runn wrote:
There was a story (pre-social media so it was written word in a running magazine and back then there were a few).
When track first went pro, supposedly, a bunch of NBA and NFLers were training with a track club.
They weren't as good as they thought they'd be.
Long Jump, Triple Jump, High Jump, Shot/Disc are physically different than those sports.
I think Americans tend to think that a football/basketball player can automatically transfer their skills to track and field.
That isn't always the case, just like a track athlete can't automatically transfer their skills.
Maybe a few marginal pros tried this. Even back then there was way more money in the NBA and NFL.
The experiment the other way around of thinking world class speed would was all you needed to be a great NFL receiver didn't work out for those who didn't know the game. Renaldo Nehemiah found out the hard way about that. One of the first things a receiver needs to recognize if it is a man or zone coverage. Then you apply the principal, run through man and setup between zone. Unfortunately for him he tried to run through zone coverage and was leveled. With today's more protective rules regarding defenseless player and such, I wonder how successful he would be