[albionmoonlight]

So, for most popular sports, the average person cannot play at a world class level because your body simply cannot do the things that are required. No matter what I do, I will never be able to be 6'7", or run 40 yards in 4.5 seconds or less, or throw a baseball at 95 mph.

However, the physical extremes required by some sports (here I am thinking of things like Bowling or Billiards) seem well within the range of the average person willing to work out.

However, we are not all world-class bowlers. Why is that? And what stops people like Pumpy, who clearly bowls a lot and works at improving, from reaching a professional level?

Is it a physical thing? Do world-class bowlers have a type of inherent muscle control that most people don't? Does the typical league bowler hit a physical wall that is just as physically impossible to overcome as the wall between 4.5 speed and normal speed?

Is it mental? Is the difference between a professional bowler and a league bowler the fact that the former never ever ever makes a mistake of concentration?

Is it hours spent working on the sport? Could it be that Pumpy really could become a world-class bowler if he quit his job and practiced 50 hours a week? And that the difference between the world-class bowler and the league bowler isn't a difference of inherent ability, but one of dedication?

I think that the same thing would apply to billiards, but I don't know any billiards players on the board.

Also, please note that I am not dissing professional bowlers or billiards players. I do NOT think that what they do is easy or that I could do it if I tried. In fact, I think the opposite. I'm just trying to get a better sense of why that is.