Quote:
Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
I can't argue with someone who uses Michael Phelps to make a point about the dedication necessary to be a top ice dancer.
I get your point, and Hank's. I don't think ice dancing is equivalent to women's gymnastics. Are we going to talk about the fact that Bonnie Blair was on skates at two when we discuss men's curling? My point was that men's gymnastics is no doubt intense and rigorous. I dispute merely that it requires the same single-mindedness at age seven as is required of future female Olympians.
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Sidd's point (which he reiterates further down) is that women's gymnastics is not singular in this requirement. I think this is partially correct. Women's gymnastics, followed closely by women's ice skating, are particularly extreme examples in the US. It's not that people in other sports work out less, or with less single-mindedness, but they are, for whatever reason, much less likely to up and move across the country at age 8 to be near the right coach.
Putting those two examples aside, however, and there are multitudes of sports where people start training at a young age, even without a chance at the Olympics. I started swimming at age 5. The only thing that differentiated me from Michael Phelps was his natural talent. I worked out first an hour a day, then two (by the time I was 9), then four (high school, except for the years I played basketball, when I split the workout between the two, which cost me on the swimming side). I was never close to Phelps caliber. Hell, I was never really close to getting to compete on the national level. I gave up baseball to swim (but tried it). I gave up soccer to swim (but tried it). I gave up basketball to swim (but acknowledge that basketball was much better for getting the chicks, which is probably why I kept it up as long as I did).
I was working out with people almost on Phelps's level (at least they competed nationally); we managed to live what we considered normal lives. Full school schedules, homework, going out on Friday nights, etc. I would say that we worked out about the same amount of time per day as the football players, and no one would accuse them of failing to lead full social lives.
Athletics consume a huge amount of time out of the lives of a large portion of American youth. And that's okay. Because kids who don't spend four hours a day in the water (or four hours in the band hall, or the journalism office, or the debate room, or some combination thereof) spend those four hours in front of the TV.
