I think we all understand that in a sport where weight to strength ratio is important, e.g. bouldering or gymnastics, the best women are prepubescent. The best girls are going to be the talented few who have not yet had a serious tendon injury.
Quote from: jwi on February 28, 2013, 09:41:03 amI think we all understand that in a sport where weight to strength ratio is important, e.g. bouldering or gymnastics, the best women are prepubescent. The best girls are going to be the talented few who have not yet had a serious tendon injury.That's just not true. The best women in climbing (to name a few) are...Lynn HillJosune BereziartuSasha DiGiulianAnna StohrLisa RandsAlex PuccioDorothea KaralusBarbara ZangerlBeth Rodden...And they aren't prepubuscent. Ashima is clearly up there with them, but considering what the other women have achieved over their lifetimes, I don't see why she can't keep on improving as she grows. Climbing is not gymnastics. I'm sure there are risks to training young, but if kids want to dedicate themselves to something they are passionate about, perhaps it's better to help them do it safely, rather than say no.
Ashima is clearly better at bouldering than many of the above mentioned are, or ever was at their peak.
Quote from: jwi on February 28, 2013, 11:28:29 amAshima is clearly better at bouldering than many of the above mentioned are, or ever was at their peak.I don't buy this idea that Ashima is on course for disaster (perhaps not precisely what you are saying, but I have heard this from many others). There are lots of young people who have trained hard and continued to climb harder and harder as they grew up. Caution is not a bad thing, because injuries do happen, but I'm not sure we are really doing too much harm by getting excited about a promising young climber.
I am quite sure that treating children's climbing as a competitive elite sport fosters a culture where parents/coaches pressure the children to preform on a level that their bodies cannot tolerate without permanent damages. Practicing at elite levels is also mentally demanding, and behavioural and psychological problems will be the consequence for many.
I used a finger board and trained on a board at age 11 and 26 years later I've just had my first pulley tear.
Quote from: T_B on March 01, 2013, 03:13:39 amI used a finger board and trained on a board at age 11 and 26 years later I've just had my first pulley tear.Fucking hell Tom, was that the first board in the world?
The NCBI abstracts/articles are for review papers, I've a half-decent understanding of epigenetics having studied at post-graduate & worked in Genetic Epidemiology (analysed several whole genome screens for different diseases). I'd be more interested in scientific studies that demonstrate the conjecture as what little evidence I've come across is in the field of auto-immune diseases and some cancers and nothing anywhere near as complex as the phenotypes of sporting performances which would require some incredibly complex feedback loops.
(By the way from scanning of the height one you link to it talks about and analyses epistasis between the identified loci, which is the interaction/additive/multiplicative effects of multiple genes, not epigenetics).
Fair point. I would like to see that kind of stuff as well but epigenetics is a relatively new field and it's complicated enough that googling for that kind of material would be quite difficult. I settled for more layman type articles just to show that these ideas are feasible, and being considered by serious scientists right now.
I think the article identified multiple factors actually. This is a quote from the abstract: "The newly identified loci, along with several additional loci with strongly suggestive associations, encompass both strong biological candidates and unexpected genes, and highlight several pathways (let-7 targets, chromatin remodeling proteins and Hedgehog signaling) as important regulators of human stature."Chromatin Remodeling is a key epigenetic mechanism, from what i understand. I dont think the point of that paper is that Epigenetics completely determines height as much as that it is one of several determining factors.