Quote:
Originally Posted by kcclone
That's true about soccer and height. I look at things thru a football and basketball lens. Different sports, have different player profiles.
If you look at MLB baseball players, 80% of them are about 6'1" +/- one inch, with different positions being slightly taller or shorter. It's crazy how many of them are within a 2" range though.
Soccer makes sense because the taller you get, you start to shift the center of gravity too high, which takes away the nimbleness of their feet. But on the flip side, if you're too short, it's generally harder to cover the distance needed.
As far as speed, every thing is position specific. But all other things being equal, a mid-fielder with higher top end speed will out perform a slower mid-fielder.
Even with the endurance that is required... a guy who's top end speed is 23 mph will be faster running at 85% than a player player who's top end speed is 21 mph running at 90%.
Even for OL in football, 40 times correlate to career success and even longevity. That's why the 40 is and always will be the thing that is emphasized the most at combines.
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"The cream always rises to the top" as the saying goes. Generally speaking, a great athlete will find a way to be great (I know you know this, just saying). There are plenty of examples of smaller guys excelling at football, baseball and even basketball. I do agree, however, that height will certainly give you a good head start. Speed is speed. It is needed at all levels of all sports. If you're fast enough, you're playing somewhere, at least for a while.