DNA Determines Your Child's Sport

[MA-Caver]

When I saw the movie "Gattica", for me it was entertaining but also kind of frightening in a way. It shows one POSSIBLE future. How our DNA would be used for or against us. I found myself thinking: this is ONE future that we MUST avoid at all costs! Because it will separate potentially great people from actually inferior or lesser people and deny opportunities that have been striven so hard to be over come.
Now, seems that this possible time line is in the works?
How about finding out early what your child is good for as far as the sporting field goes? No wasting time, effort and money trying to find that one niche in which your child would excel in. Just find out what that kid is really going to be good at and go from there.

IMO:...... WRONG!!

Born to Run? Little Ones Get Test for Sports Gene

Kevin Moloney for The New York Times
DNA collected by swabbing the inside of a cheek can be used to determine whether a child is likely to excel at a particular sport.
By JULIET MACUR
Published: November 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/sports/30genetics.html?no_interstitial
BOULDER, Colo. — When Donna Campiglia learned recently that a genetic test might be able to determine which sports suit the talents of her 2 ½-year-old son, Noah, she instantly said, Where can I get it and how much does it cost?
“I could see how some people might think the test would pigeonhole your child into doing fewer sports or being exposed to fewer things, but I still think it’s good to match them with the right activity,” Ms. Campiglia, 36, said as she watched a toddler class at Boulder Indoor Soccer in which Noah struggled to take direction from the coach between juice and potty breaks.
“I think it would prevent a lot of parental frustration,” she said.
In health-conscious, sports-oriented Boulder, Atlas Sports Genetics is playing into the obsessions of parents by offering a $149 test that aims to predict a child’s natural athletic strengths. The process is simple. Swab inside the child’s cheek and along the gums to collect DNA and return it to a lab for analysis of ACTN3, one gene among more than 20,000 in the human genome.

Still, wonders what the TKD gene looks like?? Probably got lots of holes in it from all those kicks! :lol:

Seriously though... I don't think this is really a good idea, mainly because it could lead to other tests that end up pigeon-holing people. It hasn't happened yet but it's a start, a step in that direction.

What do you think? Discuss please.

 

[Sukerkin]

The idea of genetic testing is a fundamentally frightening one.

But I have to ask myself if it is trully any different than any other form of testing? After all, selection processes are run for almost any endeavour we attempt to involve ourselves in and this is just another way of going about it.

Or is it?

I am reminded of the fact that many of our Great Men were actually discarded as useless or sub-standard until the challenge that they were suited for came along. Douglas Bader, for example. Or even Churchill, who was considered a 'loose cannon' and an intemperate boor until World War Two.

Genes describe proclivities, not absolutes.

 

[Gordon Nore]

...Still, wonders what the TKD gene looks like...

Scientists have been looking at a martial arts gene; although the research is incomplete, it looks something like this.

 

[arnisador]

Exhume Bruce Lee and test him!

 

[Fiendlover]

When I saw the movie "Gattica", for me it was entertaining but also kind of frightening in a way. It shows one POSSIBLE future. How our DNA would be used for or against us. I found myself thinking: this is ONE future that we MUST avoid at all costs! Because it will separate potentially great people from actually inferior or lesser people and deny opportunities that have been striven so hard to be over come.
Now, seems that this possible time line is in the works?
How about finding out early what your child is good for as far as the sporting field goes? No wasting time, effort and money trying to find that one niche in which your child would excel in. Just find out what that kid is really going to be good at and go from there.

IMO:...... WRONG!!



Still, wonders what the TKD gene looks like?? Probably got lots of holes in it from all those kicks! :lol:

Seriously though... I don't think this is really a good idea, mainly because it could lead to other tests that end up pigeon-holing people. It hasn't happened yet but it's a start, a step in that direction.

What do you think? Discuss please.

no i dont like it either and moreso since ive seen gattica as well. it could lead to scarier and scarier ideas. yet this one in particular could hold off on a lot of stress if they find what the child is good at, try him out in the sport, and if he is good at it then great if not then the whole process of finding a fitting sport will start again. i, however, wouldn't waste the money on such a thing.

 

[Tez3]

I thought it was awful that toddlers are doing a football ( ok soccer lol) class! What happened to children just being able to play normally, with age appropriate toys and playmates? A coach for goodness sake? If her child has the gene for athletics or whatever is he going to be pushed into the sport?

 

[tshadowchaser]

Predetermining what a child will do or not do by gene testing sounds a lot like selective breeding to me.

 

[Cryozombie]

I think we should test to find out what people are predisposioned for...

the ones who are predispositiondto be athletes shouldn't have to go to school... but should be coached.

the ones who are predispositined to be soldiers should be taken and trained from childhood.

the ones predispositoned to be deviant (i.e. homosexual, criminal) should be imprisoned,

and the ones who are predispositioned to be lazy and good at nothing of value to society should be killed.

Yeah, it's Frightening where this could lead in the hands of the "wrong" mindsets... and we all know those people exist.

 

[BrandonLucas]

This is a little disturbing to me. How can a gene tell you what you're going to be physically good at? And by who's terms are we deciding exactly what "good" is?

To me, getting a child involved in a sport, any sport, is about the experience of finding out whether they like it or not, whether they're good at it or not, and the journey along the way to discover this.

Not to mention that even if a child can really be predetermined to be "good" at a sport, what's to say that the child is going to "enjoy" the sport? Isn't that what it's supposed to be about?

I have known plenty of kids who were awesome at playing the piano, but hated every second of it because they wanted to play guitar, even though they were musicaly gifted.

If it's not what they enjoy doing, then what's the point??

 

[Carol]

If it's not what they enjoy doing, then what's the point??

Because sports performance can bring posh scholarships for students (and their parents) whether or not they perform well academically.

 

[Drac]

I think we should test to find out what people are predisposioned for...

the ones who are predispositiondto be athletes shouldn't have to go to school... but should be coached.

the ones who are predispositined to be soldiers should be taken and trained from childhood.

the ones predispositoned to be deviant (i.e. homosexual, criminal) should be imprisoned,

and the ones who are predispositioned to be lazy and good at nothing of value to society should be killed.

Yeah, it's Frightening where this could lead in the hands of the "wrong" mindsets... and we all know those people exist.

Please tell me that you're joking...

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

So much for the ole' do this because I couldn't as a child theme.

When I was a kid I played different ball games with the other kids which lead me to play Soccer in a kid's league.
It doesn't matter if the kid's DNA says he is good at something if he or she is not interested in it the kids not doing it.

I think children should be exposed to different things to explore not only what they like and are good at but to also get a general understanding of life. They use to call that life experience.

In the comics Calvin and Hobbes Calvin's dad would always make him do things he hated and he would always say it builds character.

Kids need character building and the best way is thru life experience. To gain that is to explore things you may dislike or are not good at.

 

[Cryozombie]

Please tell me that you're joking...

Yeah, I had hoped that this line:

Yeah, it's Frightening where this could lead in the hands of the "wrong" mindsets... and we all know those people exist.

would make it clear that was meant to be a... not a joke... but a frightening look at how this sort of thing could be viewed.

 

[Empty Hands]

Sorry to say it, but Atlas Sports Genetics is a fraud. They are preying on people's gullibility and ignorance of genetics. There is no gene that says you will be good at soccer vs. tennis vs. Tae Kwon Do. The best you could say is that some gene variants are associated with athleticism and strength, but that says little about particular sports.

 

[girlbug2]

Regarding a Martial Arts Gene,

Impossible. Even my limited understanding of the MA world shows that there are many types of Martial Arts, involving different skill sets and different types of abilities, which is why somebody could be good at one martial art but stumble in another.

Regarding Sports Genes,

Within each team sport there are different positions to play that, once again, require different skills and abilities. My son turned out to be a decent goalie this season but not so good at Foreward. Would a "Soccer Gene" test be able to make that kind of distinction?

What hogwash.