The Sports Genes
Texto del Guión Gráfico
- You can get good at a sport by having a lot of practice and trainning
- You can get good at a sport by having a lot a specific gene that helps you with that sport
- Carlos bet that Thomas couldn’t clear a 6’6 jump to stop his blabbering with basketball. Despite having no experience with high jumping, he was able to clear the 6’6 jump easily. This is shown in the text, “Mattis stepped back and waited for the big talker to fall to earth. And Thomas did, but the bar did not come with him. To Mattis’ amazement, Thomas cleared it easily. So Mattis pushed the bar up to 6’8”. Thomas cleared it. Seven feet. Without a semblance of graceful high-jump technique-Thomas hardly arched his back and his legs flailed in the air like the streamers trailing a kite-he cleared it.” Although his profession was basketball and he had no experience with high jumping, he was still able to clear a high jump, which led to a long road of championships.
- Thomas later had to compete against a guy named Stefan Holm, who was the reigning Olympic champion. When the men’s high jump finalist was announced, Stefan Holm was claimed to be the broadcaster’s favorite while Thomas was described as “very much an unknown quantity”.
- Thomas cleared 6’8.25, which qualified him for the national championships. He cleared records within different areas. This is shown in the text, “Two days later, in a black tank top and white Nike sneakers and shorts so baggy they blanketed the bar as he passed over it, Thomas cleared 6’8.25” on his first attempt, qualifying for the national championships. Then he cleared 7’0.25” for a new Lindenwood University record. And then, on the seventh high jump attempt of his life, with rigid form akin to a man riding an invisible deck chair backward through the air, Thomas cleared 7’3.25”, a Lantz Indoor Fieldhouse record.” He was able to successfully set records for high jumping despite having little to no training and experience.
- A man named Masaki Ishikawa discovered that Thomas had a long Achilles tendon, which helps him with high jumping. This is shown in the text, “In 2008, the Japanese television station NHK asked Masaki Ishikawa, then a scientist at the Neuromuscular Research Center at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, to examine Thomas
- Two months later, Thomas competed against professional jumpers in Australia. At the time, he didn’t understand the tiebreakers in high jumping. This is shown in the text, “Two months later, Thomas competed at the Commonwealth Games in Australia against some of the best professional jumpers in the world, wearing tennis shoes. He placed fourth in a world - class field, a result that actually confused him because he did not yet understand how tiebreakers work in high jump and thought he was in third place until the results were announced" This would represent the little knowledge and experience with high jumping regarding its rules and techniques.
- There are many was to be good at a sport. On one hand you must practice and train a lot to gain experience with the sport. While on the other hand, you can have a genetic that can help you get good at a sport without having little to no experience with it.
- This would be shown in the text, “Thomas advanced easily to the final, as did Stefan Holm [the reigning Olympic champion]. When the men’s high jump finalists were introduced, broadcasters announced a laser-focused Holm as their favorite. Thomas, looking cool in sunglasses beneath the bright lights illuminating the stadium, was described as ‘very much an unknown quantity.’” What the broadcasters meant by a “unknown quantity” is that Thomas’s skills at high jumping was unknown to the judges.
- Ishikawa noted both Thomas’s long legs relative to his height and that he was gifted with a giant Achilles tendon. Whereas Holm’s Achilles was a more normal sized, incredibly stiff spring, Thomas’s, at ten and a quarter inch, was uncharacteristically long for an athlete his height. The longer (and stiffer) the Achilles tendon, the more elastic energy it can store when compressed. All the better to rocket the owner into the air.” This would explain how he was able to high jump good without any experience.
- This is said in the text, “But the tendons are one puzzle piece that helps explain how two athletes could arrive at essentially the same place, one after a twenty-year love affair with his craft, and the other with less than a year of serious practice after stumbling into it on a friendly bet.” You can either train or naturally be good at a sport, or you can combine a genetic and experienced advantage when it comes to sports
Más de 30 millones de guiones gráficos creados