From: rsmith@strobe.ATC.Olivetti.Com (Russ Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro
Subject: Re: Debunking the standard myth was Re: Couple of thoughts..
Date: 17 Aug 92 16:18:43 GMT
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino CA, USA

In article <M1WCC00.92Aug17112846@mcfss2.fed.frb.gov> m1wcc00@fed.frb.gov (Wayne C. Cook) writes:
>/   leapers. There aren't too many Len Biases who can skywalk, and shoot
>/   the lights out(yes I know there aren't any Len Biases). The question is
>/   why is this the case, genentics or development?
>
>Genetics.


So its just preordained you're either a leaper or a shooter, but you can't
be both? It sounds a little fishy to me. Sounds a lot more like a process
of development where you spend more time doing one thing than you do the
other. I learned to play on the playgrounds, I never played in a gym
until I was in 8th grade. I'm not a great shooter, my whole game is off
the dribble take the ball to the hole. This is how we play on the playground
and its precisely why I'm not a great shooter. I also had a 30" vertical
jump as a sophomore in highschool before I developed jumpers knee(patellar
tendinitis) and lost a fair bit of spring.


>Develop their ability to jump the way blacks do?  This is the crux of the
>problem here.  You cannot develop an ability to jump past a point that is 
>your limit.  You can improve your technique if it was flawed to begin with.
>But that's it.  You're gonna jump as high as you were genetically designed
>to and after that, you can kill yourself trying and not make much difference.

Agreed to a point, know amount of training would have made me David Thompson
or Darrell Griffith, but I also believe that alot of what I did to increase
my jumping ability(jumprope, millions of toe raisers,2 different kinds of
special shoes designed to increase your spring etc.) accounted for my
onetime ability to jump. I wasn't born with it. Most of the kids I played
with in highschool learned to play in YBA in gyms and they were primarily
standstill shooters, I learned to play on local playgrounds, dominated
by black kids.


>But blacks that jump well don't do this.  They just naturally jump.  Boing.


All of them do? Tell it to Oakley, and many others who can't jump. I'm
not blind most of the leapers in the NBA are black, but unless we can
prove its because they're black that they can leap, we have to at least
consider reasons why they dominate the leaping, and thats what I'm 
attempting to do. There could actually be a genetic reason, but I've
never seen one thats iron clad true.  
>Most don't really have such phenomenal verticles.  You've also got to 
>consider that there are some whites that do jump well (like Chapman and 
>Majerle).  Seems natural that some would find their way to volleyball.  

Look do me a small favor, spend 2 hours playing 2 on 2 volleyball in
the sand. then wake up the next day and feel the burn in your calves
and thighs. Now do this 6 months out of the year all through jumior
high and highschool. You seriously think it won't increase your leap?
Thats why there's a lot of skywalkers in So Cal volleyball, there are
at least 3 white guys now on the pro tour with 38" or better jumps,
and 38 is flying, there's not that many in the NBA better than that.



Russ Smith
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"Many dreams come true, some have silver linings,  
I live for my dreams, and a pocketful of gold"      Led Zeppelin
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro