How insanely good pro athletes are...

[Peremensoe]

@adaher

Baseball is more a game of skill than physical gifts, so the difference in talent between say, a college team and a pro team is less huge. In fact, in spring training college teams play pro teams and sometimes even win. At the very least, no one looks ridiculous out there.

I see baseball as having the greatest skill margin between amateurs and top professionals, in the sense that the skill-development pyramid they have to climb is so big.

The reasons that ST games with college teams aren’t universally blowouts (though some are) are several: the professional team is mostly just starting to get in playing form, while the collegians are well under way–and the game means far more to them. The professional team is playing no more than half their regulars, and otherwise looking at their prospects (those guys partway up the pyramid). But mainly, baseball is a game of so many variables, team quality on any given single day is just a lot more theoretical than absolute. One guy’s great or lousy day, for either team, can be all the difference.

Besides, when was the last time any college team did beat any form of an MLB squad? I remember the Tigers having an ST game called a tie after 10 innings a few years ago and being embarrassed about that.

[adaher]

I’m just saying they don’t look ridiculous playing with the major leaguers. The pitchers get major league batters out and the batters make contact. Whereas if you put the worst NFL team against the best college team the college team would be immediately overpowered on the line on nearly every play.

That’s not to say you’re wrong about the skill differential, it’s just that baseball is a game of inches and small percentages.

[Lochdale]

The sport that truly mixes skill, power, speed and precision along with constant motion is football (soccer). It’s hard to explain how good the pros are. I’m a seriously good player even at my age and I can dominate a game. I’ve played against a number of players who made it in the upper echelons of the English game. The difference in talent is so vast that it’s like they are playing a different game. To make it simple, the key is their first touch. Changes everything.

[Shodan]

The author of the advanced judo instructional book Grips in the Ippon Masterclass series tells a story that illustrates the difference between the average judo player, and the world championship class player.

It was the heavyweight finals in the 1979 World Championships. Sumio Endo, Japanese multi-world champion, against Vitaly Kunetsov of the USSR. Endo was about 5’7" and 280 pounds. Kunetsov was 6’10’ and about 290. (Yes, those height figures are correct. Kunetsov was over a foot taller but only ten pounds heavier.)

Both men were penalized for stalling, Kunetsov up to one penalty short of disqualification and Endo one level lower, because both were so strong the other could not turn in for major throws.

In the course of the match, they tore apart four brand new, double weave canvas gi jackets, literally ripping them off each other with their grips. That is roughly equivalent to tearing up a new piece of sailcloth by pulling on it.

Endo finally won the title with harai-makikomi for ippon.

Regards,
Shodan

[Cheesesteak]

I have a judo story. At the time (college) I was a 1st class Brown belt, in good shape, and felt, without undue ego, that I was pretty good defensively. I was not much of an offensive force, but others found it difficult to throw me. Good balance, pretty quick reflexes, I was not too shabby.

Then, I practiced with Bill Shanahan. Not a world dominating competitor, but legitimately won the opportunity to train with the US Olympic team.

I think he threw me with the same throw (Ippon Seoi Nage) about 10 times in a row. Each time, taking about 1 second between grabbing my gi and when I arrived flat on my back. No cheapies where I’m sliding off his hip onto my side, either, we’re talking straight over the top. I’m thinking he felt his technique needed a bit of work, so he just kept doing the same one over and over.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

@Lochdale

The sport that truly mixes skill, power, speed and precision along with constant motion is football (soccer). It’s hard to explain how good the pros are. I’m a seriously good player even at my age and I can dominate a game. I’ve played against a number of players who made it in the upper echelons of the English game. The difference in talent is so vast that it’s like they are playing a different game. To make it simple, the key is their first touch. Changes everything.

Yeah. I’m not a huge soccer fan professionally speaking but as an American I played it for 18 years and I was considered a good keeper and played on some select traveling teams. Jesus Christ, when our team (this was early 1990’s) played a select team from Europe, particularly Germany, our whole team was humiliated, nobody moreso than me, trying to keep the damn ball out of the goal as they sliced through my team’s defenses and I cried for naught trying to assemble the defensive troops to form up.

[Animastryfe]

@Shodan

The author of the advanced judo instructional book Grips in the Ippon Masterclass series tells a story that illustrates the difference between the average judo player, and the world championship class player.

I have never heard of the term “player” being used to describe a martial arts practitioner. Is this term commonly used in Judo?

[Laggard]

I find that people consistently underestimate how good pros are at their profession. I worked with a guy who took a couple years of martial arts classes and was convinced he could hang in their for a round with Mike Tyson. I told him within two seconds he wouldn’t know what happened to him until he woke up in the hospital.

I did some road bicycle racing in the early 90s. I could probably easily have dropped 90% of recreational cyclists yet even a catagory 3 racer could drop me in an instant. It is simply impossible to describe to people just what a professional cyclists is capable of and just how amazing what they do is. I think it’s a sport where TV doesn’t do it justice. These guys are as comfortable on their bikes as you and I are sitting in front of the tv.

On a cycling forum once a guy wrote about accidently being allowed to ride on the course after the main peloton had passed on a wicked descent during the TDF. He said he was white-knuckling it down the hill at 50 only to be passed like he was sitting still by a pro, sitting up putting a jacket on.

[Shodan]

@Animastryfe

I have never heard of the term “player” being used to describe a martial arts practitioner. Is this term commonly used in Judo?

Yes, especially in connection with tournament judo.

[QUOTE=Cheesesteak]
I have a judo story. At the time (college) I was a 1st class Brown belt, in good shape, and felt, without undue ego, that I was pretty good defensively. I was not much of an offensive force, but others found it difficult to throw me. Good balance, pretty quick reflexes, I was not too shabby.

Then, I practiced with Bill Shanahan. Not a world dominating competitor, but legitimately won the opportunity to train with the US Olympic team.

I think he threw me with the same throw (Ippon Seoi Nage) about 10 times in a row. Each time, taking about 1 second between grabbing my gi and when I arrived flat on my back.
[/QUOTE]
I sparred with an All-Japan Police Champion once.

Not only did he throw me around like a basketball, but the annoying thing was he was looking around and giving instruction to other people while he was doing it.

Regards,
Shodan

[DKW]

Jocks are a strange breed. They spend tremendous amounts of time and energy using their immense physical gifts to develop highly specialized skills with little or no real world application, their main task is to humiliate others of their kind in front of large crowds, and those who succeed in this task receive money, prestige, and adulation. Make no mistake, the potential rewards are tremendous, but reaping them requires a perfect body and the right mindset, a formidable combination.

I remember someone who wrote to a sumo letter announcing his intention to try out for a stable. Physically he was fine; sturdy, well-balanced, and strong as a bull. But when it came time to get on the dohyo and actually compete, he learned that…well, he just couldn’t. He simply didn’t like smacking and grabbing other guys.

And that pretty much sums up my feelings. I don’t find it depressing that CroCop could punt me halfway to Maui or Lebron James could dunk over me, my sister, three of my nephews, and a strategically-placed recliner at the same time, but I am quite glad that I’ll never have to actually experience it. Of course, I’ve never been much of an athlete (the last game I was ever competitive in was Red Rover), so it was a lot easier for me to avoid any pretensions of grandeur than most of you, I’m sure.

I’ve been playing Virtua Tennis 3 a lot these past few days. It’s actually a pretty good reflection of what goes on during the actual tours, from the low-key Challengers events where the top players don’t give half a crap and sleepwalk through their matches, to the Grand Slam events where they play like their very souls are at stake. Now, I’m sure most of them are perfectly decent people off the court, the kind where, if I wouldn’t share a beer with, at least I wouldn’t mind holding open a door for or giving directions to the mall. But facing them, competing against them, with the only options being humiliating them or being humiliated by them, and the latter becoming more and more frequent the higher up the events went…there was some real, hard, harsh, painful resentment building. Real painful. And this is playing a character who’s their equal in terms of raw skills. If, for whatever bizarre reason, I ever had to do it for real, and every week Roger Federer or Andy Roddick or Gael Monfils had me flopping around like a fish in front of hundreds of witnesses, each failure prevening thousands of dollars from reaching my pocket, within the first month I’d probably be hatching murder plans.

[Shooby]

@DKW

But facing them, competing against them, with the only options being humiliating them or being humiliated by them, and the latter becoming more and more frequent the higher up the events went…there was some real, hard, harsh, painful resentment building. Real painful. And this is playing a character who’s their equal in terms of raw skills. If, for whatever bizarre reason, I ever had to do it for real, and every week Roger Federer or Andy Roddick or Gael Monfils had me flopping around like a fish in front of hundreds of witnesses, each failure prevening thousands of dollars from reaching my pocket, within the first month I’d probably be hatching murder plans.

The amazing thing about this to me is that even the difference between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick was substantial. Roger owned Andy in virtually all of the big events, and they were only ranked a few numbers apart among players all over the world (like #1 vs. #3+, depending on the year). Roger vs. a rank 30+ player was (and still is) almost trivial, with a few exceptions notwithstanding. And those exceptions exist because they’re typically streaky, inconsistent players who can play like a top 5 player on a very good day. An average rank 30+ guy just has no weapons to even hope to defeat him.

But that rank 30 guy would absolutely smash a rank 150+ guy without breaking a sweat, who would absolutely smash a good college team player, who would absolutely smash a lower-level college player, who would absolutely smash me. I probably wouldn’t even get a game off the collegiate guy, and to even think about what facing a pro would be like boggles the mind.

[hende]

I always found this story interesting about Jim Brown wanting to box Muhammad Ali.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000107277/article/jim-brownmuhammad-ali-bout-nearly-happened-in-1960s