How to Measure Greatness?
Do you want to know who is the greatest athlete or the fittest sport? You can discuss this all you like, but the scientist in me says that you need to measure!
The components of fitness are relatively easy to assess, such as endurance, strength, power, speed, agility, flexibility and hand-eye coordination. There are a large range of fitness tests that can be conducted to assess the all round ability of an athlete in a range of fitness capacities.
However, a great athlete has much more than just great physical abilities. In addition, there are psychological factors, then many more minor factors which aid in making a successful athlete, including supply of equipment, opportunity for training, expertise in coaching and skill teaching, nutritional status, a good support network, funding plus much more.
List of Important Attributes
Of the many attributes that make a successful sports person, some are more important that others. Here are a few examples of lists of the most important attributes to success in sports.
- Components of Fitness — fitness is generally divided into these specific fitness categories or components that can be tested and trained individually.
- Sports Athleticism — athleticism encompasses all the attributes that make up a successful sports person. Here is a list of factors as determined by ESPN that are important for sports.
- Factors of Success — our list of the top 15 important individual factors to that are factors of success in sports.
Assessing Skill (and more?)
To assess a great individual athlete, you need to also measure their skill levels, though there are limited standardized tests that can be used for doing this. The Superstars and other TV based athlete assessments have incorporated skill based testing as well as physical tests in their assessment of the greatest athletes.
And that may not be all. There seems to be another factor called 'star quality', the combination of abilities and the way they interact to make a champion, that may be impossible to measure.
Related Pages
- Australia's Greatest Athlete
- Who is the Greatest Athlete of All Time?
- Fitness Testing for Sports
- What is the Fittest Sport?
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
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