[quote]dhickey wrote:
Tallguyy76 wrote:
Airtruth wrote:
Tallguyy76 wrote:
dhickey wrote:
Schwarzfahrer wrote:
I catch your drift but different sports select for different mental and physical attributes. This is why I don’t get it when people compare all athletes to American football players. I have seen maybe 2 legit two sport pro athletes. Bo Jackson and Deon(sp)Sanders and they were mediocre at baseball.
Guys like Tony Gonzalez and Terrell Owens are better then average but nothing special when they dabble in basketball. Fedor is a world Sambo champion, Matt Lindland is an Olympic silver medalist, Yoshida is an Olympic gold medalist as was Kevin Jackson.
Couture and Dan Henderson were both Olympic alternates. There are several BJJ world champions. There are plenty of world class level athletes in MMA and they have had varying success.
How do you even define world class athlete? Depends on your sport. Lance Armstrong and Usain Bolt are both classifeid as elite athletes but their sports select for totally opposing physical traits.
I was reading a post on Elite FTS from The Thinker and he made a good point about the difference between being a physical specimen and having talent at your sport with Brock Lesnar being a prime example. He is a physical specimen but lacked the football talent to play in the NFL.
Just like guys like Johnny Morton or Bob Sapp lacked the talent to go far in fighting. In the end talent reigns supreme. Brock won last night because his talent for fighting was greater then Randy’s edge in experience.
Then there’s the mental component. People in individual sports tend to be EXTREMELY self driven overachievers. I know there are people with freakish work ethics in team sports but all in all people in individual sports just seem to be cut from a different cloth.
In fighting having 4.2 40, a 40 inch vertical, bench pressing 400 lbs are great but can you display that athleticism when your exhausted or getting punched in the face.
They compare athletes to American football because American Football uses the most athletic qualities of any sport within the multiple positions required to play the game. Offensive lineman tend to have very high IQ’s, quarterbacks have to be able to handle pressure situations, safety’s need endurance, strength speed, the ability to read a persons eyes, quickness, toughness, anticipation, and concentration. I’d put someone Polamulu athletic prowess up against anybody.
Did you even semi look at the crazy shit you just typed? Bo and Deon were average baseball players? How many people play ONLY baseball year round (including camps) and can’t make it to the pros? Making a pro team is not average, making a pro team as a side job is definitely not average. Your practically making the point for dhickey that MMA doesn’t have the genetic freaks, because at some point you do need skill to win, and if you have a genetic freak spending 6 days a week for 10 years on football, try wrestling or MMA for 3 months then lose a fight, he’s going to be like “fuck this it’s not meant for me”. Who knows what he may have done if he spent 10 years training.
My post was not a slide against the talent it takes to make the professional level of any sport. I meant compared to other baseball players at the elite level they were average. Would you call either hall of fame players? That does not detract from the fact that they were freak of nature alactic athletes and incredible football players. Would either win a marathon?
Would someone with the anatomy and physical talents of an NFL defensive end ever have the tools to beat Roger Federor in a tennis match? Linebacker? Eh maybe a corner? My point was that people gravitate towards sports they are naturally good at and at the elite levels competition selects those who have the most natural talent and gifts to succeed. You can’t use the same measuring stick for all athletes.
Would you rather be born with genes for being fast and explosive, or slow? Wouldn’t this translate to being good at your chosen sport if you applied the effort?
There are people that are given great athletic gifts. I would say anyone in the NFL. If more of these gifted athletes chose to persue MMA, we will see a better pool of fighters. Right now these athletes are, more often than not. chosing Football, Baseball, Basketball, or Hockey up here. This is the point. I am not sure how we got into tiger playing water polo or whatever you where talking about? You missed the point completely.[/quote]
Football players are given great athletic gifts to play football. Basketball players to play basketball. It’s not that interchangable. There’s a reason why the Eastern Bloc and now the Chinese screen athletes at a young age to see who has a natural inclination to what sport. Do you not agree that people that succeed in combat sports have gifts specific to their sports? Most say punching power is something you have or don’t have. A great chin? I get what you are saying that on average football players jump higher, are more explosive ect then MMA fighter and I agree.
The nature of their sport rewards people who are fast and explosive in an anaerobic alactic environment. My point that those traits are specific to the needs of football and talent in one sport or general athleticism does not guarantee success across the board. The sport chooses the athlete as much as the athlete chooses the sport at the ELITE levels.
