Now picture a Dominican on the beach with a broomstick while someone is pitching coconuts and beer bottles to him.
Now picture a Dominican on the beach with a broomstick while someone is pitching coconuts and beer bottles to him.
It's track, beyond any shadow of a doubt. You either gain the fitness or you don't, and odds are you never get anywhere near the top no matter how early you start or how hard you try.
In soccer and other skill/game sports you can bullshit your way around that with strategy and teamwork, like Iceland vs Argentina. You could match the #1 seed vs the #32 seed and just maybe #32 will pull off the upset. In track, #32 has no chance, most events are dominated by just a few and often one athlete virtually guaranteed to win every time they line up.
Obviously the sports most played. Those are soccer, basketball, cricket, baseball. Also shouldn't forget field hockey, ping pong, and running. Maybe golf and tennis too.
2:18 at the casino wrote:
Now picture a Dominican on the beach with a broomstick while someone is pitching coconuts and beer bottles to him.
An entertaining image. Down there in D.R. the five year old lads are not playing baseball on beautiful manicured ball fields as there are in suburban MN or wealthy areas of CA. They five year old boys in D.R. are only limited by severe rainstorms with lightning.
Bad Wigins wrote:
It's track, beyond any shadow of a doubt. You either gain the fitness or you don't, and odds are you never get anywhere near the top no matter how early you start or how hard you try.
In soccer and other skill/game sports you can bullshit your way around that with strategy and teamwork, like Iceland vs Argentina. You could match the #1 seed vs the #32 seed and just maybe #32 will pull off the upset. In track, #32 has no chance, most events are dominated by just a few and often one athlete virtually guaranteed to win every time they line up.
I will say this for T&F: Every able body boy in the world starts off as a 60m sprinter. No other sport besides T&F can say everyone has tried and most likely failed.
Money answers this question. Follow the money. Look at the list of the highest paid athletes in the world an you have your answer(s).
Bad Wigins wrote:
It's track, beyond any shadow of a doubt. You either gain the fitness or you don't, and odds are you never get anywhere near the top no matter how early you start or how hard you try.
In soccer and other skill/game sports you can bullshit your way around that with strategy and teamwork, like Iceland vs Argentina. You could match the #1 seed vs the #32 seed and just maybe #32 will pull off the upset. In track, #32 has no chance, most events are dominated by just a few and often one athlete virtually guaranteed to win every time they line up.
Consider the number of people competing for the job of top level striker on a top level club team. Think about renaldo, Messi and Neymar. Think of the billions of dudes aspiring to fill that role and cash that paycheck. Think of the number of players and the number of matches played across the globe. Think of the billions of hours played just in pick up games alone. The competition level is off the charts.
Now think about how many kids dream about winning a 10k race. How many people are out grinding distance runs? A grain of sand on the beach.
Running at the top level involves more pain and sacrifice, so it’s obviously very hard in that sense, but that’s not the question I don’t think.
This is simple.
Sports that require the least amount of skill and least amount of resources.
Running to me, is the hardest to make it given these criteria. Guys who run 10.15 in track are simply good college runners but will have no chance at being a pro.
You take they same guy and train him to use that speed in football, and he’s golden.
There is very little skill, outside of tactics, in sprinting. Therefore, you’re left with 95% of your ability being determined by what you’re born with.
Conversely, you can be an average athlete / unathletic guy like Steve Nash and work really hard at developing skills. Track doesn’t offer the ability for average talents to make it.
Vjvvc wrote:
This is simple.
Sports that require the least amount of skill and least amount of resources.
Running to me, is the hardest to make it given these criteria. Guys who run 10.15 in track are simply good college runners but will have no chance at being a pro.
You take they same guy and train him to use that speed in football, and he’s golden.
There is very little skill, outside of tactics, in sprinting. Therefore, you’re left with 95% of your ability being determined by what you’re born with.
Conversely, you can be an average athlete / unathletic guy like Steve Nash and work really hard at developing skills. Track doesn’t offer the ability for average talents to make it.
I understand what you are saying but that is only true in theory. Top track guys are the best of a few. Top soccer players are the best out of billions. Track is missing so many athletes that play other sports.
By the way, if you think Nash is unathletic you have no ideal want you are talking about. Truly. Can he jump the highest? No, but jumping is one small aspect of athleticism.
I would argue he was one of the better athletes on the court in every game he played. Balance, coordination, agility, etc. watch Nash play soccer (which he does) and then watch, say, Durant play. One will look like a natural and one will will be awkwardness defined.
Little League Baseball wrote:
phxrunner17 wrote:
That is a joke, right?
Ackley is correct. One has to begin hitting a baseball at age five in T-Ball or coach pitch. I'd say ballet/point may be harder since (mostly) girls start at age three. We're not considering ballet/point a sport. No one shows up at seventeen and starts hitting 85 mph high school pitching without playing Little League Baseball. No one shows up at seventeen to dance schools to dance ballet/point well at seventeen without starting at age three.
"They give you a round bat and they throw you a round ball and they tell you to hit it square." Willie Stargell
John Utah wrote:
Consider the number of people competing for the job of top level striker on a top level club team. Think about renaldo, Messi and Neymar.
If Messi and Neymar are so dominant, why didn't they win their openers against weaker clubs? There weren't equally great defenders stopping them.
Rather, they are valued because they outplay opponents not all the time, but most of the time, which pays off over a long series of 90-minute matches. Track events are often dominated by one person who wins every single time, and nearly all are dominated by a mere handful. There is no route to a draw for Iceland in a dual with Kenya at 1500m. Don't bet against Mo Farah to beat team Switzerland over 10,000m, not even 1 out of 100 times.
No way I'd put distance running on this list. It is the only sport I can think of that you can take up at like 16 or 17 and end up being world class.
I had a teammate in college (D3) that didn't run on a team at all until she didn't make the soccer team in college. She went out for track and ended up being a national champion 2 years later. I can't think of another sport where that would even be possible.
Any sport, to get to the highest level, is extremely hard.
At the same time, what is your definition of "the highest level". In soccer (football). Is it MLS? Well, that's the highest professional league in the USA. At the same time, MLS is absolutely crap compared to the leagues in Europe (EPL, La Liga, Serie A, etc). If you play for a team that is at the bottom of the table in, say the EPL, are you really "at the highest level"? Wouldn't you truly need to be on a Chelsea, Man City, etc to be considered at the "highest level"?
I'll play along....The hardest sport to get to the highest level is....Being a driver for an auto racing team.
100s of millions of people drive cars across the world and between NASCAR, F1 and Indy, there are probably 120 spots total. Hardest to get to highest level ;)
John Utah wrote:
By the way, if you think Nash is unathletic you have no ideal want you are talking about. Truly. Can he jump the highest? No, but jumping is one small aspect of athleticism.
I would argue he was one of the better athletes on the court in every game he played. Balance, coordination, agility, etc. watch Nash play soccer (which he does) and then watch, say, Durant play. One will look like a natural and one will will be awkwardness defined.
Nash would score poorly in a football combine and probably even NBA one.
With that said, track is technically the most participated sport in the US at the HS level.
Not many elite athletes in the US attempt to play baseball or soccer though. At predominately black schools, basketball and football are popular. Track fields a team. And baseball and soccer are rough.
In the US, there are tons of athletes that don’t give two shits about baseball or soccer — and we dominate like every sport we participate in.
Jdjd wrote:
John Utah wrote:
By the way, if you think Nash is unathletic you have no ideal want you are talking about. Truly. Can he jump the highest? No, but jumping is one small aspect of athleticism.
I would argue he was one of the better athletes on the court in every game he played. Balance, coordination, agility, etc. watch Nash play soccer (which he does) and then watch, say, Durant play. One will look like a natural and one will will be awkwardness defined.
Nash would score poorly in a football combine and probably even NBA one.
With that said, track is technically the most participated sport in the US at the HS level.
Not many elite athletes in the US attempt to play baseball or soccer though. At predominately black schools, basketball and football are popular. Track fields a team. And baseball and soccer are rough.
In the US, there are tons of athletes that don’t give two shits about baseball or soccer — and we dominate like every sport we participate in.
If you think the best athelete at a normal high school are running XC vs playing football, basketball, baseball and soccer you are dreaming. I’m not talking about exceptions, I’m talking the norm.
Little League Baseball wrote:
phxrunner17 wrote:
That is a joke, right?
Ackley is correct. One has to begin hitting a baseball at age five in T-Ball or coach pitch. I'd say ballet/point may be harder since (mostly) girls start at age three. We're not considering ballet/point a sport. No one shows up at seventeen and starts hitting 85 mph high school pitching without playing Little League Baseball. No one shows up at seventeen to dance schools to dance ballet/point well at seventeen without starting at age three.
Baseball is not a sport, it´s an American joke activity.
The answer is the NBA. Smaller rosters and fewer teams than most top levels of global sports. Plus a lot of money and great lifestyle. An end of roster player in pretty much any sport would prefer to be an end of roster player in the NBA. Think about it, if Noah Lyles could be a bench player on the Suns, he'd probably be doing that, instead he's settling for track and field.
John Utah wrote:
Bad Wigins wrote:
It's track, beyond any shadow of a doubt. You either gain the fitness or you don't, and odds are you never get anywhere near the top no matter how early you start or how hard you try.
In soccer and other skill/game sports you can bullshit your way around that with strategy and teamwork, like Iceland vs Argentina. You could match the #1 seed vs the #32 seed and just maybe #32 will pull off the upset. In track, #32 has no chance, most events are dominated by just a few and often one athlete virtually guaranteed to win every time they line up.
Consider the number of people competing for the job of top level striker on a top level club team. Think about renaldo, Messi and Neymar. Think of the billions of dudes aspiring to fill that role and cash that paycheck. Think of the number of players and the number of matches played across the globe. Think of the billions of hours played just in pick up games alone. The competition level is off the charts.
Now think about how many kids dream about winning a 10k race. How many people are out grinding distance runs? A grain of sand on the beach.
Running at the top level involves more pain and sacrifice, so it’s obviously very hard in that sense, but that’s not the question I don’t think.
Wouldn't the 100 meters be roughly equivalent to the top striker thing? Every athletic boy in the world knows from youth races where he stands in terms of raw speed relative to his peers. Most top-tier speed athletes sprint in some form or fashion as youths. The rewards for being The World's Fastest Man are immense.