Ben L Wrong wrote:
Me2 wrote:If everything the OP says is true, then why are there so few people who can run under 4:05 for the mile?
Why is there just, how many, three people in high school who ever broke 4?
maybe because so few people in America (and in the entire world) trains and competes in organized track and field events?
Compare that with the millions of soccer players.
Most of who take soccer about as seriously as the hobby joggers at the charity 5k take running.
Decatheletes are an unbelievably dumb example... Of all the events in the decathalon, the 1500 is by far the most neglected because its the least like all the other events. This is common knowledge. You're talking about guys who need to be good at shot put, javelin, and discus and trying to say that they're the best example of mid-distance talent outside of actual mid-distance runners. Absolutely ridiculous.
There are hundreds of HIGH SCHOOL soccer players in U.S. alone that could break 5:00 right now.
I never said that being a professional soccer player automatically makes you a fast miler. But take the best 500 mile times in the World Cup against the best 500 college soccer mile times. You don't think the World Cup list beats the college list pretty much top to bottom? There may be some descrepancy, but given the higher level of athletic ability and conditioning across the board in the pro ranks, the average and top times are going to be a lot faster. And unless those two random players from my school are the only 1:57 guys in college soccer, we can assume that there are probably quite a few 2:00 guys meaning there are quite a few more who are quite a bit faster on the world elite level.
There is the continual assumption by some people on this board that the best runners would still be the best even if everyone from other sports had run track instead. This is almost certainly not true. The odds that all the best running talent would find its way into track and field are incredibly slim, which means there are world-beater talents walking around out there. And where do you think the highest concentration of mid-distance talent outside of running is? CLEARLY professional soccer. Do you honestly not think that's true?
For what it's worth, Chris Wondolowski ran 4:15 for 1600 meters in high school and made the state meet in California in 2001.
State results. Fast at MOC. Same year as Hall.
3:56/7:21/13:05
Ok guys, how about this:
How fast do you think YOU could run a mile, if you were allowed 7 miles a day of slow jogging and intense 50m sprints? For me, I think it would be pretty close to my mile PR (maybe 10 seconds off?), but I'm a pretty crappy miler.
Ebay wrote:
http://www.runnerspace.com/news.php?news_id=146694State results. Fast at MOC. Same year as Hall.
There's the truth. Wondolowski (I can assure you, Wondo is not better than Bradley in terms of endurance level) was only 13 seconds slower than Ryan Hall in HS.
And he only did 2 years of mile training. (junior and senior years)
"...De La Salle track coach recruited Wondolowski after he finished a two-mile run in 10 minutes, 20 seconds during a fitness test for soccer"
http://www.mercurynews.com/earthquakes/ci_16167683It looks to me that the best teams at World Cup are proficient at energy management - they spend most of their time playing keep-away from their opponents, then attempting to score with large bursts of effort. Force the opponents to run around a lot while you hold the ball and the opponent won't have the energy in reserve to mount or repel dangerous attacks. This is kind of a sit-and-kick strategy for soccer. With all due respect for Bradley's individual skill and endurance, perhaps logging the most miles in a game is an indicator of weakness, not strength, for the US team as a whole.
Let's flip...bet Rupp would have a hard time playing a full soccer game in Brazil heat with world class players.
Track and soccer are different sports. Pace is important in running a mile, short spurts and staying upright while exhibiting great skill with a ball is vital in soccer.
It would take at least a year of training for a soccer player to run his best mile and about 5 years for most track athletes to play soccer with a national team.
I had three guys on my HS soccer team who could run a 4:30 mile. Two of them were really good and could have played college for sure (ironically one ended up running XC in college and the other a football kicker now pro). Our coach in all fairness did focus on endurance too much and we often did mile timed runs. I think 4:30 is around the max you will see for most soccer players, 4:10 seems highly unlikely to me without serious limitations in sprint speed. Soccer players are some of the best all around runners (100m through 10k) but not great at any one individually.
4:10 pace for 400m perhaps
Rund al'Thor wrote:
Agree with the poster above. I've seen some MLS guys run in person (playing basketball) and they are absolutely incredible all around athletes, no doubt. The guys were quick, powerful, full of energy - just insane.
You're talking about the MLS. It's a hack league for players that can't make it in Europe or their European career is over but still want to play. AKA "retirement" league for Beckham, Gerrard, Cole, Rooney, etc. What's next, the Toledo Mudhens will beat the NY Yankees in the World Series??