What Sport Does the Most Complete Athlete Play? (BTI's Rants and Ramblings)

I have posted over 10,000 times during my tenure at KSR. I can say that the post that received the most heated back and forth in the old comments section was on this topic. Which sport comprises the most “complete” athlete? This is an interesting conversation because everybody attempts to defend the sport they played as the best. I played tennis as a youth. Those in the tennis community will often say no sport requires more total stamina and athleticism than tennis. I personally think that is absurd since I was a pretty successful player and I was 5’7”, slow as molasses, and weighed 145 pounds in high school. But there are certainly some skills more needed in tennis than you need in baseball.

So here is what I am going to do. First, I can’t include every single sport in this list. So I chose the “major” sports that are played at a collegiate level: Baseball/Softball, Basketball, Football, Tennis, Golf, Volleyball, Soccer. I removed the following Olympic sports from consideration: Swimming, Track, and Gymnastics. The issue with those sports are they are so specialized. A track team has runners, throwers, jumpers, strong people, fast people, etc. Hard to pinpoint the skills needed. Same with swimming. It’s all event dependent on what skills you have. That is not to minimize them as athletes. They are incredible too but it’s harder to pin them up against the more mainstream sports.

I’ll also address cheerleading here too as that was a hot topic years ago on this post. Do I think cheerleaders are athletes? You bet I do. And they do have competitions. But their main purpose is to support and cheer for the other teams so it is a grey area on if they are a “sport” on the level of the others. I am sure the cheerleading team thinks so. And additionally, the NCAA does not sanction cheerleading as a sport. So I leave them off as well.

So I am trying to break down the “complete” athlete into these categories: STRENGTH, ATHLETICISM, SPEED, UPPER BODY COORDINATION (hands and heads), LOWER BODY COORDINATION, INTELLIGENCE, STAMINA, and DURABILITY. I then ranked the 7 sports in each of these categories, with #1 being the sport it is needed in the most and #7 being the least. Then combining the rankings and the sport with the lowest total score I consider the most “complete” athlete.

So, let’s begin:

STRENGTH

1. FOOTBALL: I’m not sure there can be much argument here. Outside of kicker/punter, you really can’t be weak and play effective football. Even the smallest guys on the field, normally the defensive backfield, have a bunch of strong dudes. Top to bottom the sport that needs the most strength.
2. BASKETBALL
3. BASEBALL/SOFTBALL: I think the gap between basketball and baseball/softball is large. There are certainly strong players that play this sport but is it a requirement? I’d say not. Obviously many pitchers are not the strongest looking athletes sometimes. Little guys can still be successful too.
4. SOCCER
5. VOLLEYBALL
6. GOLF
7. TENNIS: You don’t see a lot of jacked tennis players because flexibility is more important and too much muscle can limit that.

ATHLETICISM

1. BASKETBALL: The things basketball players can do in the air are tremendous, almost unbelievable. Lebron James at his peak can not be matched in athleticism. And there probably isn’t a sport where being “unathletic” hurts worse than basketball.
2. FOOTBALL
3. VOLLEYBALL: Tremendous leaping ability for a lot of those ladies. Ability to dig balls out, jump serving, and blocking at the next is quite athletic.
4. TENNIS
5. SOCCER
6. BASEBALL/SOFTBALL: Sports has flashes of athleticism but large amount of plays require little in this category.
7. GOLF: Sport requires no leaping ability, no diving ability. Entirely based in hand eye coordination, not athleticism.

SPEED

1. SOCCER: I am not arguing in a 40-yard dash that soccer players are generally faster than football players. They are not. But speed is a necessity in soccer more than it is in football.
2. FOOTBALL
3. TENNIS
4. BASKETBALL
5. BASEBALL/SOFTBALL: Speed can be a weapon but not a requirement to succeed.
6. VOLLEYBALL
7. GOLF: Poor golf. Probably the one sport where the average fan is faster than the player.

UPPER BODY COORDINATION

1. BASEBALL/SOFTBALL: Most of this sport is great hand-eye and quick reaction with the hands. Incredible talents in this regard.
2. GOLF: Hardest singular skill to repeat in sports, a quality golf swing. While lower body is involved, largely the ability for many moving upper body parts to work together.
3. FOOTBALL: All positions except kicker use hands in some way and good hands are essential most most positions
4. VOLLEYBALL
5. TENNIS
6. BASKETBALL
7. SOCCER: 1 out of 11 players on a team is even allowed to use their hands. Should be the one ranking with 100% approval.

LOWER BODY COORDINATION

1. SOCCER: No explanation needed.
2. BASKETBALL: Incredible foot works for many skills. Shot creation, low post moves, rebounding. Must have great footwork.
3. FOOTBALL: Slow feet means a fast death in high level football
4. TENNIS: Footwork as important as anything to make an elite player.
5. VOLLEYBALL
6. BASEBALL/SOFTBALL
7. GOLF

INTELLIGENCE

1. FOOTBALL: Largest playbook, most variety in plays called, audibles, etc.
2. BASKETBALL: Requires thinking fast on your feet for the greats.
3. TENNIS: Requires great strategy and memory to gauge opponent’s strategy.
4. BASEBALL/SOFTBALL
5. GOLF: Some math involved I guess, although caddies do much of that.
6. VOLLEYBALL
7. SOCCER

STAMINA

1. SOCCER: I’m not sure it’s that close with any of these other sports. Almost non-stop running for two, 45-minute halves.
2. BASKETBALL
3. FOOTBALL: More violent but short burst of plays allows for more breaks.
4. TENNIS: Much like football in short bursts of energy but without the contact.
5. VOLLEYBALL
6. BASEBALL/SOFTBALL: One study showed that over a 3.5 hour baseball game, the average player was moving for something like 4 total minutes. Rest was standing in place in the field, on base, or in the dugout.
7. GOLF: Requires no legitimate stamina

DURABILITY

1. FOOTBALL: No contest I would think.
2. BASKETBALL: As the level increases the contact increases. An NBA game is actually quite brutal sometimes.
3. SOCCER
4. TENNIS: Sudden stops and starts can be rough on the body and shoulders/elbows go bad too.
5. VOLLEYBALL: A whole lot of hitting the hardwood floor in this sport.
6. BASEBALL/SOFTBALL: The length of schedule can be tougher at many levels.
7. GOLF

Now yesterday, I hope all of you got the chance to vote on these very categories and sports because I was interested in my rankings would match the KSR readership. So again, each category was ranked 1-7. Each sport received points per category, lower points for better rankings. Combine it all up and the lowest score wins. So what were the results?

FINAL RANKING ON COMPLETE ATHLETE

#1. BTI RANKING: FOOTBALL (15 points), KSR READERS: BASKETBALL (15 points)

#2. BTI RANKING: BASKETBALL (21 points), KSR READERS: FOOTBALL (18 points)

#3. BTI RANKING: SOCCER (29 points), KSR READERS: SOCCER (26 points)

#4. BTI RANKING: TENNIS (34 points), KSR READERS: TENNIS (34 points)

#5. BTI RANKING: BASEBALL/SOFTBALL (37 points), KSR READERS: BASEBALL/SOFTBALL (34 points)

#6. BTI RANKING: VOLLEYBALL (39 points), KSR READERS: VOLLEYBALL (37 points)

#7. BTI RANKING: GOLF (48 points), KSR READERS: GOLF (42 points)

The only place that myself and the KSR readers disagree is at the top of the list, with the readers choosing basketball as having the most complete athlete and I chose football. My argument is simply there really aren’t “unathletic” football players. Even the 350-pound lineman can run faster than most men 150 pounds lighter than him. Obviously all of those guys are ultra-strong. And they have to making athletic plays 70-90 times a games while other large, fast, strong guys beat on them. It requires the greatest combination of skills of any sport.

Basketball players are supreme athletes too and require multiple skills. But there are examples of unathletic people succeeding in the sport. I’m not sure you can call Jokic “athletic” yet he was NBA MVP. Plus you have some specialty players, like three point shooters, than lack some of the athletic skills of much of the teammates. In the NFL, you don’t have a ton of specialty guys who can succeed without athletcism.

Otherwise, we are in lock step on the most complete athletes. See everybody? I’m one of you.