Wimbledon 2018

Dirk said:
Considering my terrible state of fitness, i'd hate to sit on the sidelines and denigrate any particular athlete, or group of athletes. My own granny could probably outrun me at this point. :D

Tennis is largely burst effort rather than sustained. Five hours of Tennis, with it's myriad sprints, rapid changes of direction and overall work rate is grueling for anyone, and punishing on the body. I've never seen Novak look particularly fatigued though, and he seems able to keep going day in, day out with barely a sign that he's ever out of breath.

There are probably people who are fitter. Rowing and Cross Country Skiing are known to have the highest demands in terms of cardio output. Pro Cycling on a grand tour is mental for the GC contenders in the mountain stages. Any of those sports is trumps for sustained output, with the likes of Chris Froome being able to throw in short bursts of greater effort, even on top of the ridiculously high level already being put in.
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All that makes footballers sound like couch potatoes. :D
 
kinetic747 said:
All that makes footballers sound like couch potatoes. :D
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I hate to say anything good about football, but it's more about the skill set, control and reading the situation. There's not much skill in putting one foot in front of the other for hours on end like most marathons, for example.

For utter mind-boggling madness have a read about the Barkley Marathons:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley_Marathons

There's a great documentary about it which is a must watch too:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2400291/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Honestly, it's one of the best documentaries i've seen for a while. The sheer craziness of it all is impressive. There are ultra runners who go into the thing thinking they are the best in the world who pull out, half way through the first lap. The people who complete it, which are a very small group, are a different breed of animal!

"The Barkley is limited to 40 runners and usually fills up quickly the day registration opens. Requirements and times to submit an entry application are a closely guarded secret with no details advertised publicly. Potential entrants must complete an essay on "Why I Should be Allowed to Run in the Barkley", pay a $1.60 application fee, and complete other requirements subject to change. If accepted, an entrant receives a "letter of condolence"."
 
This conversation has got a bit weird but professional footballers can average between 10km and 12km over 90 minutes. Tennis players average hell of a lot less over far great time periods. Federer, for example, covered just over 2.1 miles in his 4 hour match against Anderson. It's a completely different kind of fitness, less walking/jogging, and more short sprints so you can't really compare the two.
 
Merlin5 said:
Lol, top pro footballers share their workrate with other team members on the pitch and they still can't even last 90 minutes.
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You do realise tennis players cover about a quarter of the distance of your average football player? Plus they're covering a much shorter distance each time they run. Half a tennis court is 39ft x 27ft. A football pitch is 300ft x 200ft and footballers in certain positions could conceivably cover that whole distance. I've played both sports at county level and football is more tiring, it's not even close. I'm sure a marathon 5+ hour tennis match is exhausting, but then a football match that goes into extra time is also exhausting. There's a reason footballers often pull up with cramp in extra time whereas you rarely see that with tennis players.
 
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