Here we go. What I’m wondering is if there’s any truth to the hypothesis that tall men will be less likely to have athletic ambitions than average or short men? A reason why this could be is due to their large height (like something 6’3/190cm and far up) they expect and are used to having it easier in the male hierarchy and mating game.
Deep inside,humans are still animals and respond to this kind of thing. There are subtle hints about the inferiority of the short and the superiority of the tall in everyday language,which has passed people’s eyes without being regarded as hateful or discriminatory).
So perhaps a lot of taller men are happy sitting on their height and therefore a fair amount of athletic talent is lost.
Now if one looks at track and field,strength sports,martial arts etc. then one can see that particularly large height is not necessarily required. And a closer look will reveal that many world record holders (or the equivalents) in several sports are actually average height or only moderately tall,despite the theoretical superiority of the very tall in providing greater leverage for striking,throwing etc. or increased stride distance,less distance to make when jumping and so forth.
Inferior coordination (difficulty with managing longer limbs) has been stated as one reason discouraging the success of the very tall in sports such as the discus where height is called for.
The one sport most people think of height wise is basketball although it is arguable that in a sport like basketball skill can more easily trump height than in many invidual sports. For example,it would be a relatively enormous feat for a midget to make two meters in the high jump while a hypothetical giant could just step over the bar. A short person can still outwit a taller player and throw the ball through the hoop just fine.
Of course it has to be remembered that most people converge towards a certain average in physical development, so there are going to be more average’ish people than very large ones and so it may be argued that regardless of ambition,the sheer number of the shorter people will overcome the theoretically advantaged but smaller group.
I think I covered a lot of the necessary ground there. What do you say?