June 17, 201313 yr I am going with lawn mowing. Pushing those mowers takes great stamina, lower leg strength, strong core, agility to hold that kill switch while you push. I hear the KHSAA is going to sanction this as a high school sport next year. Not to mention the strategy. You have to be able to see the whole field and plan out each event to maximize your time, all while keeping the diagonals lined up. Many think they can do it. Few can do it well.
June 17, 201313 yr I say the wrestlers on WWE, they are big, tall, take a beating 3 times a week, jump off cages, ropes, do flips, and get landed on by 300-400 pounders.
June 17, 201313 yr Australian Rules Football, those guys take a pounding and without the pads. Don't mistake dumb for athletic.
June 17, 201313 yr 3 sports come to mind. Decathalon Iron man Triathalon I don't think there is any other sport that tests the body as much as Triatholon or Iron Man competitions. Honorable mention: Couch Potato, I've trained for that most of my life and have it down pretty pat. This I agree with but I cannot say the best athletes are in the sport of triathlon. Triathlon's are about perfecting skills and doing repeated movements over and over again. Mentally can drive you insane and the training I will put up there with anything else. It is the greatest mental test and really only made for the over exuberant Type A personalities of this world. Hines Ward did a Half-Ironman last week and he said it was by far the most difficult thing he has ever done. He is training for the full IM in October. I went to support a division I college basketball player (solid player) last year at an IM and he said it was by far the most difficult thing he has ever done. He never finished. I believe the NBA has the best athletes.
June 17, 201313 yr Lacrosse Requirements: 1. Speed - up and down the field in full sprints 2. Quickness - 1 on 1 reaction and good foot work on offense and defense 3. Hand-eye coordination - catching a small ball and the end of a 3' or 5' stick on the run. 4. Toughness - taking and delivering body checks and hacks from a metal stick 5. Smarts - running flowing plays on offense and constantly adjusting defense Close 2nd with all the above requirements - hockey. Years to develop power and speed skating skills. But play is more 2 dimensional with the puck on the surface vs. 3 dimensional aspects of ball handling of lacrosse.
June 17, 201313 yr I haven't read all the posts but stamina, fitness and endurance factor into my definition of athlete. Also, has anyone mentioned mental qualities? These come into play more when you're facing a real opponent in live time as opposed, for instance, to doing a gymnastics routine. In these situations, the athlete needs to utilize his mental faculties in order to react to and thwart what the opponent is doing, or trying to do, to him.
June 17, 201313 yr That's right! I mean think of the muscles it takes to sweep the broom that many times and that quickly! Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?
June 17, 201313 yr Athleticism... I would define that as: Speed Agility Strength Explosion Hand/Eye Coordination Endurance I like the Lacrosse answer as what sport REQUIRES the most athleticism. As for which sport HAS the best athletes, I will go with basketball. I think there is a natural tendency for the best athletes to gravitate towards one of the 4 major sports in basketball, football, soccer, and baseball.
June 20, 201313 yr My 2 cents ..... Basketball!!! Speed, quickness, strength, explosiveness, etc. I think the area that sets them apart is their ability to control their body and be productive while in the air. Gymnastics require great body control but does not require you to play with a ball. So in my opinion .... Basketball has the best athletes.
June 20, 201313 yr My 2 cents ..... Basketball!!! Speed, quickness, strength, explosiveness, etc. I think the area that sets them apart is their ability to control their body and be productive while in the air. Gymnastics require great body control but does not require you to play with a ball. So in my opinion .... Basketball has the best athletes. The exact same thing can be said for football players. Football is more impressive to me because of the wide range of sizes of the men doing it. Guys 5'5" 160lbs all the way up to pushing 6'10" 350. Anyone who says that guys that size aren't quick, strong, explosive, agile and can't control their bodies doesn't understand what they are looking at.
June 20, 201313 yr What makes basketball players better athletes than football players? For me...you can take a mediocre to average basketball player(Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates) and turn them into an NFL Hall of Famer.
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