How athletic are you?

LeeD

Bionic Poster
True Dat....
Fat Dave was always getting into fights, and needed at least a couple of backups around him at all the parties. I came on to the scene late, but was effective thanks to that dude Bruce Lee.
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
True Dat....
Fat Dave was always getting into fights, and needed at least a couple of backups around him at all the parties. I came on to the scene late, but was effective thanks to that dude Bruce Lee.
How big was that guy, Bruce Lee?
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Rumors go all over the map, but when I stood about 10th person away from him, maybe 25', it looked like he was 5'9" and 160 lbs., one year before he died. I"m sure he was in the 140's when in shape.
 

richardc-s

Semi-Pro
  • I'm 25 years old. 5ft11 and 220lbs. Around 14% body fat. Do a lot of gym work and play tennis twice a week. I hit the gym 4-5 days a week and my main lifts are...

Deadlift: 380lbs for 4 sets of 8.

Bench: Don't properly 'bench press' but I do dumbbell bench press with 95lbs dumbbells for 4 sets of 10.

Squat: Again I don't properly squat as it normally doesn't give me enough recovery time for my tennis sessions, but when I do squat it's 225lbs for 4 sets of 12. I've never tried a one rep max but could lift a lot more than 225lbs. 225lbs for me is a comfortable lift.

I rarely lift to my max but I've decided my strength is of no use to my tennis! I'm now in the process of cutting down to increase my speed and agility around the court. I think the 180lbs mark will be the perfect mix between aesthetic muscle mass and useable strength on the tennis court.

At present I look like a beast but my tennis is suffering for it! I'm essentially carrying around 2 stone (28lbs) of un-necessary muscle mass.
 

Coolio

Professional
Cleared 100inches on Standing Long Jump. Thought that was decent but did some research online with American Football players and that's pretty dismal in comparison.
 
S

Sirius Black

Guest
Cleared 100inches on Standing Long Jump. Thought that was decent but did some research online with American Football players and that's pretty dismal in comparison.

My bests have been a little over 9 feet, and I used to think that was pretty good. I have no idea how the college guys at the NFL combine do it
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
I could do 9' up till age 40, then it got progressively shorter and shorter until age 57, when I tore some tendons inside my left ankle, and haven't run one step since then...2007. I can only standing long jump barely over 6' now, at age 68.
High school record of 10' 2" stood for almost 20 year's, until I checked in 1985 or so, possibly a bit later, at it was stretched to 11'.
 

Dartagnan64

G.O.A.T.
I think this thread title is misleading. None of the leaderboards recognize athleticism, just fitness and strength. Athletes are who they are because they are more coordinated than the rest of us. They just add fitness and strength to be world class. But that innate coordination is really what makes them an athlete.

I can't beat any of you on the leaderboards anymore at age 52, but as for the OP's title, I would say I'm completely average athletically. If I excel at any sport its more due to my brains than my brawn.
 

navigator

Hall of Fame
If we're talking about pure, raw athleticism then you should've known the answer by the time you were 10 years old. In what order were you picked to play dodgeball, kickball, baseball, etc? How did you fare on the physical fitness exams? If you were always picked first then you're probably fairly athletic; always picked last, probably not very athletic; somewhere in the middle... you get the idea. Yes, as you grow, you can work to improve at athletic endeavours (and even surpass people with greater "gifts," to a point), but true "athleticism"... c'mon, you knew where you and others stood pretty early on in childhood. There was no great mystery.
 

onehandbh

G.O.A.T.
If we're talking about pure, raw athleticism then you should've known the answer by the time you were 10 years old. In what order were you picked to play dodgeball, kickball, baseball, etc? How did you fare on the physical fitness exams? If you were always picked first then you're probably fairly athletic; always picked last, probably not very athletic; somewhere in the middle... you get the idea.

In elementary school I was often picked last due to the fact that I was a very tiny kid. I think up until about 5th grade or so, I was usually the shortest kid in my grade in my school. When I entered high school I was only 5'2 or 5'3" and 110 lbs. Then I grew to 5'9" or so over the summer and continued growing for a few years until 6'.

I was, however, usually quicker and faster than most kids and did well on the school fitness tests. Was weaker than the other kids in terms of max strength, but not in strength to weight ratio.
 

Mongolmike

Hall of Fame
Dodgeball.

If you were good at dodgeball, you were probably more athletic than most.

That is:
#1- if you eagerly looked forward to dodgeball
#2- you didn't hide in the corners or "turtle up" just trying to survive to the end

You had to be quick, agile, and had a good throwing arm. Had to be able to catch while still being elusive.
Court awareness/vision was essential. Not afraid of competition or getting hurt was a must.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Good test, I was the best in grade school, the last time I played it.
Another good test, we'd split into two teams, 20 kids per. One guy starts as "IT", and has to tag the other's to get them on HIS team, as the two teams switch sides trying NOT to get tagged. It wasn't team vs team, it was one guy vs both teams. I was ALWAYS the last to get tagged, even in a crowd of 20+ active participants. Bunch of disinterested kids, of course, who didn't bother to chase me down.
 

Coolio

Professional
Standing Long Jump now up to 103 inches. Goal for Summer is sub 16 second Spider and 110inch Standing Long Jump.
 

Nadalgaenger

G.O.A.T.
Improving fitness can sometimes be boring so I wanted to have some fun with this thread and hopefully get some competition going with posters in an effort to make us all a lot fitter!

Make your case as to what makes you a good athlete. Like this guy:
Post your age and times over any distance/ bench press / squat/ high jump/ marathons, triathalons you have finished/ how many houses you can throw a football over/ anything that shows off your athleticism. It can even be from your past (LeeD). Then myself and other posters can try and beat it!
I will start.

LEADERBOARDS

1 Mile Run: Moz - 4min 23sec
2 Mile Run: Moz - 9min 32sec
100 Metre Run: WildVolley: 11secs
400 Metre Run: Bionic Slice - 47.9
800 Metre Run: Moz - 1min 55sec
Spider Run Drill: shinedemac 16 secs
Push Ups in a Minute: boramiNYC - 54
Standing Long Jump: Coolio - 93inches
Standing Vertical: WildVolley - 28inches
Lifting Heavy Stuff: T1000
Throwing Stuff over Mountains: LeeD
Chin Ups in a Minute: Coolio/shinedemac - 14
Sit Ups Completed in 1 minute:

Was Moz a track/cross country star in HS? Those times are ridiculous for a regular person.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Improving fitness can sometimes be boring so I wanted to have some fun with this thread and hopefully get some competition going with posters in an effort to make us all a lot fitter!

Make your case as to what makes you a good athlete. Like this guy:
Post your age and times over any distance/ bench press / squat/ high jump/ marathons, triathalons you have finished/ how many houses you can throw a football over/ anything that shows off your athleticism. It can even be from your past (LeeD). Then myself and other posters can try and beat it!
I will start.

LEADERBOARDS

1 Mile Run: Moz - 4min 23sec
2 Mile Run: Moz - 9min 32sec
100 Metre Run: WildVolley: 11secs
400 Metre Run: Bionic Slice - 47.9
800 Metre Run: Moz - 1min 55sec
Spider Run Drill: shinedemac 16 secs
Push Ups in a Minute: boramiNYC - 54
Standing Long Jump: Coolio - 93inches
Standing Vertical: WildVolley - 28inches
Lifting Heavy Stuff: T1000
Throwing Stuff over Mountains: LeeD
Chin Ups in a Minute: Coolio/shinedemac - 14
Sit Ups Completed in 1 minute:

I hit 8'6" easily in standing long jump when I was in my 40's. A fellow surfer, not a good one, did 9'2", at age 35 or so.
Never did less than 26 dips, ever, since junior high. Now maybe only 15 or so.
Did 42 in one minute for situps two year's ago, when I was weighing in at 144 lbs. Now, at 158 lbs., probably less. In junior high, in one minute, did 76 for most in school in one minute.
Worse 50 yard dash was 5.5 in junior high. That was on a dirt track in worn out tennis shoes, slipping and sliding my first 3 steps.
Still can't throw a tennis ball from baseline to over the other fence, certainly not in 67 degree weather and a strong side wind across the court.
 

MajesticMoose

Hall of Fame
Our tennis coach in high school would make us run 1.5 miles everyday before practice then condition and stretch for a solid 20 to 25 mins before we even struck a tennis ball. I was pretty fit into my late teen years but I'm almost 29 now and although I'm still pretty skinny, my fitness level has dropped dramatically.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
Lol, cuz it's fun to reminisce I'll throw down some numbers:
* (highschool) ran sub 5 min in hs (though at the time thought it was slow cuz i wasn't even placing... in the last 5 years, ran a 5:25 which for me is hella fast :p)
* (20s) benched 305 - never quite got to 3 pizzas on each side :( #only thing short limbs are good for
* (20s) squat 405 #only thing short limbs are good for
* (highschool) 19 pullups for West Point application exam
* (highschool) 86 pushups in 2m for West Point application exam # i've done this recently as well

don't think i was particularly athletic, since i got cut from most common team sports teams (baseball, basketball, soccer),... had to gravitate to sports where less folks got cut (due to less people playing it?): tennis, skateboarding, rollerblading, table tennis, lacrosse, diving, track, etc... never really excelled at any
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Strength and speed doesn't equate to athletic. Athletic is the ability to intergrate both, adding recognition, reaction, quickness, anticipation, desire, work ethic, quick learning, and ability to do it with a relaxed yet alert frame of mind.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
Strength and speed doesn't equate to athletic. Athletic is the ability to intergrate both, adding recognition, reaction, quickness, anticipation, desire, work ethic, quick learning, and ability to do it with a relaxed yet alert frame of mind.
yeah, but there no fun quantitative tests to measure recognition, reaction, quickness, anticipation, work ethic, quick learning, etc...
 

MajesticMoose

Hall of Fame

Drag racing at the local strip tests your reaction time but that's more or less the twitch movement in your right foot.

1st person shooters in video games like Halo. I was a big competitive Halo player years ago and I had pretty fast twitch reflexes. I feel like it helped my tennis game as well.
 

onehandbh

G.O.A.T.
Lol, cuz it's fun to reminisce I'll throw down some numbers:
* (highschool) ran sub 5 min in hs (though at the time thought it was slow cuz i wasn't even placing... in the last 5 years, ran a 5:25 which for me is hella fast :p)
* (20s) benched 305 - never quite got to 3 pizzas on each side :( #only thing short limbs are good for
* (20s) squat 405 #only thing short limbs are good for
* (highschool) 19 pullups for West Point application exam
* (highschool) 86 pushups in 2m for West Point application exam # i've done this recently as well

don't think i was particularly athletic, since i got cut from most common team sports teams (baseball, basketball, soccer),... had to gravitate to sports where less folks got cut (due to less people playing it?): tennis, skateboarding, rollerblading, table tennis, lacrosse, diving, track, etc... never really excelled at any

Those are some impressive lift numbers!

I don't think I've ever gotten close to your numbers except for the pullups. You benched more than I can currently squat. I can only squat about 225 for 4 or 5 reps now.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
Drag racing at the local strip tests your reaction time but that's more or less the twitch movement in your right foot.

1st person shooters in video games like Halo. I was a big competitive Halo player years ago and I had pretty fast twitch reflexes. I feel like it helped my tennis game as well.
my ~10y old kids & nephews kick my butt at Overwatch... that's the gratitude i get for getting them multiple xbox one's :p
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
yeah, but there no fun quantitative tests to measure recognition, reaction, quickness, anticipation, work ethic, quick learning, etc...

Of course! Which promotes ENDLESS discussion on just what makes a person an "athlete", and which person's should be chosen to be forced into a sports program for the benefit of their country.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
Of course! Which promotes ENDLESS discussion on just what makes a person an "athlete", and which person's should be chosen to be forced into a sports program for the benefit of their country.
at least it'll be more entertaining than holding/absorbing, or open serve - threads :p
chess, rhythmic dancing, curling, bowling... considered a sport to some... but not what i think about when I picture an "athlete" :p
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
at least it'll be more entertaining than holding/absorbing, or open serve - threads :p
chess, rhythmic dancing, curling, bowling... considered a sport to some... but not what i think about when I picture an "athlete" :p

Chess is an exercise of the brain, while the body is stressed in endurance and concentration.
The other's do require some amount of being an athlete.
Ballet dancer's are great athletes.
Bowling is all about repetition with exact body control....like golf, on the cusp of either.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
Chess is an exercise of the brain, while the body is stressed in endurance and concentration.
The other's do require some amount of being an athlete.
Ballet dancer's are great athletes.
Bowling is all about repetition with exact body control....like golf, on the cusp of either.
so you're saying, you consider one's chess skills, an indication of one's athleticism?
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Can't you read what I wrote?
Does everyone have to interpret what they read into more and more ideas?
Read the first sentence all by itself. What does it say?
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
Can't you read what I wrote?
Does everyone have to interpret what they read into more and more ideas?
Read the first sentence all by itself. What does it say?
are you always this pleasant when discussing/sharing ideas?
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Always, to guys who embellish onto what I wrote. Just read and accept, don't add your ideas.
 
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