Why are black players generally more explosive athletes than white players?

[RoseCity07]

Genetic variation.

http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_05_19_a_sports.htm

Malcolm Gladwell is a great writer and wrote on this subject in the above article. If your really interested read it.

"A boy who is doing well will attribute his success to the fact that he's good at math, and if he's doing badly he'll blame his teacher or his own lack of motivation-anything but his ability. That makes it easy for him to bounce back from failure or disappointment, and gives him a lot of confidence in the face of a tough new challenge. After all, if you think you do well in math because you're good at math, what's stopping you from being good at, say, algebra, or advanced calculus? On the other hand, if you ask a girl why she is doing well in math she will say, more often than not, that she succeeds because she works hard. If she's doing poorly, she'll say she isn't smart enough. This, as should be obvious, is a self-defeating attitude. Psychologists call it "learned helplessness"-the state in which failure is perceived as insurmountable. Girls who engage in effort attribution learn helplessness because in the face of a more difficult task like algebra or advanced calculus they can conceive of no solution. They're convinced that they can't work harder, because they think they're working as hard as they can, and that they can't rely on their intelligence, because they never thought they were that smart to begin with."

[cartmanclone]

Part of It is Cultural and a good part of it is genetic

West aFrican Blacks and their descendants (African American, Latin Blacks) have more quick twitch fibers in their body that allow them to react faster....anthropologist Robert Malina and geneticist Claude Bouchard noticed in their studies that blacks had less body fat, narrower hips, thicker thighs, lighter calves, and longer legs...but we had denser bones, which makes us terrible at Things like swimming

so a good part of it is genetic....

And then also, when west african blacks were imported to the United States and to latin america , a variety of factors killed of the weak...First the trip to america itself killed off alot of people that didn't have good physical skills or who were not immune to some of the diseases that white people carried, and once they got their there was even more natural selection, with the biggest and strongest slaves being mated and passing their genes on to their children..

There you have it

[Manute for Ever!]

This is just one of the things (out of so many theories out there) I heard from a Sport Science student. Don't blast me on this if you think its wrong, its just something I heard. Apparently with black people they've got some unique bone structure/length in the leg (below the knee) that allows them to jump higher and run faster. Dunno too much about the upper body, I've heard people say black guys have "spring-like" muscles, watever thats supposed to mean.

I heard pretty much the same, but above the knee.

[SoCalMike]

wow...

[Younggrease]

Who says black athletes are superior to white athletes?

[RajonKGcelts]

Maybe if Coby Karl was black he'd play like Kobe :)

[PK3434]

Blacks in general, are shorter and more obese than white people. But there are also many blessed with the Natural athleticism/strength.

[konex]

I'm black and I can't dunk. Friends shorter than me can (both black and white). Why are they superior?

[Real Men Wear Green]

Edited the title to something a little bit less likely to incite a racism flame war (I hope).

[unknown101]

jamacains and west africans are genetically gifted with more fast twitch fibres, longer achilles tendon, and better bone structure.

[Mamba]

I'm black and I can't dunk. Friends shorter than me can (both black and white). Why are they superior?

because u spend half your time wishing hateful **** on this forum and have posted here more then any normal net junkie.

[picc84]

[QUOTE=Shepseskaf]Both of these "theories" are completely incorrect, and have been conclusively debunked in a thread that took place some time ago. If one looks very carefully at the success of black athletes in competitive sports, the decisive factor, if one can point to one, has much more to do with speed and quickness than strength. QUOTE]

Like all that running from slavemasters and dogs?

[Sharas]

Part of It is Cultural and a good part of it is genetic

West aFrican Blacks and their descendants (African American, Latin Blacks) have more quick twitch fibers in their body that allow them to react faster....anthropologist Robert Malina and geneticist Claude Bouchard noticed in their studies that blacks had less body fat, narrower hips, thicker thighs, lighter calves, and longer legs...but we had denser bones, which makes us terrible at Things like swimming

yup.

different structure of muscle fibers is thought to be responsible for black people dominating the track and field disciplines (which require explosive strength) and white people dominating the weight lifting (muscle endurance strength)

[bballog]

cuz when blacks were slaves they sort of evolved or however u wanna put it

[kingsfan]

Because their "knee-grows" longer...