What does it mean for a team to "become more athletic"? I heard this phrase used by Heather Oesterle at a chalk talk during the year, I've heard it used by various TV announcers and also by other Cardboarders. The ACC is a more "athletic" league than the old Pac 12, we are told. But it is not as if we would ever say our players were not "athletes."
Possibilities: greater quickness and speed, greater tolerance for scoring in traffic, higher level of intensity on defense.
Is this all it means?
It also reminds me that Stanford, in other sports, often had an easier time recruiting "skill players" than "athletes." It seems that high academic achievement can go together quite easily with a focus on developing certain skills in sports. Both require learning and practice. But natural or genetic athleticism may have no correlation to academic achievement--nice when they overlap but purely by chance.
Was the old Pac 12 a league that emphasized "skill," meaning the kinds of things that practice can teach, while the ACC is a league that emphasizes "athleticism," meaning innate speed and quickness? Is that what people mean by the comparison? And if so, is there something overly simplistic with it?
It does really matter for our recruitment and long term competitiveness that we get this right--whatever "this" is.
Possibilities: greater quickness and speed, greater tolerance for scoring in traffic, higher level of intensity on defense.
Is this all it means?
It also reminds me that Stanford, in other sports, often had an easier time recruiting "skill players" than "athletes." It seems that high academic achievement can go together quite easily with a focus on developing certain skills in sports. Both require learning and practice. But natural or genetic athleticism may have no correlation to academic achievement--nice when they overlap but purely by chance.
Was the old Pac 12 a league that emphasized "skill," meaning the kinds of things that practice can teach, while the ACC is a league that emphasizes "athleticism," meaning innate speed and quickness? Is that what people mean by the comparison? And if so, is there something overly simplistic with it?
It does really matter for our recruitment and long term competitiveness that we get this right--whatever "this" is.