I agree about the poker. I never said it was a sport, nor would I ever argue it is. My arguement is that race car drivers are not athletes. which they arent.
Well I guess we have to agree to disagree.. I think they are extremely athletic.
So I take it you wouldn't feel anyone in extreme sports would be an athlete either in your eyes.. if you can't see Race Car Drivers as athletes then you couldn't see some one riding a mountain bike, skateboard, motorcross racing, surfing, etc etc..
Seriously DRY..if you've never driven a car on a track then you can't really have any idea of how hard it is and how phsyically and mentally demanding it really is..... Professional Drivers are reaching the extremes of the physical and mental demands. In my book they are just as much athletes as Baseball, Football, and Basketball Players.
Please spend one day at a race school...drive a car and then come back and tell me they aren't athletes... I guarantee it will kick your ass and you'll be singing a different tune....
How do I know...because I thought the way you did once.. Then I experienced it and it changed everything I ever thought about it...
Last edited by myoung : Oct 22nd, 2005 at 10:40 PM.
Mikey, I wouldn't ever take away from the skills and athletecism it takes to mountain bike, skateboard or surf. Moto-x I might, depending on what kind they partake in. I would also not take away from the difficulty that is driving a NASCAR. I would, however, take away the notion that it takes any PHYSICAL exertion. I can understand that the mental energy needed is fucking insane, but physically I think I can drive an 8 hour day and not have soar muscles.
but physically I think I can drive an 8 hour day and not have soar muscles.
But that's not driving a race car in a cockpit thats well over 140+ degrees for 500 miles at between 170 and 200 mph with 40 other cars all around you..That's a lot different than driving your car with the radio on, the AC on..reclined in your seat with the cruise control on and a big Gulp in the cup holder.. oh and how many G's are you pulling on that 8 hour drive?
To me that's like saying I can throw a football around the yard, then I must be able to be a NFL QB... see my point?
Quote:
I would, however, take away the notion that it takes any PHYSICAL exertion.
Please try one of the race schools as I mentioned... I guarantee when it's over you will understand the physical exertion part.
It's official: NASCAR is not just a bunch of good old boys driving 'round and 'round in circles. In fact, judging by the revelations in "NASCAR: Driven to Extremes," America's No. 1 spectator sport just might be home to some of America's top athletic specimens.
You've got to be awfully tough, mentally and physically, to handle the demands of racing these days, and — God forbid — to survive a high-speed crash. To find out what it takes, and the whys and wherefores, neurosurgeon/CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta followed NASCAR teams on and off the track, interviewed researchers and doctors, trained in the pits and even got behind the wheel to scientifically assess the physical aspects of driving at high speeds.
It's amazing what you find out when Brain Surgeon meets NASCAR. Ladies and gentlemen, start your remotes.
• Um, Exactly How Does He Define "Caution"?: Drivers have to be incredibly fit, and not just to squeeze their bellies behind the wheel. A study found NASCAR drivers' hearts beat 120-150 times a minute during races — the same as serious marathon runners. Leading the fitness pack: Carl Edwards, who lifts weights, rides bikes, and competes on two separate racing circuits — Nextel Cup and Busch — frequently on the same weekend. Edwards burns 4,000 calories a day, and his car chief built the constant eater an in-car granola bar holder mostly as a joke. But guess who got the last laugh? "I still have to this day not figured out how he opens them with his gloves, sticks them through his helmet and consumes all his food during cautions," says car chief Pierre Kuettel.
• Does He Grade on a Curve? Or Just the Straightaway?: Those are real jocks working in the pit crews, too — they get as little as 14 seconds to put four new tires on a car and pump in 22 gallons of gas during a race. Phil Horton, who coaches pit crews for team owner Chip Ganassi, recruits former high school and college athletes, then puts them through football training camp-like drills to build agility and fitness. Being a neurosurgeon only gets you so far, apparently. After working with Gupta for awhile, Horton decides the good doctor could be legitimate pit crew material. In about a year-and-a-half.
• With So Little Stress, You'd Sleep Well Too: Gupta tracked Rusty Wallace the week of the Pennsylvania 500 to gauge the physical and mental toughness of NASCAR drivers. From Wednesday through Saturday, the 49-year-old Wallace: tested his car on a track near St. Louis, piloted his Lear jet to North Carolina, headlined an autograph session and hit 166.5 m.p.h. to qualify 13th (out of 43 drivers) at Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway. Then it was on to Sunday's race, featuring 500 miles of high-speed driving over 3 hours, 53 minutes, with the heat in his car approaching 170 degrees near the floorboards. But here's the most amazing stat of all: Wallace slept a solid 11 hours the night before the big race.
• And Driving the Garanimals Car ...: Meet Joey Logano, 15, who recently signed a seven-year contract with Joe Gibbs Racing. That's right, 15. NASCAR teams increasingly are recruiting younger drivers because "it's not as important how strong you are ? it's not important how high you can jump," says brain surgeon Dr. Robert Cantu of the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury. "You need sight, you need concentration, you need good hand-eye coordination. Those are things that can be spotted at a very early age." You must be at least 18 to compete in NASCAR races, but as we see in a clip, Logano can drive the family car right now. With his learner's permit in hand and an adult sitting beside him in the front seat.
• Something We Kind of Suspected All Along: Having your car slam directly into a concrete wall is bad. Very bad. Frankly, the alternative doesn't look much better, especially a slo-mo clip of a race car flipping over and over in mid-air, then coming down and pirouetting on its nose several times before slamming wheels-down on the track. While not minimizing crashes like that, Cantu says, "You're much better off flipping — scrubbing off speed in the air — and then coming down in kind of a glancing blow, than you would be directly driving head-on into a non-giving barrier." Or you could just grab a stash of granola bars and hide under the bed with the rest of us.
NASCAR Facts
• On turns, the G-forces pressing on drivers are comparable to those experienced by shuttle astronauts at liftoff.
• Jerry Nadeau recorded the hardest crash —128 Gs at Richmond International Speedway in May 2003 — since NASCAR began putting black boxes in cars in 2001. He survived.
• A study put race car drivers' "anticipatory timing" on a par with hockey goalies and football quarterbacks.
• Drivers can lose 5 to 10 pounds in sweat during a race.
Last edited by myoung : Oct 23rd, 2005 at 05:46 AM.
I appreciate all the hard work you put into getting me more informed on the difficulty that is race car driving, however I suppose you're right, I would have to actually do some kind of racing school in order to change my mind. Stubborn, possibly, but just my opinion, so until then we'll just have to agree to disagree...
I think that is the problem, people figure, that since they drive a car everyday, how hard can racing them be?
I'll tell you, I've been sore after some track days, it is NOT the same at all. And a hot lapping a few hours on a track day doesn't compare to a real race.
All I'm saying is if I go in my back yard and play football with my friends, that is a sport right?!?
So how come street racing isn't also a sport?!? A sport can be played on any level, not just professional. Any time I throw a football, its a sport. Any time I drive... it ISNT.
All I'm saying is if I go in my back yard and play football with my friends, that is a sport right?!?
So how come street racing isn't also a sport?!? A sport can be played on any level, not just professional. Any time I throw a football, its a sport. Any time I drive... it ISNT.
If one gets excited from watching cards then okay... but I would say they are easily excitable.
When I see results from poker games in the sports section , SI, or even Sports Center then they can talk.. until then...Not a sport.
.
You can't participate in Nascar... just like you couldn't participate in the NFL, MLB, NBA..etc.. So do you say the same about those Sports?... But you can drive lower level cars at similar tracks, like I said...do that once and you will have a new found respect for what those guys do...
I've played poker.. anyone can play poker... that's my whole point
I can race a car, I can play football, I can play baseball, I can play basetball and I can play poker. You are comparing professional athletes to a recreation now.
I can't do any of them at a professinal level though.
Playing poker isn't the same as competing in poker.
Sure if I was to do any sport at the professional level, I would get killed. If you played poker against anyone that plays poker professionally, you would too.
Poker is not a sport though, although, it does take a great skill to be able to read others, and know what cards are possible to come up, the percentages of weither or not its worth your money to stay in or not.
Honestly, its hard as hell to do a big bluff, and get away with it.
I've had people fold and then show me their straight because they think I had a flush when in all honesty I may have had a low pair.
__________________ SE-R SpecV
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
Unless you have a 300lb, 7% bodyfat, mammoth mutherfucker trying to tackle your ass while you are throwing your cards in, POKER AIN'T A FUCKING SPORT!
I don't see that in nascar either.
__________________ SE-R SpecV
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
Location: Cola, South Carolina MoFo Status: Teh Black
Posts: 2,641
And on the note of Poker not being a sport: Last night on ESPN, some stoopid Poker game was on when yet again they should have been showing hockey.
__________________ Hendrix
"Have you heard of the chain of command? It's the chain I beat you with until you realize that I'm in command" - Firefly, Jayne. Affirmative Action MoFo
Signature edited to please Scoot
Linear Mode
