Ranking Sports by Various Measures of Athleticism

definition of athlete: a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.

So how about these parameters:

strength (power to resist force)

agility (ability to move with quick easy grace)

stamina (endurance - the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity)

Ok.....

let's look at various sports/events and go with a scale of 0 to 10 for each parameter.

DISCUS:

strength: 10

agility: 6

stamina: 0

LONG DISTANCE RUNNING:

strength: 2

agility: 2

stamina: 10

GOLF:

strength: 2

agility: 5

stamina: 5

LUGE:

strength: 3

agility: 1

stamina: 2

BASKETBALL:

strength: 6

agility: 9

stamina: 7

ATHLETE: a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.

ATHLETICISM: of or pertaining to athletes; involving the use of physical skills or capabilities, as strength, agility, or stamina.

I think activities in which, either physical agility, stamina, or strength is the end rather than the means to winning the contest are the best examples of athleticism. Therefore, sports such as running, jumping, throwing i.e. Track & Field is one of the best examples. Swimming, weightlifting, skiing & skating would be in the same category. Let's call them category 1. These activities are direct test of physical agility, stamina, or strength, not essentially a test of skill. Skill: the ability, coming from one's knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc.

Sports like, boxing, martial arts & wrestling require great athleticism, but athleticism is not the object of the contest. In this case, physical agility, stamina, or strength are used as a means to winning a skill activity. These actives are more about test of skills. Let's call these category 2.

Sports like, basketball, football, baseball, tennis etc are test of skill requiring high levels of physical agility, stamina, or strength. Lets call these category 3.

Sports like, golf, billiards & bowling are test of skill which require far less physical agility, stamina, or strength than the above sports. Let's call them category 4.

I'm still thinking....

Tommy Two Trees wrote:

LUGE:

strength: 3

agility: 1

stamina: 2

These guys have immense power to push off from the start.

By agility 1 you seem to be implying that they just lay there and wait until they reach the bottom.

I don't get all this hatred for luge. I appreciate this is probably the first time most Americans have even seen it because the poor guy died. Winter Olympics on the NBC is Downhill, Figure Skating and Snowboarding I guess. Nothing else.

I think the word "ability" should be added to the definition.

For example, golfer John Daly does not neccessarily have strength, agility or stamina, but he does have the ability to play golf. Ability would include factors not covered by strength, agility or stamina. Examples would be eye-hand coordination, or knowledge of the sport should there be strategy involved like baseball or football.

You're getting to root of my question. Should this "ability" parameter be included? Because the Webster definition doesn't mention it. Not that Webster should have the final say in the matter. I'm just asking. Should "ability" be a consideration? Because if so, then maybe computer programming should be counted as athletic, since it requires ability.

I suck at golf and realize that I'm missing a few required physical traits - mainly, looseness and relaxedness. Good golfers are loose and relaxed. I'm wound as tightly as a drum, so my swing is really bad. But is looseness/relaxedness a dimension of athleticism? I would argue only insofar as it facilitates (or in my case, interferes with) strength, agility, or stamina.

ESPN has done this. The criteria included endurance, strength, power, speed, agility, flexibility, nerve, durability, hand-eye coordination, and analytic aptitude.

They rated 60 sports and determined that boxing was the toughest sport. Pole vault was 16th, high jump 33rd, long jump/TJ 34th, track and field sprinting 38th, long distance running 40th, middle distance running 43rd. Shooting, billiards, and fishing came rounded out the bottom 3.

Article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills

This is awesome. Now you've made me glad I posted this thread.

By the way, I'm a long distance guy, and I would argue that middle distance is more difficult. At least in terms of racing. (Training middle distance is easier, but racing is harder). Only at 800m have I ever felt like I might truly perish. The mile is a close second in terms of pain.

By the way, ESPN made some questionable choices. Let's look at middle distance running - for endurance they gave it a 6.00. For comparison auto racing got a 5.88, lacrosse 6.63, rugby 6.75, field hocky 6.75, etc. Obviously that reflects a poor understanding of the sport. There really isn't anything more to middle distance running other than endurance, speed, and power. Certainly a world class middle distance runner has more endurance than a comparable world class lacrosse, rugby, field hockey, or AUTO RACING athlete.

Long distance running should be given a 10.00 for endurance (to be fair, it was given 9.63), and middle distance running should get a 9.00. I'm sorry but if you're Wilson Kipketer and you can knock out a 29 minute 10k, you get a 9.00.

Agreed. Also, why does Auto Racing get a 7.5 for "Analytic Aptitude" while the Track and Field - Middle Distance and Track and Field - Distance get 3.75 and 4.13? Aren't all three sports racing around a track? Hello, McFly???

And why does Golf only get a 6.00 for Hand Eye Coordination? Are you kidding me???? If anything should get a 10 on Hand Eye Coordination, it's golf.

I've participated competitively in basketball (state ranked HS team-point guard), tennis (number two player on HS team), baseball (BR League All Star), football (through 9th grade) and distance running (after college to the present).

Basketball is by far the most physically demanding. The cutting, jumping, sprinting, body bumping, along with maintaining total body coordination and acute mental involvement left me more worn out than any of the other highly competitive endeavor.

Basketball requires one to maintain constant coordinated proficiency even when dog tired. That is not easy. You must not only run like crazy, but even when your body is screaming for oxygen you must still be able to dribble, pass and shoot accurately at the same time. Damn hard to do well. And yes, it's harder (outside of the contact) than football. Much harder.

Tommy Two Trees wrote:

And why does Golf only get a 6.00 for Hand Eye Coordination? Are you kidding me???? If anything should get a 10 on Hand Eye Coordination, it's golf.

I'd argue hockey for hand eye. moving body moving puck hit it. baseball as 9 moving ball steady body. 8 for gold steady ball and body. both basketball and football between 8-9 football being slightly higher since the qb is sometimes in motion along with the reciever while the hoop is always steady. although there is the arguement of a pass in basketball as well.

From 4th-hs I competed in baseball basketball and football. quit after 9th grade for track and xc which i eventually went to states for and got minimal scholarship money at D2 but still better then what i would have gotten in either of the other 3.

Strangely, they defined Durability as "The ability to withstand physical punishment over a long period of time" and yet they awarded distance running, which includes the marathon of course, 5.75 points!?!?! I understand boxing and a few other sports should rank higher. But 5.75 points? That puts it right next to softball for crying out loud! Softball, where 1/2 the game you're sitting on your ass in the dugout!

literalist wrote:

By the way, ESPN made some questionable choices. Let's look at middle distance running - for endurance they gave it a 6.00. For comparison auto racing got a 5.88, lacrosse 6.63, rugby 6.75, field hocky 6.75, etc. Obviously that reflects a poor understanding of the sport. There really isn't anything more to middle distance running other than endurance, speed, and power. Certainly a world class middle distance runner has more endurance than a comparable world class lacrosse, rugby, field hockey, or AUTO RACING athlete.

You must have a strange definition of "endurance" if you're saying that someone whose competition lasts just 2-4 minutes needs more endurance than someone whose competition lasts hours. Perhaps you're confusing endurance with aerobic capacity? Two different things.

News Media and Entertainment own TV and could care less about athleticism, doping, and scripted sports. They love fakes like Lance Armstrong and Mark McGwire. They put on fake UFC and MMA plays. They put on doped up MLB and NFL stunt programs. Surprisingly, even the corrupt BCS matchups are fake shows but the athletes may be the least doped up of all, or so they say.

kohlberg wrote:

You must have a strange definition of "endurance" if you're saying that someone whose competition lasts just 2-4 minutes needs more endurance than someone whose competition lasts hours. Perhaps you're confusing endurance with aerobic capacity? Two different things.

Good point. ESPN should have included "aerobic capacity" in their list. They included "strength" and "flexibility". So why not aerobic capacity? It's one of the three measures of fitness (along with strength and flexibilty)

literalist wrote:

Article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills

Ohhh my Goodness!!! That is the most biased list I have ever seen. Rugby, Soccer, Lacrosse, and maybe Handball should be higher up, and if Baseball is ranked so high, shouldn't cricket be up there as well? Actually I don't think Football should be on the list at all... Way too many positions! That is like combining T&F into one category which would put it up there as the most difficult sport. I do like that they put the martial arts, boxing, and wrestling up in the top 15.

CURLING:

strength:10

agility: 8

stamina:10

Curling is the most athletic of sports. BOO YEAH!!!!