf ball. Of course, they are also after a slice of this
billion dollar industry, as any technological advancement that can grab
a few more market share points is worth the investment.
In
fact, the golf ball wars can get nasty. Earlier this month, Callaway
Golf won a court order permanently halting sales of the industry's
leading ball, Titleist's Pro V1, arguing patent infringements involving
its solid core technology which Callaway acquired when it bought
Spaulding/Top Flite in 2003. Titleist disagrees with the decision and
will appeal, but in the meantime has altered its manufacturing process
so that the patents in question are not used.
The
challenge for golf ball manufacturers is to design a better performing
ball within the constraints set by United States Golf Association. The
USGA enforces limits on the size, weight and initial performance
characteristics in an attempt to keep the playing field somewhat level.
Every "sanctioned" golf ball must weigh less than 1.62 ounces with a
diameter smaller than 1.68 inches. It also must have a similar initial
velocity when hit with a metal striker, and rebound at the same angle
and speed when hit against a metal block. So, what is left to tinker
with? Manufacturers have focused on the internal materials in the ball
and its cover design.
Today's
balls have 2, 3 or 4 layers of different internal polymer materials to
be able to respond differently when hit with a driver versus, say, a
wedge. When hit with a driver at much higher swing speed, the energy
transfer goes all the way to the core by compressing ball, reducing
backspin. During a slower swing with a club that has more angle loft,
the energy stays closer to the surface of the ball and allows the
grooves of the club to grab onto the ball's cover producing more spin.
When driving the ball off of the tee, the preference is more distance
and less loft, so a lower backspin is required. For closer shots, more
backspin and control are needed.
The Science of Dimples
Which
brings us to the cover of the ball and all of the design possibilities.
Two forces affect the flight and distance of flying spheres, gravity
and aerodynamics. Eventually, gravity wins once the momentum of the
ball is slowed by the aerodynamic drag. Since all golf clubs have some
angular loft to their clubface, the struck ball will have backspin. As
explained by the Magnus Force effect, the air pressure will be lower on
the top of the ball since that side is moving slower relative to the
air around it. This creates lift as the ball will go in the direction
of the lower air pressure. Counteracting this lift is the friction or
drag the ball experiences while flying through the air.
Think about a boat moving through
water. At the front of the boat, the water moves smoothly around the
sides of the boat, but eventually separates from the boat on the back
side. This leaves behind a turbulent wake where the water is agitated
and creates a lower pressure area. The larger the wake, the more drag
is created. A ball in flight has the same properties.
The
secret then is how to reduce this wake behind the ball. Enter the
infamous golf ball dimples. Dimples on a golf ball create a thin
turbulent boundary layer of air molecules that sticks to the ball's
contour longer than on a smooth ball. This allows the flowing air to
follow the ball's surface farther around the back of the ball, which
decreases the size of the wake. In fact, research has shown that a
dimpled ball travels about twice as far as a smooth ball.
So,
the design competition comes down to perfecting the dimple, since not
all dimples are created equal! The number, size and shape can have a
dramatic impact on performance. Typically, today's balls have 300-500
spherically shaped dimples, each with a depth of about .010 inch.
However, varying just the depth by .001 inch can have dramatic effects
on the ball's flight.
Regarding shape, these traditional round dimple patterns cover up to 86
percent of the surface of the golf ball. To create better coverage,
Callaway Golf's HX ball uses hexagon shaped dimples that can create a
denser lattice of dimples leaving fewer flat spots. Creating just the
right design has traditionally been a trial-and-error process of
creating a prototype then testing in a wind tunnel. This time-consuming
process does not allow for the extreme fine-tuning of the variables.
Simulation Solution
At
the 61st Meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid
Dynamics last month in San Antonio, a team of researchers from Arizona
State University and the University of Maryland is reporting new
findings that may soon give golf ball manufacturers a more efficient
method of testing their designs. Their research takes a different
approach, using mathematical equations that model the physics of a golf
ball in flight. ASU's Clinton Smith, a Ph.D. student and his advisor
Kyle Squires collaborated with Nikolaos Beratlis and Elias Balaras at
the University of Maryland and Masaya Tsunoda of Sumitomo Rubber
Industries, Ltd. The team has been developing highly efficient
algorithms and software to solve these equations on parallel
supercomputers, which can reduce the simulation time from years to
hours.
Now
that the model and process is in place, the next step is to begin the
quest for the ultimate dimple. In the meantime, when someone asks you,
"What's your handicap?" you can confidently tell them, "Well, my golf
ball's design does not optimize its drag coefficient which results in a
lower loft and spin rate from its poor aerodynamics."
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