Who here can define the term "A-level athlete"

[skullmaskkid]

something we call the brown paper bag test

 

[grimballer]

Meh lucky bounce...

 

[deweydeucalion]

Also, how well your nervous system can learn a skill, and respond in a time appropriate matter. Co-ordination, balance and timing are huge parts of athleticism, so much so that most high level coaches, given a choice between someone with excellent explosiveness and average co-ordination, or someone with average explosiveness and excellent co-ordination will take the latter.

Of course, the best is someone with the complete athletic package, both excellent explosiveness and excellent co-ordination/timing. That is, athleticism measures both musculature and nervous system as applied to sport. People on Sherdog tend to concentrate on the muscular system as a measure of athleticism, people in baseball tend to concentrate on the nervous system as a measure of athleticism, but really its both.

Doesn't matter how explosive you are if you're clumsy or have horrible timing. Doesn't matter how co-ordinated you are if you have no acceleration. You need both.

So the nervous system could also be interpreted as "motor skills". The difference being "motor skills" can be improved/learned while the nervous system can't.
EX) shaquille o'neal had very low motor skills when he was 13 so much that his coach wanted him off the team. He was still recruited by a college because his athletics were crazy for a 13 year old. He will learn coordination was the college's thinking.
Nervous system is far below muscle contraction and size.
Also how would u test a nervous system?

 

[Frank23]

A level athletes make serious money.

 

[grimballer]

Being in this type of shape and still weighing 300 pounds

that man was an animal in his prime.



if prime barkley tried ufc he wouldve been ufc hw champ no doubt

 

[EGarrett]

Manute Bol was dark, but not very explosive.

Bol also competed once in Celebrity Boxing, and AFAIK has the World Record for greatest reach of any fighter.

 

[ocfightfan]

Any successful athlete that doesn't compete in MMA.

 

[Heavy Hands]

Is that a clean shaven Conor right there I cant quite make him out?

 

[grimballer]

Is that Conor I cant quite make him out?.....

doubt it...

 

[Benjamin Burton]

The only A+++ level athlete in the UFC is Yoel Romero. Outside the UFC we have people like Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Lewis Hamilton, Lomachenko etc

brock is a+++ his combine stats are comparable or in many cases better than most elite nfl players.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

So the nervous system could also be interpreted as "motor skills". The difference being "motor skills" can be improved/learned while the nervous system can't.
EX) shaquille o'neal had very low motor skills when he was 13 so much that his coach wanted him off the team. He was still recruited by a college because his athletics were crazy for a 13 year old. He will learn coordination was the college's thinking.
Nervous system is far below muscle contraction and size.
Also how would u test a nervous system?

You can learn skills. You can't increase your nervous system's potential to become co-ordinated, any more than you can increase your muscular system's potential. It'd be nice if you could, then anyone could learn to shoot baskets like Bird or Curry, anyone could learn to pass a puck like Gretzky, anyone could learn to do physics like Einstein, anyone could learn to play piano or violin at the level of a concert pianist or violinist, anyone could learn to hit a baseball like Ted Williams.

But the sad reality is, there are millions of people out there (actually probably hundreds of millions) who put as much or more effort into learning a skill as those folks did, and make it one tenth as far. Because some people's nervous system pick up skills (mental or physical) better than others. And its folks with that kind of natural ability to learn skills and timing who are the most needed for sport. Take a look at the NFL combines; there are plenty of folks who did well in the combines who made no headway in the NFL, because they couldn't learn the skills. And it wasn't because they weren't trying, their nervous system just wasn't set up for it, just like mine isn't set up to learn physics like Einstein did. And guys like Tom Brady who did horrible in it, and yet turned into an all star in the league itself.

How to measure it is a different question, one every scout in every major sport, every music teacher or dance teacher would love to have an answer for. What makes one guy into Gretzky (not much explosiveness, but so co-ordinated he became one of the all time greats), and 999,999 other guys who worked just as hard into someone who made it nowhere in hockey is hard to tell until they get that far.

In Shaq's case, he had potential but hadn't worked on his skills. It showed. Same with Michael Jordan in high school. And in fact, the point that Shaq and Jordan were benched despite their amazing muscular abilities shows you how important co-ordination is. If it was only about muscular abilities no one would care if someone was co-ordinated or had skills; that however is simply not the case.

 

[GrAtI]

Francis Ngannou

 

[Fullmount Triangle]

an athlete who is A-Level, what's the confusion?

 

[Heavy Hands]

doubt it...

BJ looks like a killer whale preying on a seal or something, conor moreso like a new born whale pup trying to copy the rent's

 

[Pitier of Fools]

Someone who makes it to a high professional level of their sport. So basically everyone in the UFC.