Discover Magazine’s recent article “The Brain Why Athletes Are Geniuses” reinforces what I’ve heard before: great athletes are body geniuses. “Even a sport as seemingly straightforward as pistol shooting is surprisingly complex,” author Carl Zimmer declaims. “A marksman just points his weapon and fires, and yet each shot calls for many rapid decisions, such as how much to bend the elbow and how tightly to contract the shoulder muscles. Since the shooter doesn’t have perfect control over his body, a slight wobble in one part of the arm may require many quick adjustments in other parts. Each time he raises his gun, he has to make a new calculation of what movements are required for an accurate shot, combining previous experience with whatever variations he is experiencing at the moment.” OK, I’m intimidated.
