Soccer players would be the best distance runners, and NFL players would be the best sprinters

800m

Actually soccer players would be better 400 runners at best. There was just a piece of research out yesterday that showed at the World Cup how often play is stopped.

Care to guess?

Every 58 seconds they stop play and stand around. They could not be distance runners and take a break every 58 seconds.

0/10, and that's including considering my setting-you-straight reply.

Have you ever seen the "football 4x1" relay race at a D1 track meet? They get smoked! Every. Time. Zero contest against pure sprinters. Not. Even. Close.

For football, players have to be fast--as in, "not slow"--and be able to take a hit. Multiple hits, actually. That bulk needed for protection is a curse on the track.

I'd be surprised if your average football 4x1 " team" could keep up with the best female 4x1 teams in college.

I'll wait patiently for your list of high-profile soccer players turned world beaters in distance running. Try to not come up with great runners who happen to have kicked a soccer ball once in their lives.

And before you slobber at the mouth as you type, "but Galen Rupp...", he wasn't a high-profile soccer player.

I would say there is far more sprinting talent in Futbol than Football. There is perhaps 50 guys in football that can become good sprinters while there's around 500 futbol players that can become good sprinters. In futbol, you have a combination of guys that would be excellent short sprinters, long sprinters, 800 meter types, 1500 types, and 5000 types, while in football you have short sprinters, few long sprinters and thats it.

Don't mention NBA and speed. Tennis players are much quicker.

this never stops wrote:

0/10, and that's including considering my setting-you-straight reply.

Have you ever seen the "football 4x1" relay race at a D1 track meet? They get smoked! Every. Time. Zero contest against pure sprinters. Not. Even. Close.

For football, players have to be fast--as in, "not slow"--and be able to take a hit. Multiple hits, actually. That bulk needed for protection is a curse on the track.

I'd be surprised if your average football 4x1 " team" could keep up with the best female 4x1 teams in college.

I'll wait patiently for your list of high-profile soccer players turned world beaters in distance running. Try to not come up with great runners who happen to have kicked a soccer ball once in their lives.

And before you slobber at the mouth as you type, "but Galen Rupp...", he wasn't a high-profile soccer player.

Dude, you totally misconstrued everything. SMH

I'm talking about against other athletes in contact sports. not them going up against track and field athletes.

Learn to read.

football players would be the best sprinters and soccer players would be the best distance runners.

Not even close wrote:

I would say there is far more sprinting talent in Futbol than Football. There is perhaps 50 guys in football that can become good sprinters while there's around 500 futbol players that can become good sprinters. In futbol, you have a combination of guys that would be excellent short sprinters, long sprinters, 800 meter types, 1500 types, and 5000 types, while in football you have short sprinters, few long sprinters and thats it.

Don't mention NBA and speed. Tennis players are much quicker.

Bob Hayes is the only football player to win a 100m gold medal and a superbowl , and was the fastest man in the world

at one point. Technically, he was the first to go sub 10

Herschel Walker was a great sprinter at Georgia.

Willy Gault is the best master sprinter in the world, and was a great sprinter in college before playing for the chicago bears

A lot of football players run track in high school and college, and I think the fastest football players would smoke the fastest soccer players in sprinting. I would probably give soccer players a CHANCE at 400m, but 200m on down all football players.

sbeefyk2 wrote:

Actually soccer players would be better 400 runners at best. There was just a piece of research out yesterday that showed at the World Cup how often play is stopped.

Care to guess?

Every 58 seconds they stop play and stand around. They could not be distance runners and take a break every 58 seconds.

I would have to disagree. I just think due to their training per week, and the mileage that they cover, other contact athletes wouldn't be able to compete against them in distance running.

100-200m:

1.football

2. basketball

3.soccer

400m:

1.football

2. basketball

3. soccer

800m

1. basketball/soccer

2. football

1mile on up

1.soccer

2.basketball

3. football players ( no chance in hell)

Please. Walker is as fast as high school kids. All these guys are waay slower than a random futbol player like Gemili, who's run under 10.00 and under 20.00. Hayes is silly hand timed crap and much slower in the 200. Futbol players hands down. You're crazy to think otherwise.

Soccer players would win 800 and up. They would compete at 400 and 200 but wouldn't necessarily win every time. Some forwards have some incredible speed. Now of course there will be some outliers in every sport that can dominate each distance but the average soccer player would beat the average athlete at any distance 800 and up.

Dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen a lot.

crazyathletes wrote:

Soccer players would win 800 and up. They would compete at 400 and 200 but wouldn't necessarily win every time. Some forwards have some incredible speed. Now of course there will be some outliers in every sport that can dominate each distance but the average soccer player would beat the average athlete at any distance 800 and up.

I agree with this. I just give basketball players a chance here, because I don't think they would have a chance anywhere else. But, yeah, middle distance on up, soccer players would rule.

You don't seem to know much about soccer. Or football. In that 6-8 miles or whatever soccer players *move* during a match, there's a lot of shuffling, followed by short intense sprints. An 80-meter effort is rare. As are all-out efforts. Being fit for soccer makes you fit for soccer and little else. Football players (the few that actually run) mostly never run anywhere near all-out. In conclusion, stupid thread.

You're a joke dude. There are SO many more sub 11 football players than futbol players. That's just fact.

Many soccer players would be good sprinters, see ex-pro footballer Adam Gemili, or Kabange Mupopo, pro 400m runner and captain of the Zambia women's national team.

The World Cup match statistics on the FIFA website show how much time players spend in each range (walking, jogging, running, sprinting) so you can see for yourself what mix of speeds different players and positions run.

galenruppisgod wrote:

You're a joke dude. There are SO many more sub 11 football players than futbol players. That's just fact.

Agreed. I would say about 60 percent of WRs and Running Backs could run under 11 seconds.

They would easily beat nba and soccer players in the sprints.

Hardloper wrote:

Many soccer players would be good sprinters, see ex-pro footballer Adam Gemili, or Kabange Mupopo, pro 400m runner and captain of the Zambia women's national team.

The World Cup match statistics on the FIFA website show how much time players spend in each range (walking, jogging, running, sprinting) so you can see for yourself what mix of speeds different players and positions run.

But they would still be no match for WRs or running back Backs, too many of them run 10 seconds

Top 100 nfl players who ran sub 11...list is crazy

Herschel walker ran 10.23

I’m surprised Devin Hester’s time is only 10.62

Deion Sanders ran 10.26

Bottom line soccer players would get smoked.

FWIW, a friend of mine is an exercise scientist who spent a couple of years working for an EPL team. This was about 5 years ago now.

In pre-season training (July) the club did a couple of 3 mile time trials on a 400m track. My friend reported that several of the players ran 15:xx.

Now this obviously isn't world class or anything, but considering that elite soccer players do little sustained long distance training, it does show many have the ability to run some decent times.

Hardloper wrote:

Many soccer players would be good sprinters, see ex-pro footballer Adam Gemili, or Kabange Mupopo, pro 400m runner and captain of the Zambia women's national team.

The World Cup match statistics on the FIFA website show how much time players spend in each range (walking, jogging, running, sprinting) so you can see for yourself what mix of speeds different players and positions run.

Missed the point...

Yeah, like a quarter walking, a quarter jogging, and less than half at "fast." Like I said.

All of these are %s of, roughly on average, about 6 miles. What I don't see quantified are the periods between efforts. Anway, it doesn't matter...I've played soccer for 15 years. A full full-on match is a large physical effort, but it doesn't translate in any way that I can see into running disciplines. Saying soccer players would be good at distance running, moving immediately over, is baseless and pointless to argue. The fact that some people who played soccer at high levels are also good at running has nothing to do with anything. Of course there are actually fast people among soccer players...and among football players and basketball players...and swimmers and badminton players....so? Training for and playing soccer does not make you ready to bomb your local 5k or 10k or whatever. It's a different kind of fitness.

Reality is real wrote:

FWIW, a friend of mine is an exercise scientist who spent a couple of years working for an EPL team. This was about 5 years ago now.

In pre-season training (July) the club did a couple of 3 mile time trials on a 400m track. My friend reported that several of the players ran 15:xx.

Now this obviously isn't world class or anything, but considering that elite soccer players do little sustained long distance training, it does show many have the ability to run some decent times.

They're world-class athletes who train for hours every day. So not totally surprising they're actually fit.

But "a couple" out of a 20-plus person squad sort of refutes the point.