Re: top athletes

[Kestas <Kestutis.Kveraga@Dartmouth.EDU>]

opi@unesco.org wrote:

> Interest. I guess I'd put basketball and soccer about even (after boxing). It seems to me you can > generally catch your breath playing soccer and even stand around a bit, unless you are a midfielder. 

Much less than in basketball of the NBA variety, which has 117 timeouts
each quarter, not to mention frequent foul shooting. NBA ball is
basically played in short bursts. Soon it will be like the NFL - 10
seconds of action sandwiched between 5 minute-long timeouts. 
  
> I think it takes a ton of conditioning to guard any good
>  player man-to-man over 92 feet, especially since you don't have to guard them in soccer if they run  
> "offsides".

No offense, Joe, but this reveals a lack of knowledge of soccer. Since
this is an inapropriate forum for lengthy discussions of non-Celtic
basketball matters, I'll simply say that your statement is erroneous in
many ways. E-mail me off-list, if you want an explanation.

> But definitely conditioning in soccer is probably as important as in man-to-man basketball, and I suppose > this may be why they call soccer managers "trainers" rather than "coaches". 

It's country/language-, rather than sport-specific. E.g., in Spanish,
it's "technical director". In American English, it's "coach", but to
Brits, it's usually "manager". In some other Euro languages, it's
"trainer". 

> I'm surprised the rules don't > allow more substitutions, along with reentr
> y into games after a substitution. That's definitely a tough rule. 

You can't change lineups in soccer the way you can in basketball and
hope to win. Well-coordinated team effort is paramount in that sport,
much more so than in the NBA brand of basketball, where iso's and
genetic freaks rule the day. 

> Still boxing has to demand the toughest conditioning regimen, because I just can't picture Antoine 
> getting out the door before 5:00am every morning to jog 10 miles, eat a light breakfast, weigh himself, 
> and then train pretty much all day long for months b
> efore each match.

Well, he has to play at least 82 games a year, not 2. Besides, in boxing
you're much more motivated to "play D" (which requires being in top
shape), as the cost of getting scored can be very tangible :)