Champions aren’t simply born or bred, they’re nurtured! - Bianca Bunge (Paladin Biokineticists)

Usain Bolt, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Rafael Nadal, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Mo Farah, what do all these world class athletes have in common besides lucrative salaries and huge sponsorships, oh, and the fact that they make whatever they do look so easy?! Is there some common genetic thread that ties all professional athletes together and make them destined for podium placements, gold medals and top rankings? Or is the road to Olympic gold and professional sports simply paved with thousands of hours of sport-specific practice and repetition or attributed to various inherent characteristics and attributes? Questions, questions, questions, but what is the answer here?! Every single coach, sports scout, and athlete, whether  you’re performing on the professional, collegial or school sport platform, is looking for that secret ingredient, special spice, and twist of something nice that make up that award-winning, everyone-wants-it recipe and mix ultimately producing the absolute perfect athlete!!

First of all, it can be said without question that many athletes have their parents to thank for their athletic success. Genetics shape us in many ways including our potential to excel in sports. Genetics have a large influence over strength, height, body type, muscle size, muscle fibre composition (fast or slow twitch), anaerobic threshold, lung capacity, flexibility, and to some extent, endurance, which is largely determined by cardiac capacity, or the heart’s ability to deliver enough oxygen (via the bloodstream) to the working skeletal muscles. These are all components that predispose you to being a superior athlete, one of the top in the world, all things that allow your name to be jotted down in the record books and remembered for centuries to come, all determined by genetics!

Does that mean athletes blessed with less-than-perfect genetics and born without the optimum combination of muscle fibres should rule out their chances of ever achieving Olympic glory and just give up? Absolutely not! Let’s be honest, we aren’t all created equal where our genes and abilities are concerned, so what can we do to fill in these blanks? Identifying potential professional athletes based only on their genetic and physiological make-up is short-sighted! It takes a hell of a lot more than just genetics to get you the title of being one of the best athletes in the world. I mean let’s look at Wayne Gretzky and Tiger Woods, sure, they're both gifted genetically and physically in unique ways, but they also spent hours and hours practicing from a very young age. The idea that athletes are bred and not born has become increasingly popular ever since Malcolm Gladwell introduced the 10,000-hour rule in his bestselling book The Outliers. This 10,000-hour rule is based on the idea that with the exception of genetic traits such as height and weight, exceptional performance in any given field is the result of 10,000 hours of what he terms “deliberate practice” – therefore any training or practice specifically related to your particular sport.

Furthermore, various technological advancements have made major contributions to athletic progress and have allowed athletes to be stronger, faster, bolder, and better than ever, whether they have that blessed gene pool to back them up or not. Let’s have a look at the winner of the 2012 Olympic marathon, Stephen Kiprotich, he completed the marathon in 2 hours and 8 minutes. If he had been racing against the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half. That sounds pretty crazy right? Let’s look at another example, if Usain Bolt, undoubtedly dubbed the fastest man in the world, ran against Jesse Owens, the 1936 100m world record holder, Owens would still have had 4,2672 meters to go when Bolt crossed the finish line – and although that doesn’t sound like a lot, believe me in sprinter world it is! This just opens up a whole range of questions and speculations. Are we just somehow getting better as a human race, inevitably progressing, but it's not like we've evolved into a new species in a century, come on now. So what's going on here? Well, technology and various advancements have had a massive impact! If we look at the Bolt, Owens example it can clearly be seen – Bolt propelled himself out of blocks down a specially fabricated carpet that is specifically designed to allow him to travel as fast as humanly possible. Owens however had to run on cinders, the ash from burnt wood. This soft surface stole far more energy from his legs than Bolt’s red carpet. And although this is a relatively simple example, technology has made a difference in all sports, from faster skis and lighter shoes to low-friction swimsuits and aerodynamic bicycles.

Okay, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of it – As with many things in life, being classified as a world-class sportsman or sportswoman or getting that all-glorious title of being a professional athlete, is both complicated and complex! Athletic success is more than only having the genetic potential, or simply putting in the hours of training on the field, track, ice, or court, neither is it solely achieved by perfect nutrition, technological advancements, having the right gadgets and gear, and pure love of the sport. So what on earth is the answer then, what allows you to be a professional athlete?? Well, it’s pretty simple actually, ALL OF IT! It’s a magical mix of having those predisposing athletic genes in your corner, putting in the work, time, and effort to the ultimate level, taking advantage of technological advancements, expertise and opportunities that are offered to you, as well as possessing valuable all important characteristics and attributes such as drive, unyielding passion, discipline, competitiveness, self-confidence, focus, adaptability, raw talent, perseverance, and pure-determination! More than that, it’s about having that ‘athlete mind-set’, that full-force, unwavering will to do whatever it takes to be the best, to put in absolutely everything you have, then to take a deep breath dig deeper and put in a little more, that is what it takes, that is what makes the difference! Having that unquenchable desire to win! Once all of this is added to a big golden pot of potential you have to nurture the hell out of that potential, care for it, invest time and effort into it – because potential is nothing if it’s not harnessed and developed – you can have all the potential in the world but if that potential is not nurtured but, rather wasted there is just no way you’ll ever be able to become the professional athlete you were destined to be.

So remember, champions aren’t born or bred, they’re nurtured!

Bianca completed both her BA in Human Movement Science as well as her Honours degree in Biokinetics at the University of Pretoria. 

Bianca has a keen interest in various sports, particularly Netball and Running. She loves working with individuals and athletes of all levels and assisting them in achieving their desired goals. It’s all about the comeback! 

She’s passionate about the human body, movement, and working with different people and has a special interest in Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, in particular knee, hip and back rehabilitation. 

Bianca can be contacted on 082 8297 438 or biancabunge@kinetics.co.za