Bestselling author David Epstein discusses research on the complex interplay of nature and nurture in sports, how mentality propels success, how we assess potential, sex differences in sport, and why getting older doesn’t mean we can’t achieve greatness.
In this episode you will hear about:
- Baselines abilities vs. trainability
- Common mistakes we make when judging potential
- Genetic and other biological contributions to performance
- The importance of self-reflection and personal accountability for development
- How a vision of your future self can encourage goal realization
- Sex differences at the highest levels of sport
- Explaining cultural differences in performance
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Resources:
David’s website
David’s book: The Sports Gene
The importance of falling in love with something- E. Paul Torrance
Groningen talent studies – Characteristics of talented soccer players
“David Epstein writes about sports science and medicine, Olympic sports, and is an investigative reporter. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Discover, Scientific American, Slate, The Washington Post, British GQ, National Geographic and The Guardian, among other publications. David has given lectures about the science of high performance on five continents, including a 2014 TED Talk. He is also very good at catching marshmallows in his mouth.” –blurb taken from http://thesportsgene.com