The World's Best Athletes: Hockey Players
Although Pele could undress defenders with exquisite balance and precise ball control just before rainbowing himself and finishing a full volley in the top corner, his abilities do not match that of a man who skates at breakneck speed in small spaces while stick-handling a puck that wishes for nothing more than escape. Yes, Josh Hamilton can launch an endless string of homeruns into the New York night, but his skill set wanes in comparison to the toothless veteran streaking past the blue-line whose slap shot eclipses 95 mph. And even the immortal Joe Montana, who guided countless comebacks from South Bend to San Francisco with an effortless eloquence and a rifle for an arm fails to equal the grace of a Canadian-born rookie cutting the freshly zambonied ice before slamming the opposing center into the boards and earning the icing call.
Simply put, professional hockey players represent the best overall athletes the world offers. While devoted football, baseball, soccer, and basketball fans would generate compelling arguments that support their sport's dominance, one just cannot debate the true condition, dexterity, and skill a hockey player requires versus his professional counterparts. Physically, these athletes must possess Adonis-like strength and the speed of a cheetah; no beer bellies or slugs allowed on the ice at Madison Square Garden. Skill-wise, they must have the pure balance and grace of a prima ballerina and the hand-eye coordination of the most accomplished top gun pilot. On top of that, they must be mentally tough, mean, and willing to sacrifice their body to the lightning quick puck or the hard charging beast of a man who wants to paste them permanently into the glass.
While taking nothing away from the obvious talents of other professional athletes, not as much is demanded of them. First basemen can routinely fail to see their own belt buckles and would have trouble defeating their own shadow in a race. Linemen, while quick for their size, have the endurance of the eighty-six year-old woman stricken with emphysema playing the slots at Mohegan Sun. And world-class forwards, those who draw drunk and sober fans alike to the pitch, maintain the true upper body strength of a prepubescent boy who was forced to take his shirt off at his middle school crush's pool party. They all succeed within the confines of their own sports, yet none hold the raw ability and trained skill across the dynamic athlete spectrum as the hockey player.
Hockey will never receive the respect it feels it deserves here in the United States, nor should it. Our country's athletic cornerstones appear in towns in Florida and Arizona when pitchers and catchers report during February, and in tailgating parking lots each Sunday of stadiums so massive that they could hold all of Rhode Island's residents. NBA basketball and its annual lottery that insures that some thug will make millions draws countless fans, and the final round of even the smallest professional golf tournament captures the interest of more people than hockey ever will. However, although it will probably never reach the status in the American sports landscape that tennis or WWE wrestling cherishes, the point is simple: hockey players are the fastest, strongest, and most skilled athletes in the world.
Published by Kurt Simonsen
A single dad raising two little girls and loving it...and hoping they do too. Teaching English by day, my nights and summers are spent writing about what comes to mind, grading thesis papers until my eyes cr... View profile
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18 Comments
Post a CommentI played both hockey and soccer for a small community college and can speak about the nature of both sports as I have played them both a good deal. Even though I was a better soccer player my true love will always be hockey (with ping pong a close second!. There is simply no sport today as intense, or requires so much skill as hockey. The speeds at which hockey players operate are well above the average speed of an NFL running back. Pucks can be passed across vast distances in milliseconds. In brief hockey players have far less time to react than athletes in other sports. The skill set required for hockey is overwhelming: Skating, stickhandling, passing, shooting a variety of shots, hitting, hit-ducking, cardio, speed, afility, iron nerves. Hockey players are definately the best athletes in the world.
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Right on Simonsen. Finally stumbled upon someone with a straight head on their shoulders. Funny enough I am about to write a brief essay regarding the same argument for an English assignment. The answer to any other sport's argument: DO IT ON ICE! Yeah that's what I thought, hockey players are by FAR the best athletes.
Not even close. You made that assumption from my profile picture...smiling white guy. So who is in the wrong now? I see no need to defend who I am, but you have taken an issue about athletics and given it an inappropriate social context, which fits your own agenda, not the article's. Before openly flapping your lip about an issue, read closely for what it is, not for what you want it to be. Hurling blind insults makes you shallow and lacking purpose, which is precisely your portrayal.
Daniel,
Uninformed and sadly deficient in making your sweeping assumptions. You couldn't be more inaccurate, but I can probably expect nothing less from a person whose back must ache from carrying around the enormous metaphorical chip you must own. Upset about the thug comment? Too bad. The NBA is home to many, and it isn't racial, so don't be so simplistic as to make that claim. It is the way a person acts and portrays himself, not in the color of his skin. Allen Iverson is a thug, but is David Robinson? Is Vince Carter or Elton Brand? No. Thugs exist across all sports, and, to be entirely honest, the term probably best relates to the hockey players, who are freely permited to fight and act "goonish" all the time. So please don't impose a racial spin on something not, in the context of the actual discussion, intended to do so. Failure to recognize that is simply a result of your blinders and preconceived notions, or an ever-present need to to divide. Stupid and spoiled? No.
(continued from below...) whose midfield will cover on average 35km, whilst tackling, handling and kicking an oval ball on a pitch 4 times the size of an NFL pitch.
I always struggle with articles like this, as at the end of the day, underlying preference affects the arguement. So kudos for Kurt for putting his down so eloquantly. Each sport has its own nuances and requirements of skill and physique, are NFL players supposed to be able to last longer than the 10 seconds of a play before getting a minute breather, yet achieve so much in that time? Do first base men need to be in perfect physical shape, or just have honed reactions and a great arm? Soccer players don't need large muscles in a low contact sport that requires subtley and finesse? So how can you compare athleticism. Is Usain Bolt the ultimate athelete as he can run the 100m in 9.58s or is it Kenesisa Bekele, who holds all of the middle distances records. Each are unique, as are hockey players, football players, soccer players and baseball players.
For me and my personal preference and what I have witnessed, it is Australian Rules Football Players, whose midfield will cover on avera
Well said, JV. Hand any hockey player a basketball and within a couple of days they will be able to dribble, shoot and maybe do layups and dunks if they happen to possess the random gene that gives B-ballers an advantage that's got nothing to do with athleticism.
This sport favors raw height too much. You can count the normal sized basketball players on one hand.
On the other hand, put an NBA player in skates for the first time and they'll fall on their behinds.
Anyone who has dribbled or shot a basketball can at least relate to the sport even if they're lousy at it. Hence the popularity of the game.
People can't relate to hockey unless they try playing it, and few do.
The only sport I've played that is harder than hockey is water polo. In hockey if you can't skate you just fall. In water polo if you can't tread water for an hour, you die.
(continued from below) ... for it's ease of use, they're just not hockey. Consider this: there are at most 10 players in the entire NHL that couldn't have excelled in any major sport (due to their extraordinary height), and the same cannot be said for any other professional sport. Lastly, I'd like to point out that there's only one way to appreciate what hockey players do: go try it. And I don't mean skate or stickhandle a ball in the garage, I mean play competitive hockey (which requires both at the same time at high speeeds in traffic while being expected to know where everyone else is and will be) 3x a week for a few months, something I don't think Sports Nerd has ever done.
This article couldn't be more true. I've played just about every sport competitively, and playing hockey well is more completely demanding than any other sport, hands down. Obviously, other sports require an unbelievable amount of strength, endurance, etc., but none of them require a great deal of everything. Then, you add the elements of hockey that are not a part of any other sport and you've got a game that is so very difficult to master that most people can't or don't wish to follow it as a spectator. Everyone's talking about boxing and yes, boxing requires more of a few elements of athleticism and they are remarkable athletes, but it's so straightforward and one-dimensional, and no team or "season" to endure (not like hockey or basketball, at least). Soccer, basketball-- I have a tremendous amount of respect for what they do. But without full contact, boards, and being played on the same two feet you were born to walk and run on and with a ball that was designed for it's ease of u