Nature makes gifted athletes, but nurture turns them into all-time greats
EVERY SPORT has its geniuses, who control the ball as if by magic. Lionel Messi does so in football; Steph Curry in basketball; Roger Federer in tennis. Only one person, however, has acquired this superpower midway through an unremarkable career.
It seems absurd that an eccentric adjustment could propel the struggling Mr Smith into the same stratosphere as Bradman. “The Don”, as adoring Australians called him, seemed superhuman. Wisden, cricket’s leading journal, called him a “flawless engine”. Paul Kelly, a songwriter, described him more poetically: “more than just a batsman, he was something like a tide.
Instead, the best explanation for Bradman’s success was his unusual technique. In his youth he devoted countless hours to hitting a golf ball against a water tank with a wooden stump. Unlike the classically trained English, who lifted the bat directly behind them in the backswing, the boy from the Australian bush looped it away from his body, like a topspin forehand. This allowed him to swivel horizontally—not as much as Mr Smith, but more than his contemporaries.
All of which begs the question: could any old hacker, with the right coaching, emulate Bradman? Probably not. The Don had ordinary eyes, but he certainly had some innate gifts, since he was an excellent fielder too. David Epstein, a journalist, pointed out in “The Sports Gene” that most elite athletes have extraordinary physical traits—what he calls “hardware”. Nearly 60% of professional baseball players have “superior” depth perception, compared with 18% of the general population.
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