In this ground-breaking and entertaining exploration of athletic success, award-winning writer David Epstein gets to the heart of the great nature vs. nurture debate, and explodes myths about how and why humans excel.

Along the way, Epstein exposes the flaws in the so-called 10,000-hour rule that states that rigorous practice from a young age is the only route to success. He shows why some skills that we imagine are innate are not – like the bullet-fast reactions of a baseball player – and why other characteristics that we assume are entirely voluntary, like the motivation to practice, might in fact have important genetic components. Throughout, The Sports Gene forces us to rethink the very nature of success.