Running requires no skill

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Kind of a meaningless thread. If true, the implication is that all distance runners are bad athletes which isn't true. I had teammates in HS that were all-stars in Little League and others that started for the basketball team during the winter. I heard that Frank Shorter was a power hitter in LL.

NO, all distance are not bad athletes, they just chose a sport that requires NO skill. Period. End of Story.

That'd be like saying without the actual throwing of a bowling ball, that at the walking up the to alley is a skill. After all, you have to time your steps. You have to breathe right, etc. All hogwash. In bowling, the skill is the throwing of the ball at the pins.

In running, there is no such skill. It's just the running. Which is fine, but don't try and say there's skill involved.

Dictionary definition is the ability to do something well. I would argue that it takes way more skill than other sports based on that definition. The 13 flat distance guys will never be beaten by a 14 minute guy but a world class golfer could be beaten by a decent college player on a given day. The same holds true for basketball or football or baseball. There is more clear separation in the sport of track and field than most other sports so it takes more skill based in the definition.

Agreed

High emphasize on persistence determination and tolerating (pain).

Predictor wrote:

Dictionary definition is the ability to do something well. I would argue that it takes way more skill than other sports based on that definition. The 13 flat distance guys will never be beaten by a 14 minute guy but a world class golfer could be beaten by a decent college player on a given day. The same holds true for basketball or football or baseball. There is more clear separation in the sport of track and field than most other sports so it takes more skill based in the definition.

Nice try. But there's no way in hell a ham and egg golfer beats a pro. You show your ignorance.

And you are confusing effort, 1000s of hours of training, and maybe genetics which explain one being fast. It's not skill. Or maybe a tiny, less than 1 percent of it is skill. The rest is all training, discipline, genetics, etc. Sure in a marathon, you might argue a skill is running tangents, but that's a stretch.

C'mon dude. It's okay. I love running too. I just don't delude myself with the notion I do something skilled.

Go read marathon threads, what is talked about on how to improve? It's not skill. It's "fueling", running more miles, being consistent. See any skill there???? I didn't think so.

Most skilled to least skilled:

Baseball (hitting a curve ball)

Football

Hockey

Soccer (Futbol)

golf

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

triathlon

discus

hurdles

javelin

hammer

decathlon

bowling

archery

cross country skiing

cycling

curling

figure skating

speed skating (running on skates)

100M

5K

10K

Mile

Marathon

About right????

You ever see folks trying to run at Kipchoge's MP? They look like they lack skill.

Nah wrote:

C'mon dude. It's okay. I love running too. I just don't delude myself with the notion I do something skilled.

.

That's because you are not skilled at it.

No, you're making it sound as if they choose running because it doesn't require "skills". They focus on running because that's where they have the most talent. This thread imply that running is the home of bad athletes and it's not.

You pace yourself and apply timing in every other sport too.

The difficulty of running is that it's a grind to become truly proficient. It doesn't hurt that you status is very easy to read since its a matter of time vs. time. An average baseball player can still do great things with the right team, but an average runner will always be demonstrably average. It's a guarantee, barring talent/genetics, that you have to hamper down with your training-which most aren't willing to do.

For baseball, you can add 100mph fastballs, sliders, change-ups, splitters and cut fastballs. I agree batting is the toughest task in sports. In a fraction of a second the batter has to decide if it's going to hit him in the head, identify the pitch and location and decide whether to swing.

This is really a silly debate. Sure, hitting a baseball is very difficult. But some of the best batters in baseball have beer bellies. Golf takes a ton of dedication and practice to be able to hit all the shots needed to win a tournament. But Tom Watson was just one shot from winning the British Open at the age of 59. The fact is that every sport requires a high level of training and dedication. Whether that training and dedication is focused on fine tuning movement and strength to hit, throw or kick a ball or is focused on pure speed or endurance does not make one sport superior to the other.

I think you are addressing a "problem" that does not exist. Who would ever claim that distance running or even sprinting is a highly skilled sport??

Precious Roy wrote:

This is really a silly debate. Sure, hitting a baseball is very difficult. But some of the best batters in baseball have beer bellies. Golf takes a ton of dedication and practice to be able to hit all the shots needed to win a tournament. But Tom Watson was just one shot from winning the British Open at the age of 59. The fact is that every sport requires a high level of training and dedication. Whether that training and dedication is focused on fine tuning movement and strength to hit, throw or kick a ball or is focused on pure speed or endurance does not make one sport superior to the other.

Man I read your posts and you have a severe lack of reasoning ability.

You can have a beer belly and still be VERY skilled. Now you are not physically fit, but you are skilled. Look at dart throwers, that's a freakin bar sport, but it requires a high level of skill, but zero strength, speed, endurance.

A thread bogged down by commenters' inability to agree on what they mean by "skill". Semantic contortions abound. That sounds like a skill but it isn't. More like running with your shoelaces tied together.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

No Skill Needed wrote:

NO, all distance are not bad athletes, they just chose a sport that requires NO skill. Period. End of Story.

That'd be like saying without the actual throwing of a bowling ball, that at the walking up the to alley is a skill. After all, you have to time your steps. You have to breathe right, etc. All hogwash. In bowling, the skill is the throwing of the ball at the pins.

In running, there is no such skill. It's just the running. Which is fine, but don't try and say there's skill involved.

No, you're making it sound as if they choose running because it doesn't require "skills". They focus on running because that's where they have the most talent. This thread imply that running is the home of bad athletes and it's not.

I think your insecurities are causing you to see things that aren't there. I'm not bashing runners at all. Just stating the obvious, which is; being an elite runner is not correlated to being a skilled athlete. It's correlated to being a dedicated, driven athlete.

Take baseball, very high skill level required.

However, not much athletic ability required for many of the positions.

Running seems to be the opposite.

Ostensibly running seems to require no skill. It's just conditioning right? Maybe that's why runners who dope get so much flak, while nobody cares that football, baseball, soccer, etc. players are doped to the gills. Would you say that swimming requires no skill? It's just a carefully orchestrated firing of muscles at exactly the right time; One could argue that running is the same thing. You don't pay as high a penalty for poor form in running, but there's more to it than just having a high VO2 max and LT. If you ever watch a road race where the elite women are running alongside sub-elite men, you can definitely notice that the elite women are running way more "skillfully". But yeah, If I could throw a ball, I never would have gotten in to running.

No Skill Needed wrote:

It's correlated to being a dedicated, driven athlete.

Yes, to sharpen your skill, just like every other sport requires the same.

If running didn't require skill everyone could just fake the movements required and show the essentials needed. But they can't.

the pacing requires skill