What sport, if you had focused on instead of running, could you have had equal success as you did in running?

Basketball, Tennis or Baseball.

I had a horrible basketball high school coach that made me not want to play in college.

That same basketball coach told us we needed to go out for a spring sport or we couldn't play basketball the next year. I was going to go out for the tennis team and he told me if I didn't go out for track I wouldn't play. I liked basketball enough to not risk it. The college I went to had the top player from my high school conference on a full-ride. I knew that I had shut him down on defense both times we played: averaged 23 a game and had a high of 11 against me. I could score at what seemed like at will but our coach forced the 5 or more passes motion offense on us and it took away any individuality from us. It was hard watching the team at my college play because I saw they played a much looser game.

I grew up near a tennis court and split my summer playing that and basketball, mostly alone (tennis off a bounce back net). The more I play tennis now in my mid 20's the more I feel that I could have been a high level player as I can play with high level players (5.0 - 5.5 ranking) now that play 3 - 5 times a week when I have played 10 times in 2 years. I might still make a run at this one still.

As for baseball, after 12 years of playing I got sick of it. Got to travel and see some of the country as a teenager but it is rather boring to play and much less rewarding to me than running, basketball, tennis.

If you think you can beat me at tennis or basketball you might be able to get me at one of them, a very slim chance, but you won't get me in both. I certainly have more of a basketball guard/tennis player/baseball player build than an a national level runner build (6 foot 1inch 170 lbs) but have managed to run sub 4:05 in the mile and sub 2:18 in the marathon.

ultimate frisbee.

sumo wrestling or competitive eating

My baseball coach was a jack*ss. He was also the football coach, and despised ME because I managed to get some of the football players, including their top player, to go out for cross country. My two years of varsity baseball I didn't start, even though prior to that I had been the top player on the team since 7th grade. He decided he'd rather have a losing team than allow me to start.

Fly fishin'

baseball, I was in the little league world series yo.

golf.

so i have running and golf. sweet. i am sooooooooo cool.

cycling...I'd probably have greater success since I can't seem to lose the last 15-lbs of fat and the last 15-lbs of muscle.

baseball. which ive actually had more success in. but not for long.

None....face it, we got into running and drifted up in distance because that was where we could succeed to a higher level, than in another sport....otherwise, most of us would have stuck with the 'fun' sports. Nobody decides in 9th grade that they want to go out and run 10 miles, 10 x 400 on the track, day after day.....I could have been varsity, starter in baseball, but quit after 10th grade after placing in the state meet as a soph, in the mile...after getting booted up to the distance group from the 1/4 milers training group.

I am suspicious of these claims that people could have played a college sport if they had not been running.

As for me, it would be pretty easy to have the same success.

Rowing, much better at it than running in fact.

Definitely swimming. I was a very good swimmer in high school and got some attention from colleges. However, I was much more in love with running. I actually started swimming pretty late (9th grade), while many of the people that I swam against started in grade school. I think that if I had started really young, I would have been a swimmer in college instead of a runner and I'd probably still be doing it competitively. It's a great sport. Just not as great as running.

Basketball and Baseball are the two of the most popular sports in the country. I think of it this way: If you can run at times that would get you to nationals Division I but could not come close to winning nationals you are no better than an average baseball or basketball player on a decent team. Distance running doesn't get near the best talent due to other sports like basketball, soccer and so on. There are so many basketball and baseball teams out there that if you are halfway decent at the highschool level you have a shot of making a team somewhere. Basketball and baseball are much more funded and sponsored by colleges than running programs. Meaning that there are more opportunities to make those teams. It would be hard to believe someone could be a nationally ranked runner and basketball/baseball/football player. They are not equal in my eyes though. It is much harder to be nationally ranked at those sports because that are what the majority of the best athletes do as kids into their early adulthood. If you consider a national class runner to be equally as good as a national class major sport athlete than that is not what I was talking about and I do agree it would be hard, almost impossible, to imagine someone passing up the opportunity to play the big-time sport on the bigtime stage.

That was longwinded..

Cringe wrote:

If you can run at times that would get you to nationals Division I but could not come close to winning nationals you are no better than an average baseball or basketball player on a decent team.

That was longwinded..

Bullsh*t. That was not even close to true. I am an average basketball player on a decent team, and people that come close to winning state, let alone NATIONALS, are better than me.

Soccer, I think. Maybe hockey.

Could have been almost as successful at soccer. Which is easy to say because I'm not a nationally ranked runner or even close. I've known a few people who were mediocre (but good enough to be a walk-on) at both running and another sport, who passed up being on a "big-time sport" team to run. I think that most people who were aiming to be national class at a sport would have to start focusing on just that in high school, so they probably wouldn't even know if they could be national class at anything else.

nordic skiing or wrestling

If I wasn't a mediocore, distance runner, at 5' 10" and 145 lbs., I think I could have been an outstanding cage fighter....UFC, etc....Ken Shamrock should be thankful that I decided to run 32 minute 10ks on the weekends, instead.