I’ve heard that to be able to train at the top level for gymnastics that it takes hard work, dedication, a proper diet, obviously skill, more often than not some sort of steroid to help recover, and “superior genetics”. What are these “superior genetics” that makes other people unable to reach the potential that these gymnasts have?
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Hypermobility Syndrome (JHD / EDS) is one.
My ex-wife had it and she could literally jump and land straight into full splits, not problem at all.
Granted, her knees also turned 180 degree backwards and left her unable to walk for days at a time (and hence she was officially registered disabled), but any gymnastic feat of flexibility would be easy for her to do with no training.
You can “give” yourself hypermobility syndrome if you’re over flexible, and wear aware the cartilage in your joints. You’ll be flexible but probably in chronic pain in later life. But you can also inherit genes (it can from one or both parents) to get something like hypermobility syndrome where your cartilage is literally softer and more flexible than other people’s with no training at all.
I was married to an woman who was black-belt in karate but had a disabled badge. Who could kick you on top of your kick without even trying, but sometimes couldn’t get off the sofa. Who could fold herself in a thousand ways but might spend a week in bed afterwards because she was in chronic joint pain and the morphine was no longer working.
But her cousin – who inherited the same genes but from two different sides of her family, and ended up with EDS which is a far more serious version of it, was crippled and in a wheelchair by her teens.
Ballerinas, acrobats and gymnasts – they either had a genetic predisposition to hypermobility or they have literally given themselves the same condition through friction on their joints over years of training. Many of them end up crippled and in chronic pain in later life, whichever way they achieved it.
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