How was Jim Ryun bad at other sports?

Wasn't mature yet. He was naturally skinny and tall. Making him perfect for middle distance events. What I always find funny is how he claims he didn't even know what xc was before trying and if he did know what it was he probably wouldn't have tried out for xc.

Ryun was a tremendous athlete with more than enough speed to play WR, CB or speed positions in a lot of sports. He was also tall, which is a big advantage in most sports. I imagine if he had revisited football or basketball as a senior in high school when he was more physically mature, he would have become a star player. If you're fast, you can excel at most sports.

MurderDub wrote:

Ryun was a tremendous athlete with more than enough speed to play WR, CB or speed positions in a lot of sports. He was also tall, which is a big advantage in most sports. I imagine if he had revisited football or basketball as a senior in high school when he was more physically mature, he would have become a star player. If you're fast, you can excel at most sports.

I respectfully disagree. While being far (and I mean far) behind Ryun as a kid, I did go under 2 in the 800 and was a pretty good wrestler (better comparatively than running). There were many slow kids (worse than 60 seconds for 400) who were better at any sport involving a ball than me - I'm talking about soccer, football, and basketball specifically.

Being (for example) a good WR takes really specific football intelligence and great hands. Beating your defender is just a first step (pun intended) to making a catch. The idea that Ryun could excel as a WR at any age is speculation - I'd say it's possible, but improbable.

My recollection is that he ran a 54 during his Freshman year. I don't know about 6th at state as a Sophomore, but he never broke 11:00 for 2 miles. The next Spring he ran 4:07. There were obviously some physical changes that occurred after he started running that would have improved his ability for other sports. He was tall, muscular and would have had better sprinting speed than most other athletes.

Perhaps he didn't have hand eye coordination. Maybe he didn't show the agility to move sideways or backwards.

coach wrote:

Perhaps he didn't have hand eye coordination. Maybe he didn't show the agility to move sideways or backwards.

+1

I knew one of the great HS milers/two milers of the '70s and he couldn't dribble a basketball for three bounces.

I've heard and read numerous stories like this over there the years, where some champion runner was allegedly such an uncoordinated putz as a youngster that he he couldn't even walk without stumbling, but then he started training for track...

More often than not these yarns are apocryphal rather than factual, meant to burnish someone's legend or make them seem "inspirational."

Paul Bunion wrote:

I've heard and read numerous stories like this over there the years, where some champion runner was allegedly such an uncoordinated putz as a youngster that he he couldn't even walk without stumbling, but then he started training for track...

More often than not these yarns are apocryphal rather than factual, meant to burnish someone's legend or make them seem "inspirational."

Running surely requires a high degree of co-ordination (most obviously the arms and legs, especially sprinting). And I'm sure co-ordination skills are very closely related in the brain. I doubt very much you could have world class co-ordination between your arm and leg movements and have below average hand and eye co-ordination.

Coevett wrote:

Paul Bunion wrote:

I've heard and read numerous stories like this over there the years, where some champion runner was allegedly such an uncoordinated putz as a youngster that he he couldn't even walk without stumbling, but then he started training for track...

More often than not these yarns are apocryphal rather than factual, meant to burnish someone's legend or make them seem "inspirational."

Running surely requires a high degree of co-ordination (most obviously the arms and legs, especially sprinting). And I'm sure co-ordination skills are very closely related in the brain. I doubt very much you could have world class co-ordination between your arm and leg movements and have below average hand and eye co-ordination.

After 35 years of teaching sports to kids I can tell you that fine motor control and hand eye coordination can be lacking in excellent endurance athletes.

Have you ever tried teaching the steeplechase to some good runners? Some aren't coordinated enough for that event.

This was it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJVuS1fUx4A&t=408s

He had an inner ear condition that made it so he couldn't balance very well.

Kansas GOAT wrote:

He had an inner ear condition that made it so he couldn't balance very well.

Inearbreation?

Paul Bunion wrote:

I've heard and read numerous stories like this over there the years, where some champion runner was allegedly such an uncoordinated putz as a youngster that he he couldn't even walk without stumbling, but then he started training for track...

More often than not these yarns are apocryphal rather than factual, meant to burnish someone's legend or make them seem "inspirational."

In this case, it happens to be true, although given the pseudonymous report, you may choose to distrust because you can't verify. Early mid 70s.

And of course, some runners are excellent athletes in other sports (soccer, basketball, etc.) Peter Snell was an outstanding tennis player. More recently, and closer to home, and closer to us mere mortals, are examples like Michael Stember and Mark Coogan -- both excellent multi-sport high school athletes. YMMV

Kansas GOAT wrote:

He had an inner ear condition that made it so he couldn't balance very well.

This. Ryun wouldn't have been able to hear a thing in a game.

Kansas GOAT wrote:

He had an inner ear condition that made it so he couldn't balance very well.

That was why Ryun had that distinctive side-to-side head sway while running.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

My recollection is that he ran a 54 during his Freshman year. I don't know about 6th at state as a Sophomore, but he never broke 11:00 for 2 miles. The next Spring he ran 4:07. There were obviously some physical changes that occurred after he started running that would have improved his ability for other sports. He was tall, muscular and would have had better sprinting speed than most other athletes.

The book I read claimed he ran a 57 440 and failed to make the freshman track & field team!

... football is a series of five and ten yard sprints.

Some say Jim Ryun raced some good 440 yard relay legs. I am sure, as a Kansas kid, Jim Ryun tried baseball, American football and basketball. He ran like an uncoordinated fella. I'd usually say for a big strong guy like Ryun, possible speed skater or Nordic skier. Too uncoordinated for either.

I agree with the posters who mention coordination issues. Up to age 14, all that really matters in most sports is coordination and skill. In baseball, you are useless if you cannot catch and hit well. In basketball, you are useless if you can’t dribble, shoot, pass, and catch. In football, you need to be exceptionally big and strong to get by with poor coordination. Etc.

Track and field is fantastic for people who have poor coordination, but are otherwise very athletic. I also got cut from every sport, but unfortunately I was only good enough at running to stay on the team and that was about it lol.

Rupp fan wrote:

I agree with the posters who mention coordination issues. Up to age 14, all that really matters in most sports is coordination and skill. In baseball, you are useless if you cannot catch and hit well. In basketball, you are useless if you can’t dribble, shoot, pass, and catch. In football, you need to be exceptionally big and strong to get by with poor coordination. Etc.

Track and field is fantastic for people who have poor coordination, but are otherwise very athletic. I also got cut from every sport, but unfortunately I was only good enough at running to stay on the team and that was about it lol.

I attend a lot of kids soccer

Size, physicality and pace are big factors at U14