Athletic Abilities- Nature or Nurture?

     Have you ever wondered where traits such as intelligence and athletic ability come from? The truth is that it may vary according to the trait. What is surely known about these traits is that they come both from nature and nurture. But, there is an ongoing debate discussing whether each of the specific special traits a person has, comes more from genes or the environment. Athletic ability is amongst these discussed traits. Special abilities in sports such as basketball or soccer may have something to do with genes, but I believe nurture plays a much bigger part than nature. I do because one can be born tall, strong, or fast, but no one was born already knowing a particular sport. All professionals in any sport had to begin by learning the basics of the sport. Then they needed to find the area or position in the sport in which they play the best and are more effective. They needed to learn techniques and develop many new skills. Also, athletes have to learn from past mistakes in order to gain experience. Only then by repeatedly going through all of this things, the person will get better and better at the particular sport. So, depending on many things they may end up being professional athletes at a sport. But, I am sure that there is no way that any professional athlete had their special athletic abilities in their genes.




     Beliefs in Psychology and Science say that both genes and the environment play a large role to determine whether a person should or should not develop athletic abilities. For instance, a professional football player would have never become good enough for playing in the big leagues if he was not strong enough, tall enough or fast enough. Meaning that genes play this part since height and muscularity are hereditary. But, the question lies that even if a person had the physique of a football player but never trained, or even played might be good at football. Probably not since training sessions are the most effective on becoming a good athlete. It is not sure whether nature or nurture play a bigger role for having athletic abilities. There is a great belief in people that athletic abilities come more from nature. For instance, Bobby and Barry Bonds. Both father and son are baseball stars, so many believe that Barry is so good because his father passed his traits of being a good athlete. But, Barry's environment may have played a bigger role on his baseball skills. Since his father was a baseball star, young Barry may have seen him as a role model so he probably trained a lot since young. He never stopped training and training until he became as good or even better than his father was. Barry's strength, height or speed is surely hereditary. But, it is not for sure if his amazing baseball skills were on his genes. The truth is that scientists nor psychologist have found the answer of where do athletic abilities mostly come from since the theme is so complex. Never the less, there is a universal belief that both nature and nurture determine special traits in people like athletic abilities.



     In conclusion, there is not an answer on whether genes or environment are more effective on people in order to have good athletic abilities. Probably there will never be an answer since so complex themes like nature and nurture and creation were never meant to be understood by human beings. For sure, nature and nurture both play a great role but I believe nurture plays a much bigger role than nature in athletic abilities. I believe so because of different variations of good abilities in different sports in diverse countries. Also, because no athlete was born already playing like a professional. What is certain is that each person is unique regardless similar environments or same parents.
 
Sources-
 
1.http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=91
2.http://expertfootball.com/training/naturevsnurture.php
 
 
 

Bob and Barry Bonds( Father son all star baseball players)

Lionel Messi( Best Soccer player in the world)