Is there any commonly known sport, game, or activity you can become world-class in without having any talent?

Xmas tree wrote:

Rowing. I had no talent for football, baseball, or hockey - just enough athletic ability to not get cut for varsity teams in high school. Went to college and joined the crew team and the heavens opened up and the angels began singing. Holy crap I’m awesome at this! Best on the team. All you gotta be is the right body type: Tall. I love crew, but the fact that I was tearing it up tells ya something. Great sport, lifelong friendships, raging parties, awesome memories , but I hate to say there really is no talent needed. I mean you gotta be an athlete, but can’t really say you need talent for anything.

Umm, the best rowers in the world are absolute psychological freaks. Matthew Pinsent was 6'5 240lbs and had a lung capacity of over 8.5L. They often score outrageous Vo2max scores for someone as heavy as them, scores that if scaled down to the size of runners or cyclists would would be among the highest. Lactate tolerances and buffering and neuromuscular efficiency also ranking among the best in the World. The depth may not be the same as running or cycling but to say it takes no talent to be among the best in the world at rowing is laughable.

pikle rik wrote:

In my humble opinion, bodybuilding is a bit of a joke up to a certain point (that point being when roids come into play). Runners make excellent aesthetic bodybuilders-- they are used to routine and emphasis; they have low body fat; they understand recovery; they have an intuitive understanding of their body.

Take almost any d1 runner, subtract the running, put them in a weight room 2x a day, and they'll throw on 20 lbs of muscle in no time at all.

The bodybuilders I know believe they are special, but of course the truth of the matter is they simply happened to pick up lifting at a young age.

Sounds like you have some jealousy issues.

Do you think everyone who runs faster than you just started earlier as well?

Bodybuilding takes an insane amount of dedication and hard work.

Even when steroids come into play the elites are competing against other genetic freaks who are on the same drugs.

hard worker with zero talent wrote:

I'm thinking ultrarunning, horse racing, curling, and maybe NASCAR or poker. Though it would be debatable on whether ultrarunning is "commonly known".

Thoughts?

You think you can become world class in ultrarunning with no talent? WTF is wrong with you?

Birkoboy wrote:

American football.

Just be a big fat git,who isn't tough enough to play without padding,aka Rugby,and learn how to run in to other fat wimps.

The average "fat git" lineman in the NFL is faster than you.

Also, rugby players don't make any money. If they were good enough to play soccer or in the NFL they would.

How about Cornhole--I'm talking about the game.

Field Hockey

I think it might be too late wrote:

Birkoboy wrote:

American football.

Just be a big fat git,who isn't tough enough to play without padding,aka Rugby,and learn how to run in to other fat wimps.

The average "fat git" lineman in the NFL is faster than you.

Also, rugby players don't make any money. If they were good enough to play soccer or in the NFL they would.

Notice you didn't deny they need no talent,and no those fat heifers are not faster than me.

Gambling. Such as winning with lottery tickets or slot machines. It is 100% luck.

Disc golf?

hard worker with zero talent wrote:

I'm thinking ultrarunning, horse racing, curling, and maybe NASCAR or poker. Though it would be debatable on whether ultrarunning is "commonly known".

Thoughts?

It's obviously Race Walking.

Umm wrote:

Matthew Pinsent was 6'5 240lbs and had a lung capacity of over 8.5L

Too bad our VO2max isn't limited by tidal volume lol.

But I agree with your overall point: if you want to see the human bodies who can process the most oxygen per minute, the top rowers are a good place to look.

In general though, I think it's easier to make a splash in rowing (har har) because so many people simply cannot afford the cost of entry. The time, equipment, and fees to compete.

Birkoboy wrote:

I think it might be too late wrote:

The average "fat git" lineman in the NFL is faster than you.

Also, rugby players don't make any money. If they were good enough to play soccer or in the NFL they would.

Notice you didn't deny they need no talent,and no those fat heifers are not faster than me.

I used to look down on lineman in football. In HS, the lineman were just fat kids who were willing to smash into each other a few dozen times a day. But I met an NFL strength coach and he showed me videos of lineman lifting and doing training. NFL lineman are almost all 300+ lbs. They are expected to be able to bench 225 lbs 20-30 reps and can run a 40 in 5 sec (it's not pretty, but it is fast for 300+ lbs). But there are tons of football players who come out of college who are 300+ lbs and have good strength + speed. In order to be an NFL lineman, you also have to have excellent reaction time (almost on par with a sprinter), incredible balance and agility to be able to stay on your feet while being pummeled by a similarly situated 300+ pound lineman and believe or not you have to be pretty intelligent to be able to keep up with an NFL playbook. If you don't execute, you could easily end up letting your QB get sacked or have the running back blow through for a TD depending on what side of the line you play. And if you aren't convinced, watch a game with a cellar dwelling team like J-ville and compare to a top team like the Packers or the Bucs. What you are consistently seeing with the top teams is top talent in lineman and on the other end the quality of the linemen is dismal.

Short answer, elite/freaky body builders are born, not just made from PEDs.

Do a biceps pose, see how many fingers you can fit between your bicep and forearm. Most ectomorphic runners can fit two fingers. Sad to say, you can't fill in that gap no matter how much lifting and PEDs you take because you can't change where your muscles attach. Top body builders have no gap, so their muscles can grow longer/wider, this attachment morphology applies throughout the their body.

Roids have high and low responders, not everyone can turn into a freak from roids and hard work, depends on how many androgen receptors you're born with and their distribution.

look to the coastal elites wrote:

Umm wrote:

Matthew Pinsent was 6'5 240lbs and had a lung capacity of over 8.5L

Too bad our VO2max isn't limited by tidal volume lol.

But I agree with your overall point: if you want to see the human bodies who can process the most oxygen per minute, the top rowers are a good place to look.

In general though, I think it's easier to make a splash in rowing (har har) because so many people simply cannot afford the cost of entry. The time, equipment, and fees to compete.

The same goes for all the country club sports, Golf, tennis, squash, skiing, need to have some money to just get started

Probably NFL. Basically 95% of the players stand around 99% of the game. I can do that as a couch potato.

horse hunter wrote:

Probably NFL. Basically 95% of the players stand around 99% of the game. I can do that as a couch potato.

You couldn't make a high school team...

So wrong in so many ways. You realize that you were probably talking to the sailing equivalent of a 2:40 marathoner saying he was training for the Olympic trials? Absolutely, the people with lots of money and lots of time to spend sailing have a massive advantage. But there’s a reason some sailors win their club’s regatta year after year and yet would struggle to place in the top few dozen in a National class event. Anyone can learn the very basic skills you list. But you won’t become world class at them without money, hours, and talent.

Precious Roy wrote:

Sailing. I knew a guy who had a chance to be on the US Olympic sailing team after college. He admitted to me that all you needed to become a world class sailboat racer is location, time and money. Anyone can learn how to tack efficiently, manage your points of sail and the wind, fly a spinnaker, etc. You just have to have enough money to be in a yacht club and travel to competitions, live near the coast where you can sail and compete and hang around long enough to get your ranking up.

hard worker with zero talent wrote:

I'm thinking ultrarunning, horse racing, curling, and maybe NASCAR or poker. Though it would be debatable on whether ultrarunning is "commonly known".

Thoughts?

While I guess that I can understand why a runner relatively unfamiliar with those other sports/activities would list them, I can't understand listing ultras. If, as I presume, you acknowledge that running 26 miles or less relatively fast involves talent, I can't imagine why you'd wonder if running farther does?

And I don't know off the top of my head what the pace-per-mile is for say the 50 or 100 mile WR (although I'm sure it's mind-boggling to us average joes), but isn't the 24-hour one 7-something pace? How many folks do you think could train their ass off and run 7-something pace for a freakin' whole day? Yes, only the talented ones.

I do not think there is really any, but perhaps Sailing is the sport that may come closest.

The pool of competitors is somewhat limited and a lot of the skills are built with experience. I you throw a kid on a sailing boat every day from age 6 there is a good chance he can become a world-class sailor regardless of intrinsic talent.