Physical training indispensable for Athlete's fitness
Most athletes, apart from maybe dart players and bowlers, are very physically fit individuals. They have to be fit because of the nature of what they do. In order to perform at their chosen sport at whatever level they are at, there has to be a heightened level of physical fitness achieved by the athletes. In order for athletes to get to a level where they become the best at their sport they need to train extremely hard. It varies between sports but by and large all sports persons have to train their bodies to be in the best shape of their lives.
Some athletes are in better shape than others, with the likes of Michael Phelps, Rafael Nadal, Amir Khan and the Williams sisters all being in fantastic shape. One can just imagine the training schedule that these athletes have to go through and endure in order to be the best at what they do. If we take swimming for instance, anyone who has ever tried to swim a length of the pool knows it is not easy to do, half way there and people are already out of breath. So when someone like Phelps comes onto the scene and is just explosive in the water you know it takes a lot of skill and a whole lot of hard work and training to get to that level.
Also the same case can be made for tennis, if anyone has played tennis as I have, they will know how hard it is to actually get to the ball when it is on the other side of the court and actually hit some sort of a return. Now imagine doing that for a three hour stretch, imagine running around in the hot sun for up to three hours. Most people would get a heat stroke, let alone being able to deliver any sort of match winning performance. Other really demanding sports are marathon running, football and basketball. I remember reading that an average athlete eats almost 12,000 calories a day. They probably have to eat that much because of the amount of calories and energy they expend in an average training session or during a match or competition.
The amount of energy used up during an average match is probably a lot more than a training session but they still burn a lot of calories during just practising. A sparring round in boxing saps a lot of energy from the boxer and it is because boxers are in such great shape that they can last for an entire boxing match. Still in some boxing matches that go down to the wire it is the fitter boxer that usually comes out on top. Moving around and throwing punches for a 10 or 12 round match can really take it out of a boxer and that’s why usually towards the end of a boxing match, both boxers spend less time throwing punches and more time hugging each other. The poor referees are always the bad guys who have to break up the lover’s embrace.
Now even though most athletes are in great shape, there have been many who are not in the best shape of their lives. Out of the currently active sport stars, one who is not looking too fit these days is Sanath Jayasuriya, the Sri Lankan cricketer. Besides being 40 years old he also has a nice pot belly on him. It doesn’t stop him from playing some fantastic cricket though. Other athletes who are not in the best shape of their lives are most darts players. It is odd that because darts is a game played only with the arm and the eyes, most darts throwers don’t care about fitness. A lot of dart players are not only out of shape but positively obese. If anyone ever wanted to watch a sport that didn’t need any sort of physical fitness that sport would be darts.
All in all athletes should be respected for the intense level of physical training and endurance they have to go through to reach their optimal fitness levels. Most average people wouldn’t even be able to get close to that level.
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