PGStaff - Genetic Potential?

Observer44,

How would one know when they have reached their potential? I really believe man is not capable of fully reaching their potential at this point in evolution. Some just come much closer than others. Most don’t even reach the half way point. IMO it’s all about “trying” to reach potential and IMO that should never stop for a baseball player. Maybe if a player has continually strived to reach his potential and then retired… at that time… it could be said he reached his potential (I guess).

Did the greatest players have more potential or did they simply come closer to reaching their potential?

What got me so very interested in this topic was my research on running speed, years ago. What got me thinking were the many documented stories… like those of little old ladies performing super feats of strength to save a child. It got me to thinking… maybe no one really realizes what they are capable of under normal circumstances. This caused me to think that the world record for running a hundred meters wasn’t actually set on a track. I would make an educated guess the real undocumented fastest 100 meters in history was probably run by a soldier in combat boots with bullets flying by his head. Or maybe even a thief running from the police. Or maybe by someone running from a mad rabid dog.

Anyway, it’s those little old ladies who proved to go way beyond what anyone thought they were capable of, that got me thinking about what true potential really is. If it were necessary could they have lifted even more weight? Did they really have even more potential?

I think this is a good place to stop for now before people get frightened.

quote:

Since you brought it up...here is my initial take on genetic potential…I agree and disagree. While I do feel that there is an absolute top end...I figure, few if any, ever reach it.

I agree completely with your comment above, except I doubt anyone really knows what the absolute top end is.

O44, I'm sure this is more your area of expertise than mine, but this stuff does fascinate me.

Isn't everyones genetic potential unique unto each individual and on top of it who knows what each individuals "genetic potential" is.

To me it is an unknown for each player-- so as I see it you will never ever know when one reaches their "genetic potential".

Have you reached yours in whatever your field of endeavor is ?

Personally I have had a great time getting to this 64th year but I cannot tell you if I have reached my potential.

If I have not I certainly hope I have a few more years to get there

I know darn well that I am still learning about a lot of things!!!

PG

Wow, that is really scary. I hate to break this news to you - but you and I see 100% eye to eye on this one.

Ever since I watched a news clip of a man in South Africa running from a mob of guys with hatchets, machete's etc. I have believed the fastest running speeds are never "clocked".

There is nothing, no award, no monetary gain, nothing in the sports world that can give the kind of incentive that running for your very existence provides.

Rising to the occasion would not be possible if we had already reached our full potential.

AParent,

OK maybe this one will scare you a little more, but think you will understand. I think these type things have happened to others, but not really sure.

When my kids were young, a friend of mine had his kids over to our house. I was in the kitchen which led to the back door with a door that was shut inbetween. The back door opened outward, the inside door opened inward.

Our neigbors had a very big dog that was normally caged up. We heard a scream come from the back yard. The big dog was loose and was on top of my friend’s crying young boy, growling and looking like he was going to eat him.

My wife screamed and I went running to get out the door. I got out there, grabbed the boy and got him back in the house.

Now my wife is saying "look what you did"? I looked and saw the inside door which was now laying cockeyed against the wall. It seems in the urgency of everything I had ripped the door right off the hinges on the way out. It was unbelievable and I couldn't do that again in a million years. I just wasn't capable of doing that and don't think anyone else would be either.

Don't know how it happened, only remember that the door got out of my way in a hurry. I could only speculate... This was not just a strength thing it was also a speed thing. All three hinges snapped off and needed to be replaced. For that one split second I might have reached “full potential”.

I later thought, if only there was a way to harness whatever this was. Some say these things are caused by adrenelin. I say they are unexplainable. Surely others have had similiar experiences. We know so little about what we are truly capable of.

The goal of winning a game or being successful at baseball and other things, has a completely different level of importance. Maybe it's just not quite "important" enough to reach your real potential without a certain amount of urgency or fear.

Also remember this as a little boy. I was scared of the thing they called the Boogy Man. I was also scared of the dark, but we would always play until after it got dark. There were these big bushes I had to pass on my way home. My imagination always got the best of me and thought the Boogie Man was hiding in the bushes. Being afraid of the dark I would run as fast as possible on the way home. I distinctly remember going into another gear when nearing the bushes. It was like moving twice as fast as my fastest speed. Know it's stupid, but I still remember it as though it was yesterday. Often thought about it and wondered how to duplicate it (the burst of speed).

Then later I used this same kind of mental approach when working with runners and it works to a certain extent. Especially with those who have the best imagination.

Very Strange, huh?

PG:

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
OK maybe this one will scare you a little more...

You win...I'm scared!

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
Surely others have had similiar experiences.

Similar, but not identical. I once tore the back, passenger side, door off an '89 Ford Crown Vic. Of course the fire hydrant I grazed while backing up way too fast, on a moonless night, during a driving rainstorm, actually did the work. I was merely the brains of the duo...the hydrant was the brawn!

........
GW4S.....hydrant

GW4S,

I meant that for AParent, I know there's no way to scare you.

In fact, you might be able to help in reaching full potential because you scare the living hell out of me.

Thanks PG...I knew I was good for something!

PG

Had a similar experience with my son when he was 12---I was sitting on a grassy knoll overlooking the field watching the team taking pregame infield-- all of a sudden I see the leftfielder throwing a ball into the infield towrds my son at short who has his back to the outfield--- the ball hits him square in the back of the head and he goes down like he was shot-- dont ask me how or why I was short tending to him--- they told me that I ran down the knoll, cleared a 4 ft fence in a bound and was there at his prone side---I remember nothing between seeing him going down and me being there by his side.

Genetic potential ? Who knows? I just know it was like an "out of body" experience a few of which I have had during my childhood bouts with menigitis and comas--- weird but true!!!