Running requires no skill

salted jock wrote:

I don't think I agree that running requires NO skill, but the skill floor to be a decent runner is a lot lower than other endurance sports like cycling, swimming, and XC skiing, let alone team sports like football and basketball.

Racing, for example, is a skill, or a set of skills. Technical stuff like adjustments to your stride, arm carriage, etc. also falls in the bucket of skill/technique. Fueling, if you run marathons and ultras.

Hate to break it to you and a little off-topic but running can and is a team sport. Cross Country is especially a team sport, but when I tell one of my runners that if they are not in at least 3rd place in a track event or the entire team will lose it feels like a team sport to that kid. That's for sure!!

I was going to mention this too. Oh, and sprinters learning to start out of the blocks is a skill.

This is what the so-called accuracy sports people (tennis, ping-pong, gymnastics) like to tell runners. Running is thought of as a sort of brute strength competition. But in fact, running does require a lot of fine neuromuscular skills. Brother Colm gave David Rudisha a lot of training on form and rhythm, and they can tell you that running the 800 certainly isn't just brute force.

Jkf wrote:

Yes, it is the sport that requires the least amount of skill

And, chiefly for that reason, the sport that is most easily manipulable by drugs, which is why it's not absurd at all for people like me to claim that the history of the sport for the last 30 years has been a sham.

The only competition it has in these two regards is bodybuilding, if you consider that a sport.

Also, sprinting does require a fair bit of technique, especially the training drills.

Anyway, the reason I love running now is because it's a simple measure of raw athletic ability that is easy to quantify and compare with others, even with other age groups. It feels good at nearly 50 knowing objectively that you are faster than most 18 year olds.

Perhaps if OP would work harder at developing the skill for running, OP would be a better runner.

3/10 for getting so many people to chime in.

Considering that you have a few thousandths of a second to position your body over the ground, absorb impact, apply force, transfer momentum, repeat - running well requires a great deal of refined skill.

Those who focus on refining this skill can run faster than those who don't.

Many runners have poor form, often with the arms. Some arms hang too low, some cross midline, and still others perform a horizontal swing like a grabbing motion. Solid, efficient form is a type of skill in running.

Renato Canova calls it extension, meaning extending a given pace for the same effort.

Motor skills are obvioulsly involved in this, but this is letsrun and thinking about stuff makes most posters' heads hurt.

Truly wondering wrote:

Isn't running the one sport that requires the least amount of skill? I can't think of any other sports that require less skill than flat out running. At least a steeple chaser has to time their jumps. But runners... one foot in front of the other.

Aside from discipline, hard work, consistency, and if you're lucky god-given running genes, there is nothing to it. Being able to train high altitude, doesn't hurt either I suppose.

Look at Secretariat...what made him great? Skill? Talent? NO. Upon autopsy, they found his hearts was 2X normal thoroughbred size.

I love running, precisely because of this. There is no skill. No talent. It's just a war of wills in a way.

I ran track throughout school, but it was more an after thought at that time, kinda ironic. Basketball and Football from experience are as much tactical as they are physical. If you've never been in a football film room or in a huddle listening to a play, or better yet, learning the playbook initially, it's a foreign language. As a Wide Receiver, the precise route running needed to separate from the defender, being able to identify defensive line ups, they're is so much that goes into every play. Basketball can look like street ball to somebody who's never played, but I was never good enough to make it look so effortless. Basketball plays can be pretty damn confusing due to the constant movement in play. The pure athleticism of hoops never fails to amaze me. It requires a level of aerobic conditioning mixed with power, strength, agility, and elite hand eye.

I never played soccer, lacrosse baseball,hockey, but I'd imagine all sports require alignments, zoning, identifying your defender's stance, their strengths and weakness, all very tactical.

Running lies somewhere between all sports. I was mentored as a young coach by a coach/runner from the Running Boom era. He ran D2 and set records in the Steeplechase, and is still a sub 40 10k runner in his late 50s. The more I learn about the sport, the specific training and specificity of race tactics, 100% takes skill. If you want to be great at this sport, it takes more than just going out and running 10 miles a day. The training demands are it's own beast, and that alone makes running it's own endeavor. It doesn't require hand eye, or agility (in most cases) but it requires a far different approach mentally than I found in any other sport.

Um, why do you think they call it practice?

You have a valid point there.

FlyingFast wrote:

This is what the so-called accuracy sports people (tennis, ping-pong, gymnastics) like to tell runners. Running is thought of as a sort of brute strength competition. But in fact, running does require a lot of fine neuromuscular skills. Brother Colm gave David Rudisha a lot of training on form and rhythm, and they can tell you that running the 800 certainly isn't just brute force.

No one ever has looked at running as brute strength competition. Running is thought of as a exhibition for near anorexic spindly legged betas, who have no skill for other alpha sports.

Perhaps wrote:

Perhaps if OP would work harder at developing the skill for running, OP would be a better runner.

3/10 for getting so many people to chime in.

Considering that you have a few thousandths of a second to position your body over the ground, absorb impact, apply force, transfer momentum, repeat - running well requires a great deal of refined skill.

Those who focus on refining this skill can run faster than those who don't.

Congrats, you just singled out the aspects of running that a precocious 7month old can master.

Way to slaughter your point.

about right? wrote:

Most skilled to least skilled:

Baseball (hitting a curve ball)

About right????

LOL .. Nope.

Running is one of the sports that requires the most skills.

Why?

Well if you happen to know some people who had an accident that lead them to dislearn walking you would know.

They can never walk again. It s too complicated. Only a child with a fresh brain can learn it.

It is also true that dogs will run faster than and won't ever beat you at chess.

It is also true that monkeys are way more agile than acrobats. And being an acrobat takes a lot of skill, won't you agree?

Actually even blinds who get to see later in life have problems seeing properly.

Once it is wired into your brain, a skill becomes intuitive like a computer program running. Like lacing your shoe.

Praise your brain for making it looking so easy. It s not.

From the shadows wrote:

Once it is wired into your brain, a skill becomes intuitive like a computer program running. Like lacing your shoe.

Praise your brain for making it looking so easy. It s not.

Great, so able-brained humans have the innate ability to run. Thanks. You proved my point again!

Seriously mate? wrote:

Having a heart twice the normal size IS talent.

Nahh...IS not talent.

It's a heart condition; Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Been Bekele requires skill

JunioRDc wrote:

Seriously mate? wrote:

Having a heart twice the normal size IS talent.

Nahh...IS not talent.

It's a heart condition; Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Nope. Hearts vary by size without any sort of problem causing it. His heart was huge from the beginning.

I can't remember the book, perhaps it was the Sports Gene, but they basically said that eyesight is the most important thing in baseball. To that end hitting is not as skill based as you think, but comes down to how well you can see the ball. The common thread between good hitters was all having excellent vision above the normal population.

Running skill and talent are the kinds of things we might call genetic, but most of these things are trainable. You can change footstrike or move to altitude if you are really dedicated. Knowledge and good training can offset a lot of what would be considered skill at any sport. With something like soccer it's clear you need to learn how to kick the ball well. Anyone can kick a ball, but soccer players learn to do it well. Anyone can run, but that doesn't mean people do it well. Most people who take up running have a high gear and a low gear and are totally lost at anything between the two. Many people end up never feeling comfortable in their lifetime varying speeds between a jog and a sprint. It takes a fair amount of trained skill to get your body right to run something like a mile race.