Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance

I just finished reading this book and found it absolutely fascinating. I love that while the author is mainly a runner, he talks about a lot of different sports. Everything from rowing, volleyball, soccer, baseball, softball, basketball, skiing, track, high jump, chess, and dogsledding are covered. Really great read overall. I've recommended it to all of my friends.

The book is well written, interesting, and informative. Anyone interested in sports is going to better understand the nuances of athletics in general and of numerous individual sports as well, in particular the role genetics play in making an athlete. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in sports or in genetics, and have already done so on several occasions. Read this!

Lots of great details and anecdotes - cross references to other relevant publications. Extremely interesting. In the end the conclusion is inconclusive. Watch David's TED presentation to get a simple and informative overview.

Easy to read, full of interesting stories, well-researched. I read this quickly because I couldn't wait to see the info contained in the next chapter. I'll read again more slowly to digest. I do have a greater than average interest in the topic since I'm in the exercise physiology field, but this is written do that anyone can enjoy and easily understand.

I would recommend this book to all parents who encourage their children in sports. It is written well and held my (a non-athlete) attention to the end. In fact, I was disappointed it wasn't longer. The book only speaks to world-class athletic competition, however. I hope aspiring athletes and parents of athletes realize that participation in sports at all levels is rewarding and don't use lack of the same genetic makeup of the few elite players to curtail their own participation.

Even without a scientific background this book was easy to follow. The consistent combination of nature and nurture in many of the greatest athletes of our time is a fascinating subject to learn about.

I will never look at elite Olympic athletes the same after reading David Epstein's marvelous contribution to our understanding of elite athletes.

I once thought that world class athletes were one of us, that they had succeeded through hard work, desire, and a degree of natural talent. Now I know better. In most sports including those that make up the Olympics, Joe Citizen never had a chance to reach the levels that these athletes have reached. Why? Natural selection. The best example is Michael Phelps, who was born with a body for swimming. Sure, he worked hard, but without his physique, he would have never won those medals.

In today's world, being an elite Olympic athlete is like winning (?) a lottery of sorts. Your prize is a freakish body that makes you super well suited for a particular sport. So, what is the big deal about that? You win the body type lottery, train hard, and you can become a champion.

Jockey's and NBA centers have long been the prime examples of how natural selection plays a role in determining someone's career in professional athletics. Now, the age of extreme specialization has arrived thanks to advances in knowledge of the human body, and this knowledge has eliminated the average person and the prototypical athlete from becoming a world class performer.

The exploits of super elite athletes continue to impress, including major league baseball hitters who were born with otherworldly eye sight, but I will never view them with quite the same awe and wonder ever again for Mr. Epstein has provided such much needed context.

Thoughtful, well written, engaging, and enlightening. I found the book to be all of these and more. The description of the science was superb and made a very complex subject quite accessible. Excellent work.

Between interrupting my wife to bark statistics and factoids at her to flooding my social media pages with excerpts I just could not stop being amazed by this book!

I wonder if maybe, like the cattle raiders of the Rift Valley, the ancestors of Anthony Sandoval hail from the Northern Mexican native tribes that practiced persistence hunting: literally running large quadrupeds to exhaustion through hours and hours of pursuit on foot.

I heard Epstein interviewed on NPR and bought the book immediately afterward. This is an endlessly fascinating book that takes a complete scientific look at athletic performance. It's a must read for all you jocks out there and also for you spectators.

This is an interesting and well researched book about the current understanding of human performance. Anyone who is an athlete themselves, or who marvels at the capabilities of the elite athletes seen on television will enjoy this book.

As the Head Fencing Coach of Columbia University I read a lot of books to get new insight. This one was extremely interesting touching upon nurture vs. nature. A lot of believable and amazing stories in this book and I thank David Epstein for taking the time to be able to give great detail to his research. Must read!

Michael Aufrichtig
Head Coach Columbia University Fencing

Pretty darn good book. Great for all around knowledge of sport specific genes and training but lacks a solid condition or ending. I was looking for just a little more from this title, but found its content entertaining.

2 major compliments to pay for this book:
1)Epstein makes a complex topic (how genes affect individuals in sports) very easy to follow and understand.
2)It is balanced. He acknowledges that nurture is as important as nature, despite the fact that most of the book focuses on the impact of nature. There are examples of how the 10,000 hours premise works for some people while many less hours work for athletes with a different genetic make up.

Most people can probably guess where this book is going before they even have begun to read it. Spoiler alert: it's nature and nurture. What makes this book interesting is the author's ability to sort through the reasons for why it is sometimes nature and sometimes nurture. Overall a very interesting book and it is one I would recommend for any sports enthusiast.

Here is a marvelous juxtaposition of nurture and nature and the success of both in sport with all the nuances in between. Genetic success stories right alongside the long shot success story achieved with hours of perfection and all the variants in between!

As an athlete and endurance coach this book has confirmed my own research on the topic and opened my eyes on many topics. David Epstein's approach to the subject allows every athlete to understand how they fit into their sport. There will always be natural gifted athletes, but if you put in the hours you can succeed ! Enjoy!

A great read. Easy enough to follow for those who are not to keen on genetics but also elegantly written for those who are more science inclined. Reading this in conjunction with Outliers by malcolm gladwell makes for a great analysis of human performance in feats of intellect and sports as well as the nature vs nurture argument

Epstein's deep understanding of the subject matter is evident throughout this book. This material can get a little tedious in parts, but his ability to simplify a complex science for the layperson, speaks volumes about the amount of research that's gone into this book, and his ability as a sportswriter. Overall, it's a very insightful look into a fascinating subject.

Being a professional golf coach for twenty + years, I now understand why some of my friends chose their sports, why my siblings succeeded and failed at certain sports and how I can improve my students by not fighting nature. Also, as a Director of a sports research facility does help to understand the "science", anyone will get a clearer idea of how to balance nature vs nurture!

My college son, majoring in human performance and fitness, can hardly put this book down. We've had many conversations about the topics in the book. He also gave this book as a gift to his personal trainer. It definitely sparks interest!

The Sports Gene is a compelling, engaging, fascinating read and an impressive accomplishment for a first novel from David Epstein.
Every theory and idea that Mr. Epstein puts forth in this book is thoughtfully and thoroughly supported by so many diverse examples and stories; it's easy to believe him when he says in his introduction "the reporting of this book took me below the equator and above the Arctic Circle." Mr. Epstein takes us on the journey through science and sports and this controversial nature vs. nurture argument with such a conversational ease that you never get caught up in the technical science or genetic jargon that might be expected from a book of this nature. Everything is smooth and easy to understand and I found myself, more than once, going "Wow!" or finding myself nodding my head in agreement constantly with his ideas and notions. Mr. Epstein has such a way with writing that it feels like you are just sitting across from him at a coffee shop having a conversation with him.
Make this your next summer read, or anytime read for that matter! YOU WILL NOT REGRET BUYING THIS BOOK AND WON'T BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN ONCE YOU START! Stop reading this review and get this book (kindle or hardcover) as soon as you can!

Epstein writes well and weaves stories of real people into a narrative that could, in the wrong hands, be quite dry. It's great to see him take on Malcolm Gladwell on the facts. Gladwell writes engaging, popular books that demand some critical review. Epstein does so on Gladwell's 10,000-hour thesis in "Outliers." On many levels it's a 4-star book. I rated as 3-stars largely because it felt like an excellent "Atlantic" article that was stretched into a book. The outcome for me therefore was "average." The conclusion is not surprising -- and perhaps not satisfying -- and you could see it coming from midway through the book.

The Sports Gene is a compelling, engaging, fascinating read and an impressive accomplishment for a first novel from David Epstein.
Every theory and idea that Mr. Epstein puts forth in this book is thoughtfully and thoroughly supported by so many diverse examples and stories; it's easy to believe him when he says in his introduction "the reporting of this book took me below the equator and above the Arctic Circle." Mr. Epstein takes us on the journey through science and sports and this controversial nature vs. nurture argument with such a conversational ease that you never get caught up in the technical science or genetic jargon that might be expected from a book of this nature. Everything is smooth and easy to understand and I found myself, more than once, going "Wow!" or finding myself nodding my head in agreement constantly with his ideas and notions. Mr. Epstein has such a way with writing that it feels like you are just sitting across from him at a coffee shop having a conversation with him.
Make this your next summer read, or anytime read for that matter! YOU WILL NOT REGRET BUYING THIS BOOK AND WON'T BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN ONCE YOU START! Stop reading this review and get this book (kindle or hardcover) as soon as you can!

Epstein writes well and weaves stories of real people into a narrative that could, in the wrong hands, be quite dry. It's great to see him take on Malcolm Gladwell on the facts. Gladwell writes engaging, popular books that demand some critical review. Epstein does so on Gladwell's 10,000-hour thesis in "Outliers." On many levels it's a 4-star book. I rated as 3-stars largely because it felt like an excellent "Atlantic" article that was stretched into a book. The outcome for me therefore was "average." The conclusion is not surprising -- and perhaps not satisfying -- and you could see it coming from midway through the book.

Well made arguments for what most would intuitively know regarding the nature vs nurture, 10000 hr rule etc. Wide reaching with discussions about many sports and studies, genetic manipulation, selective breeding, mental acuity, environmental factors...all this kept me interested and meant I quickly got to the end.

I read the chapter in Sports Illustrated and had to have the book . The author uses common language to explain the research of how become an expert at sports and other endeavors ( chess ,violin and many others) . Even if you're not into sports this is worth the read .

The book dismantles many sports myths and wives takes about why elite athletes succeed. Hard work was almost always there, but we now know that to reach elite levels of performance you need the right genes. Hard to accept for some, but there is now no denying it anymore.

Really enjoyed this well written book on a topic that is complicated. The author made this easy to read. It was not the genetics and science that drove the book,it was great stories about individuals who have achieved greatness.

An amazing book! Not so technical that would be boring, but with facts and results of a lot of studies and research.
If you are looking for a book about why an athlete is so much better than other, and how to understand this difference, you really don't have to look anywhere else.
I truly recommend!

I had the thought last night while reading a section of The Sports Gene that within the next year or two, coaches in all types of competitive spheres are going to start using this book as their go-to Bible for how to make a better team or better competitor.

Some of the things I've read in this book have both blown my mind and had me notice I was already nodding my head in agreement because it talks about things that I guess I knew but never fully understood why. Epstein has a way with words that takes things that are scientific and makes them into stories and analogies that allow them to be understood by anyone -- if you like science, all the interesting stuff is in here, AND if you don't like science, everything is still fully understandable and makes complete sense. It is clear that Epstein is not a scientist with some sports knowledge but is more a sports fan who knows science.

Over the last week I have literally been told to stop talking about the book because the people I have been talking to have decided to buy and read the book and me explaining chapter-by-chapter (that's how good this bad boy is!) was awesome but somewhat time consuming -- especially since I stream-of-conscious would start to finish one thought and then go, "Oh, and then there's this...!"

From female supermodels (are there male ones?) having a higher proportional breakdown of male genes than the regular population to why Barry Bonds couldn't hit a female soft ball pitcher's pitches, this has so much crazy and interesting knowledge I could write a book myself about what is awesome about it. The smackdowns of Malcolm Gladwell's inaccurate use of data is also amusing (and justifies my brother's squabbling about Outliers).

I'm going to stop this review now before I just keep going. Basketball players' wingspans versus height comparison and how wingspan is more predictive of a good player! Boom, what!? And how different people train in different ways and how that is linked to genes and how you can better understand how you can train at a higher and more efficient level. And busting myths open about male versus female athletic abilities and why men and women cannot compete against each other. Why Paula Radcliffe can be the best female marathoner but will likely never be able to win an Olympic gold. I will stop now. BUY and READ this book!

Epstein does a great job summarizing important and little known (outside of exercise science) research findings that undergirds much of athletic talent in our biology. The 10,000 hour notion should be put to rest. Without talent and trainability, deliberate practice will take you to your own limits and that's it. For most, that is not world class elite performance.