10,000 Hours vs Training

Introduction: An on-air debate between Dr. Ross Tucker and Prof. Anders Ericsson, which
needed a final showdown on what plays the major role in elite sports performance.

Ericsson’s point on elite performance:

In the case of elite sports performance, scientific limitations such as genetics and physiology
do not contribute as much as amount of training done.

According to Ross:

 Ericsson’s Theory “Training done during the adolescent years matters” is wrong.
 Most physiological factors that are known to limit performance have been associated
with genes and others can be easily related to heritable factors.
 Ericsson’s own work disproves his theory.
In which he explains performance level as function of training, yet only 28% of
variance darts performance is explained by the number of hours practiced.
 Prospective studies are necessary to produce champions or elite level performers.
 Using genetics techniques it is possible to identify, which genetic polymorphism are
responsible for getting that difference.

Ross also refers to a research published by Bouchard

 About 50% of an individual’s starting VO2max and 50% of the “trainability” in VO2max
is heritable.
 21 Genetic polymorphisms have been associated with 50% of the training response to
VO2max.
 If a person carries NINE OR FEWER of these genetic variants, then they are low
responders and improve VO2max by only 200 ml/min.
 If a person carries NINETEEN OR MORE of these variants, then they are high
responders and improve VO2max by over 600 ml/min.

Conclusion: Genetic factors clearly impact on what we start with, how we adapt to training
and by extension n were we get to. Our physiology has a ceiling, and it is in part, genetically
determined. The time spent in practice is a very poor predictor of performance.
Source: www. sportsscientists.com