Compare athletes to Decathletes to decide....

[uihawk82]

if they are very athletic. To finish off Vintage Hawkeye's Nascar drivers as athletes thread:

Golf, Bowling, and auto racing are not sports that require a lot of the normal athletic demands of running fast, jumping high and far, strength, but golfers, bowlers, and race drivers are mostly athletic in using strength, stamina, and the coordiantion aspects.

But they would never be called elite athletes.

I would compare an athlete in any sport to a decathlete to decide if their ranking as an athlete.

Jeff Gordon could not be a decathlete and almost all golfers, bowlers, and race drivers couldnt either.

But I bet Brian Urlacher and many basketball, football and baseball players could be really good decathletes.

Urlacher and a Ronnie Lott and many of these athletes, Michael Jordan, could have been excellent all around athletes.

 

[imported_ankle23]

if they are very athletic. To finish off Vintage Hawkeye's Nascar drivers as athletes thread:

Golf, Bowling, and auto racing are not sports that require a lot of the normal athletic demands of running fast, jumping high and far, strength, but golfers, bowlers, and race drivers are mostly athletic in using strength, stamina, and the coordiantion aspects.

But they would never be called elite athletes.

I would compare an athlete in any sport to a decathlete to decide if their ranking as an athlete.

Jeff Gordon could not be a decathlete and almost all golfers, bowlers, and race drivers couldnt either.

But I bet Brian Urlacher and many basketball, football and baseball players could be really good decathletes.

Urlacher and a Ronnie Lott and many of these athletes, Michael Jordan, could have been excellent all around athletes.

an athlete could most likely do any sport well. most athletes are all-around athletes.

lance armstrong is not an 'athlete' per se, by his own admission in one of his books. excellent endurance specimen, but no good at games using a ball/coodination.

 

[bcl20]

The fact that Michael Jordan went to AA baseball and hit .202 and 3 home runs and 17 doubles (while not impressive comparatively to other players who are professionals and trying to make the majors, it is still impressive in its own right) without ever really playing baseball since high school, shows how great of an athlete he was.

 

[gohawkz]

A great athlete will not automatically be able to play all sports. duh.. Athletes that are good at basketball might suck at football or baseball, etc.

But there is a huge difference between athletes who perform in sports that require physical exertion and those sports like you mention that don't. Those things require a skill and talent, kind of like knitting or chess. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that, people like watch them and there's nothing at all wrong with that. I actually love watching a good game of pool. That's enjoyable to me, but I know it's not a sport, it's a skill.

Right now I'm not in good shape. So even if I had the talent I would would not be able to play professional football or basketball. But if I had the skill, even today I'd be more than able to play golf or drive a car.

 

[528646]

Golf has got be my #1 LOL "sport". It's always struck me as a bit of a dorky pursuit - maybe a notch or two above "cosplay".

The most entertaining part about golf is every year around Masters time is watching/listening to grown men getting moved to tears just thinking about it! Oh and - listen...the theme music!! It's the Masters theme music! Oh God, here it comes! ::sniff::...it just makes you wanna... ::sniff:: ...I need a minute here...!

There are undoubtedly good athletes that happen to play golf, but not all golfers are athletes...by a long shot.