<p>nbachris, good anecdote! China is slowly gaining ground in the world of Olympics. But what about the calves?</p>
<p>calves = toddler cattle</p>
<p>What does calves have to do with the topics?? What do you mean “not even Asians stick up for us”?</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand this thread…</p>
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<p>To agree more with nbachris, the reason of Russian domination was in fact due to the types of coaches they had. Russia was leading one of the best strength coaches in the world in their periods of Olympic Powerlifting Domination. This leads to the point that, the environment at which they were raised was so much important than genetics.</p>
<p>Basically, yhe point of this thread is to debate the effects of nature vs nurture on the development of athletes.</p>
<p>It is true that the environment has a strong effect on an individual. But, say that your genetics limited you to a 5" height. You can push yourself as hard as you can but your body wont become as big as other athletics with taller heights. There is a certain limit where your body just cannot get more big becuase your bones/body cannot handle the weight capacity therefore, you develop serious illnesses. One that deal with the heart and other serious part, becuase your body cannot provide blood to the entire body if your muscles are too big. Also due to the shortage of blood your brain cannot function as good so you will get occation confusions, etc.</p>
<p>It is true that the environment can enable you to get big, but without good genetics very little gains will be granted. However, the opposite is also true.</p>
<p>Back to the Yao topic… First of all short players (Parker, Boykins, etc.) are put in the NBA because they are quick and are able to get to the paint faster. Tall players are used to box out in the paint and make easy range shots (Shaq, Dirk, Yao, etc.). It is not that Yao is not good, it is that he cannot do the other things that are excepted of his type of players. He cannot box out people (Although, this year he has been doing that a bit more). If you look at Yao’s body type he looks weak. He can develop his body to become like Shaq. If you look at Shaq 5 years ago he was fat, slow, and looked rubbish. These past years he transformed himself; he cut down and is now able to play more often. If Shaq can do that, why cant Yao? It is either that he is lazy or the environment doesnt have that much of an impact on him since he has been granted with good genetics…</p>