My opinion. Muscle fiber type has very little to do with it. Hell the average person is only capable of using 50% of their muscle anyway so what differnce is it going to make if one is 45% fast twitch vs 50% fast twitch or whatever. The key is in the structure of the body and the nervous system. Charlie Francis likes to use the term “If it looks right it fly’s right”…There is a certain structure and build that is conducive to speed, quickness, agility and power and it so happens that blacks are much more likely to have these attributes vs whites. In addition blacks seem to have better motor control in physical tasks at any given age vs whites so this gives another advantage in physical tasks and indicates a more efficient nervous system.
Anderson: I agree that a lot of American sports seem to be dominated by African-Americans, but I don’t agree with your list. Like fitone said, Tiger Woods is not African-American. Also, I think football and baseball are too positionally dependent to name a “best player”, but you did name people who were the best in their positions. (Think of quarterback, place kicker/punter, center in football as well.)
Kelly Baggett: So you’re saying that different races’ nervous systems are different? Would you exclude brain development from that? That’s dangerous ground, apparently. There is little to no problem in saying that one race is more suited for some physical tasks, but it’s interesting the sheer hell that would be brought down upon someone for saying that certain races were predispositioned to tackle mental or emotional tasks in different ways, thus having some races be “better” at certain mental activities. Just something to think about.
1 guy from a country that makes up about 20% of the worlds population…wow. Touchy subject but you cannot deny that blacks do dominate in most athletic events. Answer me this- If you randomly selected 100 white children, 100 black children and 100 asian children from schools all across the U.S. and put them through a series of athletic tests who do you think would score highest on average? I’d put my money on the black children. Any age. This may not be “PC” but I definitely believe it would show time and time again at any age.
Right…YAO MING!!! gimme a break, yeah he did well a couple nights ago (svg 20 points) but man, Kung Fu can move for s–t ( example marbury faking him to the right then left Ming Fu frickin basically trips over himslef and falls). By the way he is still property of china…thats right 50% of waht he makes goes right back to the commies. Man don’t you love democracy. I just can’t wait for Shaq to serve him up.
Let’s not forget the power of drive when it comes to winning athletic events… that, and tradition. Pakistanis, Hindus, Africans, and West Indians (dominated by African and Hindu-descended players) dominate the world of Cricket – in part because in the 19th and early 20th centuries, games like cricket were the only ways the colonized could score a defeat on the British colonizers.
In America, people with predominantly african blood, while they may have genetic advantages, also look upon sports as a way to shine in their own environment, AND as a way ‘out’ from conditions of poverty. Similarly, look at how Hispanics dominate lighter weight divisions of boxing, and blacks dominate the heavier division. You think out of the entire white population of America there aren’t people with adequate timing, pain resistance, and muscular potential to succeed in boxing? Of course there are…but boxing isn’t seen as an appropriate way of making a living for anyone in the middle classes (where whites predominate), and is thus discouraged. From this hypothesis, I predict that we’ll see a LOT more eastern europeans doing very well in boxing – tough people who have had to make their own way in very brutal conditions, for whom getting smacked and losing a brain cell or two might be a worthy sacrifice to make oneself and one’s family prosperous.
I’m probably rambling a bit, but when someone has less to lose, they’ll be much more likely to push all the harder towards success in an ‘impossible’ field like professional sports. One last example – in the pre-World War II era, Jewish boxers did extremely well in the lightweight divisions of pro boxing, the same niche largely held by puerto ricans, mexicans, and other hispanics now, and Irish and Italian boxers also were famous. Why? Did Jewish, Irish, and Italian guys have beter genetics two generations ago? I doubt it…but more people of those ethnicities of that day lived in conditions of poverty and adversity, they weren’t ‘white’ as most of these folks are in essence now (in the sense that they have largely adopted to the values and dress of the dominant culture), while in this generation we normally associate ‘Jewishness’ (for example) with at least middle class values and academic, rather than physical, achievement, and we no longer in this generation would have the surprise that our ancestors had to see a Jewish, Irish, or Italian name side-by-side any anglo-saxon name in any level of business or politics.
Let’s not forget the ‘nurture’ part of nature vs nurture.
Going back to the Chinese, they are dominant in sports such as diving, weightlifting, table tennis and badminton. Table tennis is a sport that requires little or no physical dominance (unless you count reaction speed and hand quickness and don’t use the fact that some table tennis players tested positive for roids as an excuse), yet nobody has ever come close to beating the Chinese! (Forrest Gump doesn’t count). Does this mean that Chinese are genetically superior to other races at table tennis? No! In China, national coaches travel to every school in the country identifying talent (for these above sports) from the age of 10. The very best of these kids are enrolled in special training schools, where they receive top training/nutrition from very high level coaches.
Interesting counterpoints, perhaps there are several factors at work here. Social conditions may very well play a role in the development of African Americans domination of American Sports. However, according to the Speed Demons article, one of the main points was that Black people on all continents are faster sprinters than any other race. Sprinting was picked because one does not need any training equipment nor is running culturally specific. Consider that no white has ever run a 100m in less than 10 seconds. At least 30 blacks have. If societal conditions are the reasons for a certain race or group of people dominating a sport, be it the Jewish boxers that were mentioned or the black basketball players, how can societal conditions explain the lack of Chinese, Caucasian, or any other races absence from the top sprinting world records? I think the social conditioning argument ignores this fact.
The following exert comes from an article written by Jon Entine, I think it makes a couple of interesting points. ?Whites of Eurasian ancestry, who have, on average, more natural upper-body strength, predictably dominate weightlifting, wrestling and all field events, such as the shot-put and hammer (whites hold 46 of the top 50 throws). Evolutionary forces in this northern clime have shaped a population with a mesomorphic body type - large and muscular, particularly in the upper body, with relatively short arms and legs and thick torsos. These proportions tend to be an advantage, particularly in sports in which strength rather than speed is at a premium.
East Asians tend to be small with relatively short extremities, long torsos, and a thicker layer of fat, evolutionary adaptations to harsh climes encountered by Homo sapiens who migrated to Northeast Asia about 40,000 years ago. As a result, athletes from this region are somewhat slower and less strong than whites or blacks, but more flexible on average - a key potential advantage in diving and some events in gymnastics (hence the term “Chinese splits”) and figure skating. That anthropometric reality severely hampers Asians from being great sprinters or leapers: not one Asian male or female high jumper makes the top 50 all-time. It should come as no surprise that the world’s most remarkable ultra-endurance runners, the 4,000 or so Native American Tarahumara of Mexico, have East Asian ancestry.?
speaking of boxing and white people, one word: Rocky Balboa!!! 
laters pk
What about the high jump? I have always wondered how Jon Entine would explain that in his terms… Please look up the world records, anyone who believes that white men can’t jump should feel pretty stupid. 21 of the last 25 world records in the high jump have fallen to northern Europeans, with the other 4 going to the Chinese. By the standards mentioned before, white men, and in particular northern Europeans, must have some sort of genetic disposition that allows them to jump higher and have maintained such a stranglehold on this very basic event.
p.s. With the notable exception of the current world record holder, who is Cuban.
Please go to your local search engine and type in www.jonentine.com/ skeptic/sherman.html. You will find that your opinions need to be refined. You seem to view the world with a narrow focus.
You two seem like you have a need to group people. The world is not that orderly. For every caucasian nerd with a .5 inch vertical, you can find an example like Brent Barry who jumped farther than Julius Irving or Michael Jordan in winning the slam dunk contest. For every movie titled “white man can’t jump” you find that every gold medal high jumper since 1960 has been caucasian.
Don’t bring baseball into this discussion. How do you define athleticism in baseball? Is it hitting? What portion of hitting are we examining? Who has the highest hitting percentage? Who is the best bunter? Who has the highest on-base percentage? Is it fielding? Who has the fewest errors? Is it pitching? Who has the lowest era? Who leads in strikeouts? How do you define the best player in baseball? Who won the World Series?
For every slow-footed caucasian, you find absolute burners like Tim Dwight. Watch some football and tell me how often Dwight gets run down.
Tiger Woods will tell you that he is a mixture of many races. One race cannot claim to have been responsible for his success. It does a diservice to his long hours of practice to suggest that the portion of his skin that is african american was responsible for his success.
In summary, there seems to be much more intra-than inter-racial differences in athletic ability. It is not possible to label one group as superior without taking into account a myriad of different factors. I urge you to look beyond color and broaden your focus.
I agree with you man in fact some would lump me into that pool of white boys you describe who can run fast and jump high. But still, you can’t discount these AVERAGE differences in athletic ability between individual races.
The high jump is more about acrobatics than vertical leap. A world class high jumper is more of a gymnast/contortionist.
Everyone needs to reread the article on the alleged superiority of the black athlete (i.e., “Speed Demons”). The only sound conclusion that can certainly be drawn is that blacks do possess a genetic advantage when it comes to performance in sports/excersises that rely primarily on leg strength/speed. To jump from this to the conclusion that blacks are, therefore, better athletes is irresponsible. The article commits this fallacious leap. The article goes on to point out that blacks tend to have longer limbs. This characteristic is readily construed as a genetic disadvantage in certain athletic contexts (wrestling being once example in which shorter limbs allow for superior negotiation of the tangle on the mat). When is the last time you saw black athletes dominating in sports which require superior balance (e.g., hockey, gymnastics, etc)? Do blacks dominate martial arts (e.g., UFC/Pride) or Strongest Man contests? Not even. The fact is that blacks do dominate those sports which require a genetic advantage in leg strength, speed and endurance. And these sports are currently mainstream in our culture (football, basketball, boxing, etc.). Domination of the more popular sports has lead to the flat footed conclusion that blacks are superior athlete–end of story. I think each ethnicity possesses genetic characteristics that would render them dominate in those athletic contexts which rely primarily upon those characteristics.
I didn’t mean to imply that the social argument was the best or only factor, simply that it could not be ignored – no one theory can account for the subtleties of this question, and most can’t even come close, no matter how much people argue the matter. I was only saying that the social factors, including desire, drive, and availability of sports specific equipment all factor in to what ethnic groups choose what sports and why.
I’ll have to go with something that my mother told me once:
“An exception to the rule further goes towards proving the rule. Take for example Arnold Schwarzenegger. A very congenial man. Compare him to the rest of pro bodybuilders; makes them look like stupid assholes. Which further goes towards proving bodybuilders are stupid.”
Ok ok, so maybe that’s not WORD FOR WORD what she said, but you get the point.
I am 15, sophomore, and go to a predominatly white school, about 70% white and the rest are blacks, asians, hispanics. I am fairly athletic and have noticed that even with a small pool of black athletes, the basketball(went to state), football, and track teams make up about 50-60% (of the starters) of the teams, although our football and track teams are only mediocre.
Contrarily when I look at our baseball(state), wrestling(state), softball(state champions), swimming(I have no idea), and other sports that dont really require alot of speed, agility, jumping ability, etc. They are mostly white.
In conclusion, I think that blacks clearly dominate in sports that require speed and jumping ability; but, I don’t think blacks are fast and dominate speed sports because of their fast/slow twitch ratios or because of a rapidly firing CNS. I think it is because of the body structure.
Blacks usually have short torsos, long limbs, high calves, and (my favorite, for all the guys out there) fairly large asses. While whites on the other hand have thick torsos, and shorter limbs. I believe this is why blacks tend to dominate in speed sports and whites in strength.
P.S. I also have my guesses about world class swimmers. Blacks tend to be more densely built and whites, naturally, tend have a little more body fat. Therefore they swim on top of the water instead of through the water.