Sports requiring the greatest "athleticism"

[niremetal]

This is something I've always been curious about: What do people think the basic components of "athleticism" are? And what sports require the highest levels of it?

For the poll, I'm only including 5 sports as suggestions for the sake of simplifying things. I will accept "other" but suggest these arbitrary limitations. No sports that are basically ignored by the sports media in the United States (like rugby and cricket). No sports that typically only receive top billing on Sportscenter and in the sports pages during the Olympics or when someone breaks a record (e.g. swimming, triathlon, and track and field events). Also, the sport must require some level of hand-eye or foot-eye coordination beyond simply maintaining one's balance - ie this is limited to "ball" sports and their kin (e.g. hockey is good, but cycling and sprinting are not) and arguably boxing (which I didn't include as a suggestion, but you can use it as other).

I am leaving golf off the list because I can't imagine anyone picking it with a straight face. If you pick "Other," please write a comment with the sport and why.

Separately, I'd like to hear y'all's thoughts on what comes to mind when you hear the term athleticism? For me, the first things that come to mind are running, jumping, and ability to change direction. I also include strength, stamina, endurance, flexibility, and resistance to/ability to recover from injury. I do not think of (and therefore do not include) intangible things like mental toughness and effort, although those obviously are necessary to play a sport at a truly elite level. Similarly, I do not include physical attributes like height that cannot be affected by training. What would y'all include/exclude?

I recognize the relative importance of these attributes depends on whether you are talking about playing a sport recreationally, playing the sport professionally, and playing the sport at an elite level. Thus, I have two poll questions asking about people's views with respect to each end of the spectrum.

Based on my set of criteria, I picked tennis as the sport requiring the greatest athleticism to play at an elite level. You also need to be able to change direction constantly. To compete at a high level, you obviously have to be very strong and very fast (although I admit that you never have to run more than 50 feet or so in a single burst. Most importantly, the individual nature of the sport means that the entire physical burden of the match falls on a single person, who is necessarily involved in each and every play during a match. As a result, winning a 5-set tennis match requires simply phenomenal stamina and endurance.

I would say that soccer (any position except goalie) requires the greatest athleticism in order to play it without embarrassing yourself. In tennis, a recreational player can adopt strategies (eg serve and volley) that allow them to compete with other recreational players without embarrassing themselves. Far as I know, same is not true for soccer, although I admit that I play it sporadically at most. I just know that there was really no way for me to be useful playing it unless I was in pretty good shape.

Edited September 23, 2010 by niremetal

[DJlaysitup]

I would say that soccer (any position except goalie) requires the greatest athleticism in order to play it without embarrassing yourself. In tennis, a recreational player can adopt strategies (eg serve and volley) that allow them to compete with other recreational players without embarrassing themselves. Far as I know, same is not true for soccer, although I admit that I play it sporadically at most. I just know that there was really no way for me to be useful playing it unless I was in pretty good shape.

I remember (as an oldish fella) the first "superstars" competition on TV..where they had all the top athletes from various sports competing in sports other than their specialty. The Soccer dude won.

Top level soccer dudes have to be extremely athletic...like kicking a ball over their head...and have extreme endurance as well as quickness and skill.

Personally I prefer other sports - but I have to give credit where credit is due.

As far as FULL OUT athletics - I prefer the 100-200-400 meter races in the Olympics...but that requires little skill...so I'll go with a top level soccer dude. :kickcan:

P.S. - tennis is an awesome sport too - but the best athletes don't always get to play it. Soccer is the #1 sport worldwide and only requires a ball and a (fairly) flat piece of land....many African basketball players were also very good soccer players.

Edited September 24, 2010 by DJlaysitup

[APE]

I remember (as an oldish fella) the first "superstars" competition on TV..where they had all the top athletes from various sports competing in sports other than their specialty. The Soccer dude won.

Top level soccer dudes have to be extremely athletic...like kicking a ball over their head...and have extreme endurance as well as quickness and skill.

Personally I prefer other sports - but I have to give credit where credit is due.

I think soccer is more about technique than just flat out athleticism. Sure there's the Leo Messi's and the Ronaldo's but those are world class players.

There's also alcoholic Brits that can play in the best league in the world and not be great athletes like Rooney. And Peter Crouch who can just win balls in the air because he's 6'7.