GENERATIONAL GENE SKIPPING & FAST VS. SLOW TWITCH

Well, your bro's genes are only half of his sons, so it is entirely possible that all of the genes (or at least some of them) responsible for his talents came from the other half of his family. Just because mom it heavy doesn't mean her genes are. In actuality, unathletic people oftentimes have a large percentage of fast twitch muscle, which is why they aren't particularly athletic in the first place. They just never train it, so it stays weak.

Genes are almost never a 1 to 1 correlation with what you actually see, they mix together in myriad different ways to produce massive variations. That is the great thing about sexual reproduction- taking two halves of something and putting them together, you can get something completely different and unexpected.

As to your last sentence, I would say running 10.8 and jumping 23 feet is an excellent indicator that he is a good jumper and sprinter, and that is about all you're going to get out of it. Genetically, you really have very little idea what his makeup is, and there are (as far as I know) no specific genes that correlate directly to athletic prowess of any variety. It is entirely possible that he would be a fantastic MD runner -if- he worked at it. Maybe not. We're not far along enough in genetics to really say.

Now that I think of it, I think his grandfather on the other side is a pretty skinny man, also with a really heavy wife. I know about the half-and-half contributions of sexual reproduction. I'm just shocked at how deeply lurking those genes are.

Surely a 10.8 indicates a higher fast-twitch composition. I know for certain there's a world of difference in wheels between my 12 and his 10.8, and I suspect that difference is innate and corresponds to some athletic prowess or am I wrong on this?

He's being recruited for DII track (maybe DI, not sure on that), and not football. Maybe the coach will figure out what his real makeup is. Out of curiosity, do coaches experiment with college recruits to determine best event suitability?

I think your over thinking this. The difference between 10.8 and 12 isn't hugs. Throw in years in training (all that miling training probably made you slower over the 100. And if you were running 12 flat for the 100 and only 4:30 for the mile, you were endurance not speed limited), opportunity (how many times did you run the 100), timing(if it ain't auto all times are +-.2 in high school), and so on.I know families where the brothers all ran pretty seriously in high school. One of them was a 1.50 800m guy. The other was a 15:10 5k guy who couldn't break 4:30. Same gene parents but the way they combined resulted in slightly different runners.

Quick Kick wrote:

Now that I think of it, I think his grandfather on the other side is a pretty skinny man, also with a really heavy wife. I know about the half-and-half contributions of sexual reproduction. I'm just shocked at how deeply lurking those genes are.

Surely a 10.8 indicates a higher fast-twitch composition. I know for certain there's a world of difference in wheels between my 12 and his 10.8, and I suspect that difference is innate and corresponds to some athletic prowess or am I wrong on this?

He's being recruited for DII track (maybe DI, not sure on that), and not football. Maybe the coach will figure out what his real makeup is. Out of curiosity, do coaches experiment with college recruits to determine best event suitability?

epigenome factors play a big role - they influence skipped generations.

Study in Sweden - dietary and environmental factors from 2 generations ago seem to be influencing rates of diabetes in homogeneous communities in northern Scandinavia

http://preview.tinyurl.com/5lyolj

My father was a sprinter, as was my mother's brother. I was a distance runner, as are my children. The sprinting gene apparently vanished, evey though it was on both sides of the family.

For reference, Craig Miller and his brother were leading cross country runners in high school in Pennsylvania and are still in college. I attended the state championships and their grandfather was next to me, pleased and surprised how good his grandsons were at distance, as he was a sprinter.

Off the Grid,

Thanks for the link. Very interesting. It must be a recessive/generation skip involved, because my brother's wife's sisters are all pretty big boned, as are my brother and I relatively speaking. Now my grandparents were sturdy and skinny Scotts and Spaniards so that may account for the skinniness plus the fact the boy's 17 still.

In any case, interesting anecdotes regarding divergence even between siblings, and especially the whole switching between grandparents and grandchildren from sprinter to distance. Kind of makes one curious about East Africa couplings.

It's a little scary seeing lightweight running backs on the field with such big guys. I'm glad they have the speed advantage!

its not a dominant/recessive characteristic. It is an environmental influence on the epigenome (and therefore dna) of GRANDPARENTS that influences traits 2 generations later.

e.g. bumper harvests 100 years ago in Scandinavia results in a lot of 8-13yr olds pigging out for several years. This has a direct impact on their epigenome, which then modifies part of their DNA. The result is their grandchildren are more predisposed to diabetes.

It is evidence of an enivonmental feedback loop on DNA. Before we thought DNA was fixed after conception. Not the case...

How are you guys telling the difference between fast twitch individuals and slow twitch individuals?

I say this because even the East Africans run sub 13:00 5ks WHILE HAVE 21/22 second 200m speed. Were any of you "fast twitch" people that fast over 200m? Even some of the best 10k runners and marathoners have 10.xx 100m speed/sub 50 400m speed. Don't let this genetic myth thing limit your potential. Go out there and figure out how to train right and you can do anything.

I'd be willing to bet that there are far fewer people that are twitch-type biased than you think.

Your sister in law had the fast genes but not the runner's frame. People with fast-twitch muscles get fatter more than distance people when they don't work out. Look at some former gymnasts sometime. Most of them are pretty fat.

How'd that game go?