Reply to Just how good would US nat'l soccer team be if our best athletes played soccer?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=asksoccernova]Would we develop more elite golfers if all of the greatest US athletes chose golf?

Not necessarily. They would still have to become a great golfer in addition to becoming a great athlete. You still have to become a great golfer to be a great golfer.

There are only so many hours in the day - how many hours do you devote to improving pure athleticism and how many to improving your skills? [/quote]

Of course we would!  Are you saying if every kid practiced golf as a kid, none of the new kids would become elite?????  Doesn't make any sense.

[quote=asksoccernova]In soccer, the reason for this is that the ball moves faster than the players - the greatest sprinter cannot outrun a soccer ball on a sprint. The greatest endurance athlete cannot outrun a soccer ball over 90 minutes. The greatest high jumper cannot jump higher than a ball can be kicked. Athleticism will help with some types of game situations, but your skill on the ball will have more of an effect on the outcome. There are 22 players on the field and only 1 ball, so a lot of the game is about timing, team shape, principles of play such as width, support, coordinated movements, and transitions. These elements of team play have very little to do with individual athleticism. In fact, one strategy when playing against athletic players that want to pressure is to wear them out by passing the ball around the field and make them chase it all over the place.
 [/quote]

So you are saying in football, basketball, baseball, etc., the ball moves slower than the person?  All of these sports also have one ball and a lot of the game is about timing, team shape, principles of play such as width, support, coordinated movements, and transitions.  Football even has the exact same 22 to 1 ratio.

In this country, most people don't watch soccer on tv.  Making it pro in basketball, football, or baseball means big bucks even at the league minimum.  Not so with soccer.  True, in general, baseball players probably wouldn't make good soccer players, but to say that not a single one of them, if they had trained in soccer their whole lives, wouldn't be an elite soccer player is idiotic.  Football would have more that could have been elites in soccer and basketball would have quite a few.  I'm sure there would even be some in these sports who maybe went to college, but didn't turn pro, who maybe soccer would have been their sports if they would have trained in it as a kid.  Of course it's not true to say that only those who picked and stuck with soccer as a kid could be any good at soccer.[/quote]

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