Sports, Motor Movements and Perceptual Learning

In the book The Sports Gene by David Epstein, the author describes how baseball players use anticipatory cues to hit balls:

"... This is a learned perceptual skill. And in fact, if you do a digital simulation, which some scientists have done, where you delete the pitcher's shoulder, [the Los Angeles Angels'] Albert Pujols becomes me, basically. You have to delete a little more than the shoulder to get him to that novice level, but he basically becomes a novice if you do that. And you can do the same thing with tennis players."

Regarding basketball, the author has this to say:

“In fact there are some brain imaging studies that suggest that good rebounders are also looking for anticipatory cues, that they're actually mentally rehearsing what they're watching a shooter do in an attempt to predict where the ball's going to go.”

Read the Web sites listed below (and any additional ones you find), and then write an essay of at least 800 words to a bright but uniformed college student explaining current thinking on what factors affect one’s athletic abilities. Is it genetics? Learned motor skills? Excellent perception? Here are some links to get you started:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5295671/

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/05/209160709/talent-or-skill-honing-in-on-the-elusive-sports- gene

https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2013/08/17/the-sports-gene-book

https://perceptionaction.com/4-2/